Dennis Matthies, one of the principals of Vervago, is very much an InfoGeek, and he obviously loves the subject he's been studying for years.  He's the originator of precision questioning.  He presented his  "Precision Questioning and Precision Answering" at the Austin PMI meeting yesterday,  I highly recommend him as a speaker. 

I should mention that my favorite word is why. As a writer, questioning is essential. I also like to drill down question and confirm/eliminate assumptions. I also tend to be relentless in questioning, and not settling for ambiguous answers. It makes it possible for me to effectively communicate, even on topics which I'm not expert.  So this was rather a refresher course for me.  

I also have to commend him for tailoring his talk to the audience.  Too often speakers only tweak their talk to the audience, not their materials.  Matthies not only tweaked the talk, but the presentation and the handouts.  We had several short exercises where we talked in small groups (each table had three people, so it was perfectly sized).  I rather enjoyed watching us brainstorm our critical thinking. Matthies might disagree with me, but I found that hearing what others were coming up with helped me refine my thoughts and start decomposing the ambiguities even more. 

It also brings to mind a recent LinkedIn question on "there's no such thing as a stupid question."   I had answered that there's a difference between stupid and not relevant.  While it's important to remember that people are asking the questions,and there are all sorts of needs and issues associated with them, it's also important to respect people's time and stick to the point.

And I should also mention that in the raffle last night, I won attendance in the Summer Seminar, worth 7 PDUs. Yay.