Asking questions that lead to insightful and actionable answers
If you could ask your alumni board president one question, what would it be?
We are dependent on asking questions for many reasons from generating big ideas to evaluating the success of events to understanding the interests of alumni and more. Yet, how often do we think about the questions we are asking to make sure that we are asking the right questions at the right time of the right person? There are limited sources of information and limited resources to act on information, so we need to be thoughtful and strategic about the questions we ask to generate insightful and actionable answers.
Here are some ideas to consider as you formulate your questions whether for meetings, event surveys, all-alumni surveys, strategic planning, or anything else.
Purpose: Determine the purpose of the question before you formulate it. Is it intended to solicit feedback or spark creativity? Are you looking for a new idea or to refine a program?
Action: Only ask the question if you plan to act on the answer. There should be some answers that would generate action or change in behavior otherwise the question is not necessary. Also, when people invest time in answering a question, they expect follow up to be appropriate and timely.
The 2 Qs: Consider whether you are trying to gather qualitative or quantitative information or both. This can determine the question format as well as the ability to analyze the information in a useful way. Note that some quantitative information can be collected by observation or technology such as registration tracking (effectively asking the question of the system not of people.) Ask people for ratings, rankings, and qualitative information.
Source: Decide whom you should ask for the information. The person must be able to provide a useful and meaningful answer. And you don’t want to waste opportunities by asking a basic question of someone with in-depth knowledge.
Design: Be thoughtful in the choosing the format (multiple choice, ranking, rating, open-ended, etc.) and the wording of the question. Both the phrasing of a question and the format can affect how people answer it and therefore the quality of the data collected.
Resource: Develop a library of questions that can be used across programs with little or no editing. These types of questions will provide data that allows for cross-program comparisons as well as save time (in developing surveys, etc.)
Big Questions
At certain times, there are opportunities to ask Big Questions that look at mission or generate new ideas. All-alumni surveys, strategic planning sessions, and board meetings encourage participants to both ask and discuss Big Questions. The questions and the format will depend on the institution and the goals whether considering programs for a specific demographic or looking at fundamental questions about mission.
There are also some questions that should be considered periodically to ensure that alumni engagement and alumni relations are mission aligned with the institution. Here are some questions that might be addressed with administration and with alumni leadership:
What specific impacts do we want from alumni engagement for alumni and for the institution? What type(s) of alumni engagement best serves the institution?
Is the alumni relations program structured properly for the mission? What would be better?
Do we have achievable goals?
More often, at least once a year, leadership should consider:
Do programs generate a robust volunteer and leadership pipeline?
Are the alumni organizations well-organized and engaging for alumni?
Do programs reflect the breadth of the demographics of our alumni?
Which programs and initiatives are the most effective use of resources?
How can programs be improved to accomplish the institutional goals?
Big Questions are often the hardest to ask as well as the hardest to answer. Each big question should be asked at the right time and in the right place. Also, big questions might require data from program evaluation questions and other sources. However, answering and acting on Big Questions will strengthen the impact of alumni relations and engagement.
Evaluation Questions
Evaluation questions are the bread-and-butter of alumni relations and engagement as they help determine effectiveness and opportunities for improvement of specific programs or efforts. Let’s look at an example of why asking the right questions is important for program evaluation purposes.
Perhaps XYZ University has a mentoring program that they have been running for 2 years using an on-line platform to facilitate matching and communications. The alumni association has been promoting the opportunity through emails and social media. First, there are important “internal” questions that can be answered through the system:
How many alumni registered to be mentors?
How many alumni (or students) registered to be mentees?
How many pairs were created through the system?
If the numbers have been increasing over the two years, it might seem like the program is successful, so XYZ University will continue the program. However, these questions don’t provide information about the real outcomes of the program including the value of the mentoring relationship to the mentors and mentees. Through interviews or surveys, the key questions to ask would include:
Did you learn something useful for your career from the mentoring relationship? (Impact!)
What did you expect from the program and did the program live up to your expectations?
Did you talk about the program to other people who might join it? (Building institutional reputation and engagement)
And, if there is interest in improving and building the program, there would be other questions about the structure of the program to generate suggestions. In any case, the questions need to address the purpose and the impact of the program, not just the numbers.
Questions with Impact
Institutions need the information and ideas from alumni that can come from asking them the right questions. Thoughtful questions that generate useful answers should drive a response that improves the impact of the alumni relations effort whether through more engaged alumni, more alumni leadership, or more appreciative alumni. In brief, think about:
What are you trying to accomplish by asking the question?
Who are the best people to answer the questions (or is it the system)?
When is the best time to ask the question?
What is the best format for the question?
The short-term results of a thoughtful approach to question design will be more interesting answers. In the long-term, acting on the useful, actionable information will produce an alumni relations program that better serves the needs of the institution and the interests of the alumni.
You are invited to take the Impactrics Assessment that uses the concepts introduced in this article – thoughtfully designed questions that generate actionable information. Click here to take the Assessment and receive a summary overview about your alumni relations program.
Please share your thoughts on the most useful questions that you use in evaluating programs and for generating new ideas.
This Post Has One Comment
Excellent and insightful. Information that can set people in action.