- Situation — This is a statement that everyone can agree on, that’s non-contentious, agreeable, and objective
- Complication — What has changed in relationship to the situation. This can be an internal or external factor. This is now what needs to be solved.
- Implied question — The question or statement you want to answer. This leverages the complication to provide a new question.
- Answer — provide the answer to the question you just asked.
Example
Q: We’ve seen your revenue growth slow over the last year. As a small design consultancy does that worry you?
A: (S)There has been slowing growth across the design consulting industry within Europe. This is due to a cyclical situation of companies pulling design in house. We know this situation happens in cycles and strong growth will return in due time. (IQ) The key question we need to focus on now, it how we change our delivery of design to better align with what companies want. (A) Right now we do that in two ways — providing more on-site work which matches client teams needs, and working on more flexible retained which allows businesses to address their own ebs and flows1.
References
1.
Fletcher, J. 7 Tips for Better Communication. Medium at https://joefletcher.medium.com/7-tips-for-better-communication-32cbe84c8ddf (2019).