Check understanding before you move on
"Any questions?" is answered by silence whether people understood or not.
Silence is not comprehension
Nobody wants to be the person who did not follow, so a room will nod through material it has lost. You find out in the feedback form, a week later, when it is far too late to do anything. A question everyone answers privately turns that into a number you can act on immediately.
Questions worth asking
- Which of these is the right first step?
- How confident do you feel about this?
- What is still unclear?
- Which part would you struggle to explain to someone else?
Running it well
- Ask before the break, not after. You want to know what to revisit while you still have them.
- Pair a right/wrong question with a confidence scale. Confidently wrong and unsure but right need completely different responses from you.
- Use the open text question last — it is the one that tells you what you failed to explain.
- Do not reveal results before everyone has answered, or the room converges on the first majority it sees.
Start with a training check
Three questions that tell you whether to move on.
Use the training template