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Hey Reader,

Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. This week's question comes from an internal comms manager in Toronto:

Well you absolutely sent this to the right person. Do I have a list of questions? Yes. Yes I totally do.

This is such a brilliant topic to receive because it gets to the heart of something I’ve been saying for years: curiosity is a communicator's superpower. Let’s have a look at one of my favourite questions first and then I’ll give you a list of questions you can keep, print and use regularly with your stakeholders.

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My current favourite question is this:

"What would happen if we DIDN'T communicate this right now?"

Let me tell you about how a client of mine has been using this question lately. She came to me for advice, a bit overwhelmed and overloaded. She was drowning in requests from stakeholders who all wanted to communicate about a massive transformation programme happening in her company. Every project owner wanted updates sent out about changes that were literally years away from happening. And she felt under constant pressure to tell employees about transformations that might not even come to fruition.

She asked me for advice and here’s what I suggested: Get curious. Start asking questions instead of automatically saying yes to all of these requests. I suggested she try a bunch of simple questions with every stakeholder request including this killer question: "What would happen if we didn't communicate this right now?"

This is a question I’ve used with stakeholders a lot in the past and I often think it’s a kind of hilarious question because of the reaction it elicits; you often get a puzzled stare, a shrug of the shoulders and a reluctant answer of "probably nothing."

My client tried this question out and two weeks later, this is what she messaged me:

See the power of asking a simple question? This question alone can cut your workload in half because stakeholders may realise that their communication isn’t urgent or even important right now. It can wait.

Asking questions changes everything. This is why curiosity is your superpower.

When we get curious instead of just compliant, we help stakeholders think beyond their own perspective, we build trust by only communicating what truly matters, we protect our audiences from information overload and we focus our energy where it will have real impact.

Sometimes the most strategic thing you can do is ask the question that makes everyone pause and think.

Your list of powerful questions

So here's that list you asked for. I've organised these into categories to make them easier to remember and use. Save this section - you're going to need it.

The purpose questions

These help you understand the 'why' behind any communication request from a stakeholder. Ask them all or some of these:

• What are you hoping to achieve with this communication?
• Why is this important to the business?
• Why is this important right now?
• What problem are you trying to solve?

The audience questions​
Use these questions to help your stakeholder get more audience-centred and create clarity about who really needs this information:

• What do you want the audience to DO with this information?
• Who specifically needs to know this?
• What do they already know about this topic/ project?

The success questions

These questions will help your stakeholders think about outcomes and measurement, don’t be surprised if they draw a blank when you ask these and they may struggle to answer.

• If we sent this communication, how would you know if it was successful or not?
• What would 100% success look like?
• How will we measure impact?

The priority questions

My personal favourites for managing overwhelming or competing requests:

• What would happen if we didn't communicate this right now?
• Is this more important than [other priority project]?
• Are there any risks to the business of delaying this communication?
• If you could only draw employees’ attention to one thing this month, would it be this?

The clarity questions

Perfect for when stakeholders bring you dense, complicated content that’s full of jargon or acronyms or complex language:

• Can you explain this in one sentence?
• What's the one thing you want people to remember?
• If someone only read the first paragraph, would they understand what they need to do?
• How would you explain this to your mum or your best friend?

How to use these questions effectively

Having the list questions is one thing, but knowing how to use them effectively is another. Here's some practical advice on making curiosity work for you, based on my many years of experience (aka many years of mistakes that you can avoid!)

Use your questions wisely and think about the timing. You don’t want to fire off 10 questions in a row when someone approaches you with a request, you don’t want them to feel like it’s an aggressive interrogation or that you’re a pain to work with. Weave the questions into the conversation. Pick one or two questions that feel most relevant and start there.

And think about your tone of voice too. These questions work best when asked with genuine curiosity, not skepticism or annoyance or aggression or defensiveness. You want to come across as someone who's trying to understand and help, not someone who's trying to create barriers or create extra work or shirk responsibilities.

You can also make these questions an integral part of your process, a non-negotiable part of how you work. You can build a very simple briefing template that includes some of these questions and then use that brief every time a stakeholder requests work from you. That way, asking questions becomes part of your standard approach rather than something that feels confrontational. Is this kind of briefing template useful to you? If so I can share it in a future edition of this newsletter, just hit reply and let me know.

And I think the last bit of advice I’d share is that sometimes stakeholders will get frustrated with your questions, especially if they’re used to you saying yes to every request and doing their work for them. Their frustration is okay, don’t worry about it. Your job isn't to make everything easy for them - it's to help them communicate effectively and do what’s right by your audience. Give them time to adjust to your new way of working, explain why you are doing this and stick to your guns. It’s worth it in the long run.

Some parting thoughts

Let’s finish on this thought: your job isn't to be a human photocopier, churning out whatever stakeholders throw at you. Your job is to be a strategic communication professional who helps the business communicate effectively.

And sometimes, the most strategic thing you can do is ask a simple question that makes everyone stop and think.

Try it this week. Pick one of these questions and use it with the next stakeholder request that comes your way. You can let me know how you get on and how you feel about using these questions. If you feel uncomfortable or intimidated at first that’s totally normal, don’t worry. It takes practice and reps to get used to it.

Thanks for reading and stay curious,

Joanna

Find me on YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn and check out my book​

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Want to work together?

• Join The Curious Tribe. This is my membership community for ambitious, curious communicators who want to achieve more in their roles and have fun at the same time. Membership allows you to work directly with me for 12 months, make deep connections with other communication pros who 'get it' and improve your skills through training and learning. More info here.
• Ready to review your channels and content but don't know where to start? Download my practical Internal Comms Audit Playbook to guide you through a DIY audit - no expensive consultant needed.​ This has ready-to-use templates and checklists to give you a systematic way to do your own audit which you can repeat every single year. Get it here.
• Take a shortcut. I've developed a collection of tried-and-tested templates, checklists and how-to guides for the key processes you'll need in your role as an internal communicator. You can download my Internal Comms Cheat Sheets here.​

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