Questions about questions: Framing what to ask during public engagement

Framing questions well is essential to successful public engagement. Asking good questions is not simple, particularly if the topic is novel, value-laden, complex or controversial. What considerations drive how to frame questions? Are they lofty enough so that participants can express their overarching values, or so lofty that answers provide no clear policymaking guidance? Are they concrete enough to encourage participants to share their experiences? Are they inspiring enough to encourage participants to proffer ideas and solutions? Is there room in the agenda to ask participants, "Why"? Eliciting varied justifications behind participants' opinions fosters meaningful discussion and helps policymakers embrace and act on public input. What background information is needed to enable participants to engage on the topic meaningfully? Participants need sufficient information to grasp and "own" the problem. Organizers must decide how best to provide this background, how much time should be devoted to it, and when in the process it should occur. Finding an optimal balance between educational content and substantive questions is critical. In 2009 we successfully conducted extensive public engagements to advise the state's health department about ethically rationing scarce health-related resources during a severe influenza pandemic. We'll share our struggles to refine questions about an unfamiliar, uncomfortable and complicated topic. We'll also show techniques for building educational content into the engagements. Whether you're in the midst of planning your next public engagement or just thinking about the possibility of conducting an engagement, bring your questions about questions to this hands-on roundtable.