"That's a Good Question."

by Terry Gault

January 31: that's a good question

A phrase usually indicating that the speaker has absolutely no idea how to answer said question. Often used to stall for time.

Photography teacher walking in on students who should be at pep rally: What are you doing here?

Sreya: That's a good question!

-Urban Word of the Day

When participants in our presentation skills workshops, respond to an audience question with, “That’s a good question”, I cringe inwardly.

Why?

For several reasons:

1. It’s a value judgment about the quality of the question.  If the questioner didn’t think it was a good question, they would not have asked it.
2. It can easily be interpreted as the email from Urban Word of the Day states, as in: “I have no idea how to respond to that.”  That can damage your credibility.
3. If you say it to one person but not a second, the second may think, “What – her question was great but mine sucks?!?!  What’s that about?”

Two preferred options:

• Say nothing – take a pause.  This behavior says, “Your question is worth thinking about before I respond.”
• If you want to reward the questioner for asking the very question you WANTED asked, is to say, “Thank you for the question.” or “I am so glad you asked.”

Finally, I’ll share a funny story that I received via email from Jeff Wheeler, a Sales Engineer at one of our clients, Serena Software after a training where we talked about this very concept.

“About a dozen of us (Serena SEs) went to dinner yesterday evening at a McCormick and Schmicks.

When the waiter went around our table, he stopped at the gentleman to my left and asked what he’d like for dinner. This person really wasn’t sure what to order, but he finally settled on the Haddock.

The waiter then stopped by my side and asked what I’d like for dinner and I replied the Scallops with Spinach, to which the waiter replied “Good choice”, and moved on…

At this point, the gentleman to my left said, with an air of resignation, “He didn’t say good choice to me.”  From this point on, he was convinced his haddock would be terrible.

Andy Akbari and I laughed for probably a minute!  Moral of the story: NEVER say good _______ , unless you’ll say it to everyone!”

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