Belief System Analysis · Updated on .
A sensitive questions and answers document prepares the organization to respond coherently to the questions of its audiences. It brings together verified facts, possible answers and points that require a decision. Its quality depends less on the number of questions than on its ability to deal with actual objections.
The main risk is writing down the questions the organization wants to answer. A document that is reassuring for its editors may then prove useless to a journalist, an employee or a partner. Preparation must integrate what is disturbing, including when a satisfactory answer does not yet exist.
Start from the point of view of the interlocutor
The same situation gives rise to different expectations. An employee wants to understand the consequences for his work. A customer asks how their service will be provided. A journalist seeks to establish the facts and responsibilities. The Q&A should retain these differences instead of offering a single institutional response.
Collecting questions that have already been asked is a good start. You must then invite a person less involved in the project to formulate the missing objections. The most useful question is sometimes the one that teams no longer dare to ask because they know the internal difficulties. Her absence from the document will not remove her from the public conversation.
Construct a response in three stages
A response can begin with the essential information, continue with the facts that support it and specify its limitation. This structure avoids long introductions which give the impression of skirting the question. It also leaves the spokesperson with several levels of detail depending on the time available.
Each response must be linked to an owner of the information. If the fact changes, the document must be able to be corrected quickly. The CDC's CERC manual provides a guide for communicating under uncertainty; the application proposed here consists of making explicit the information established and the work remaining to be accomplished. [1]
Dealing with questions without definitive answers
Some questions relate to an ongoing investigation, an unstabilized schedule or a decision that has not been made. The Q&A should then prepare a situation response: what is known, what is not, who is working on the topic and how an update will be communicated.
We must avoid dressing up an absence of information as a promise. Saying that an analysis is in progress does not mean that it will confirm the absence of a problem. The response must also be useful: a directly affected person needs a point of contact or a course of action, not just a description of the internal process.
Scenario: a contested decision
In a fictional example, a company announces an organizational change. The Q&A answers the question “Why this project?” ”, but does not address “What alternatives were examined?” ". This omission gives a more closed picture of the process, even if several scenarios have actually been studied.
A documented response can explain the criteria used and the reasons for the choice, within the limits of communicable information and applicable procedures. It does not guarantee membership. It nevertheless allows the decision to be discussed on a more precise basis. If no alternative has been examined, the document should convey this point to the decision-maker rather than creating a retrospective story.
Organize usage and updating
A Q&A should be easy to consult: questions formulated naturally, short answers in mind, details and documents accessible afterwards. Obsolete versions must be identifiable. Teams responding to audiences need to know where to report a new question and who will referee the response.
The document is also a diagnostic tool. Flimsy responses sometimes reveal a lack of evidence, an incomplete decision, or an overly broad commitment. Preparing for the Q&A early enough allows you to address these issues before speaking. Its best effect may thus be to improve the decision that it only had to explain.