Objective Questions

1. What object do you see? What did you see?
2. What words stand out?
3. What are some of the things we did today?
4. Who were the characters? Who was there?
5. What are some events you recall in the past year?
6. What do you notice about this new form?
7. Who was present at the meeting? Who spoke?
8. What scenes do you remember?
9. What facts do we know about this situation?
10. What caught your attention about ?
11. What are some teams you’ve been a part of?
12. What headlines have caught your attention this week?
13. What lines of dialogue do you recall?
14. What do you think of first when I say the word(s)

_____________  ___?

15. What were the key points in the speech?
16. What behaviors or responses have you observed?

Reflective Questions

1. What parts reminded you of your own _____________ ?
2. Where were you anxious?
3. What made you feel appreciated?
4. What seemed boring?
5. What is most exciting?
6. Where are you really clear? Where confused?
7. What concerns you?
8. What was annoying?
9. Where are you confident? Where is more work needed?
10. What gives you courage?
11. What seems the most critical?
12. What are you most doubtful about?
13. What was inspiring?
14. What color would you add? Why?
15. What was really easy? Most difficult?
16. What music would you play? Why?

Interpretive Questions

1. What is the importance of this?
2. What new vantage point has this given us?
3. What difference will it make?
4. What would you say lies underneath these issues?
5. How has this been beneficial to you personally?
6. What appears to be the central issue or key problem area?
7. What other things do we need to consider?
8. What kind of decisions do we need to make as a group?
9. What is being recommended here?
10. What options are open to us?
11. What questions did this raise for you?
12. What insights are beginning to emerge?
13. When have you experienced this?
14. How have other groups dealt with these issues?
15. What kinds of changes will we need to make?
16. What are the values we are holding here?

Decisional Questions

1. What are these themes really about?
2. Tell a story about what this is about.
3. What would it look like for you to act in this way?
4. What does it mean to have experienced this?
5. So just what have we decided?
6. What does this mean for our future?
7. How will you title our final product?
8. So, just what have you learned?
9. If we did this again, what would we change?
10. What are we really committed to?
11. Then, what are the first steps we need to take?
12. What is the resolve of this group?
13. How would you articulate our consensus?
14. What will you do differently?
15. What name will you give to our time together?
16. What applications or action ideas has this session triggered for you?

Source: ©The Institute off Cultural Affairs

ToP ® Group Facilitatio Methods: Focused Conversatio