Thinking On Your Feet: by Marian K. Woodall

As is often the case for interesting books, there are at least two books with this title. In this the aim is to help you handle questions and inquiries. Thinking On Your Feet, by Marian K. Woodall, is a good, quick (about 100 short pages) read. Its simplicity inspires confidence in the material. The basic lessons are as follows:

• The what and why of thinking on your feet
• Why do you need to think on your feet?
• Questions: Closed (yes/no), closed information (e.g., where is the meeting?), open information (what are the themes of the meeting?, how can I help with the meeting?), open (more invitational than questioning, e.g., 'describe at time when', 'tell me about', ...)
• Answers (answer, build in a clue, e.g., 'The primary factor...', don't talk too much)
• Easy questions (listen, pause, repeat the question, one main support & clue, stop)
• Difficult questions, repeat the question, e.g. 'Can you guarantee the impossible?', 'The question is can I guarantee you will have no more Xs? This is, after all, a system and all systems are fallible. However, this is the best system available. I can guarantee that this system will be a tremendous improvement over the current system.'
• Getting a better question (ask for a repeat of the question, ask for clarification or clarify a term yourself)
• Hedging (responding to only a selected portion of the question)
• Negative questions (don't contradict - rephrase instead to emphasize the positive, e.g., 'why can't I have an X?' 'you can have an X if you earn the money for an X'
• Getting someone else to respond (give them fair warning, and a repeat of the question)
• Delivery ('I don't know - but I will get you the answer right after this meeting')
• Job interviews (working your key points into your responses)
• Opportunities (e.g., have a stock in trade self introduction ready to go, what to do when asked to say 'a few words', etc.)

The chief merits of the book are that it is brief - and it provides good advice. I was disappointed that it did not go more into avoiding panic under pressure - the basic advice is pause before replying - but it is a solid book. I give it 3/5, deducting two points only for the complete lack of mention of the word psychology, lack of flow diagrams, and the matter of fact tone - a feature which many non-fiction adherents may find appealing.
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