Ask Questions
Questions are powerful
When you make demands, people become defensive and resist change.
When you present facts, people push back and present alternative facts or appeal to emotion.
When you ask a good question, it niggles and creates pathways to action.
This piece shows how you can plan an entire campaign by posing well targeted questions to move up the ‘questions ladder’.
Well-timed, targeted questions can
- Make you stand out and raise you profile as an influencer and change agent.
- Set the agenda by bringing an issue to the attention of decision-makers, opinion formers, potential supporters and the public.
- Get information about the issue, who is working on it, current policy, the position of stakeholders involved in the issue and potential allies.
- Ask for action and get policy options considered.
- Accelerate change: put decision-makers on the spot, spur them to act and suggest solutions.
- Hold decision-makers accountable for dealing with an issue effectively.
- Get results!
Keep asking questions to get people in power to work on the issue and bring about the results you want.
It takes persistence, but framing your questions and addressing them to the right people can accelerate change. Each question helps you identify the best people to target for your next stage.
Plan YOUR questions campaign
You need to answer three key questions with others who support your cause:
a) What is the problem you want to solve?
b) Who has the power to solve / address the problem with meaningful action?
They are your target powerholders – name them here:
- Is your issue on their agenda? Yes / No – High / Low
- Are they acting on it? Yes / No – Fast / Slow
- Do they have a policy for it? Yes / No – Strong / Weak
- Do they know about it? Yes / No – A lot / Little
You may need to ask questions to find this out.
c) What question(s) could move your issue up the ladder / campaign scale?
Who are the best people to ask power holders your questions?
Who asks your question matters
There are hierarchies of whose questions get answers:
- Prime Minister, then Minister, then MP before citizen, citizen before refugee
- Judge before lawyer, lawyer before citizen, citizen before convict
- Chief executive before manager, manager before staff, staff before public
- Professor before researcher, researcher before citizen
- Editor before top journalist, before news researcher, before citizen
- Young people, old people or people with disabilities in certain situations
Develop a reputation for asking good questions. You get answers if you persist.
Ask people higher up the hierarchy to ask your question for you when necessary.
When to ask questions
Situations where citizens are more likely to get answers:
- Before and during elections
- Phone-ins or audience programmes like Question Time
- Statutory general meetings
- Public meetings where your target power-holders are speaking.
- Consultations, inquiries
If you don’t get an answer at a meeting, speak with them (get their card) and follow-up with them, their advisers or officials.
Where to ask questions
- At work find out what’s happening from colleagues and put questions to your boss or the chief in meetings or one-to-ones;
- At Annual General Meetings of companies, charities or other organisations;
- At public meetings with politicians or public figures;
- In the press, social media and talk shows;
- Through your councillor or Member of Parliament to Ministers or officials
- Directly to public agencies, private companies or chief executives
- Through Freedom of Information requests
Our political system has institutionalised questioning in most areas: courts, Prime Ministers Questions, investigative journalism, current affairs programmes, shareholder meetings, Freedom of Information, the Ombudsman, judicial review, public inquiries and many more. Almost every public agency and private company has an inquiry service. Your MP can put questions to government Ministers and officials.
Core questions
The three most important questions to guide any campaign are for you to answer:
- What is the outcome you want? What does success look like?
- Why do you want it? What are your core values?
- What’s the best way to bring it about?
There is an art to asking questions in each setting, which can be learnt. If you practice and persist you will be surprised what can be achieved.
Questions drive public policy
Questions get written into public policy, so that campaigns about air quality, food poisoning, poverty, rising prices, race equality and other issues are addressed in routine collection of statistics such as the Daily Air Quality Index (DAQI), Food Hygiene Ratings, ethnic monitoring, Gender Pay Gap Reporting etc. etc.
Accountancy, the census, evaluation, inspection, research and statistics all provide information in response to questions that may have been set a long time ago. They have created treasure troves of data to inform your questions today.
Don’t accept other people’s answers, assumptions or questions at face value. Always ask what they are based on and check that they are fit for purpose. Data such as GDP (national income), inflation, life expectancy, exam results and share price inform decisions which affect people’s lives. Question them as well.
Knowing where to get information and how to use it is essential for activists.
CREDD: Question everything
Some facts are repeated so often that people assume they are true, but they may be based on a small sample or situation which makes them misleading. Government policy, public opinion and campaigns may be based on well-worn fallacies and flaky assumptions, so always look at the evidence, question assumptions and look for counter facts, about your own position as well as that of your adversaries and allies.
When you take action, you can’t afford doubt. You need to be certain of your case. Many successful campaigns are driven by blind faith, but if they are based on a misconception or false premises, they fail to fulfil their promise.
The best way to reduce doubt is to double check evidence for your case and question any information from the press, social media and even research before you use it: Is the source Credible, Reliable, Evidence-based, Documented and Double checked (CREDD):
- Credible: quoting from a flaky or partisan source undermines your credibility. Even if the evidence is sound, don’t quote, retweet or repost from a source unless it is credible to those you want to influence – check the information and quote from a more credible, reliable source for the person you aim to inflience.
- Reliable: can you trust the source? Peer research from universities, fact-checked media, reputable charities or think tanks are usually trustworthy, but double check an independent source if possible.
- Evidence: what research and facts support the statement? How is it affected by the context or margins of error?
- Documented: give the source, so that others can check it.
- Double check: find independent sources for your information whenever possible.
You also need an open mind to make sure you don’t charge up a blind alley, against a brick wall or over a cliff.
In the age of false news, easy communication and Google there is no excuse for poor data hygiene: always question evidence, yourself and those in power.
24 top questions for campaigners
Choose your time, context and question carefully. Vague or unanswerable questions are a wasted opportunity. These guidelines will help you get the most from your questions:
- Understand your target, the person or agency you are questioning:
- What do they want?
- What do they fear?
- What can they give?
2. Ask for something they can give
- Information – about the issue, who is working on it, what power they have, what would persuade them, who influences them, etc
- Introduction – to someone with power and influence over the issues
- Invitation – to discuss it with them or their officials, to speak at a meeting, join a working group or panel, or to set up an inquiry
- Initiative – to set up a project, allocate funds, review policy or bring about the change you want.
3. Follow formal procedures whenever possible
- Be polite
- Go through the chair in meetings
- Use official complaints processes
- Use Freedom of Information when you can’t get what you want by asking direct questions
- Use lawyers if necessary: a legal letter is more likely to be heard
- Exhaust official complaints processes, then consider the Ombudsman, judicial review or whistleblowing as appropriate
Break with procedures when necessary, if you are clear about the benefits and willing to take the consequences. Sometimes people in power are so dishonest, obstructive or rude that you need to show them up publicly, create a scene or risk arrest. But this can distract from the main issue, deflect attention and resources from your cause or even increase support for your adversary, so consider direct action carefully.
The most powerful lines of questioning are the often simplest:
- Why did that happen?
- Why is nothing being done about this?
- What’s being done about that?
- What’s the evidence?
- How did it happen?
- How can we stop it from happening?
- Who decided that?
- Who did what, when and why?
- Where was it decided? Who was involved?
- Who benefits?
Understanding what’s happening and why is key to any successful campaign, because the wrong diagnosis leads to misguided actions and the wrong cure. Your campaign may be a “success” but doesn’t bring the change you want.
Read Ask Questions in Resources for more on this.
