“Is there anything else you’d like to add?” Why asking this one question can lead to the best response
Rob Wozny (left), listens to Gerry Price (centre), Price Industries’ Chairman & CEO, with Joe Cyr, President (right), during an interview for the book, I’m Just Gerry.
“Is there anything else you’d like to add?”
That one question, a journalism 101 essential when conducting an interview, has and continues to yield some of the best responses as a professional business storyteller. I’ve leveraged that add-on ending question as part of the thousands of interviews, as an author, content strategist, and former journalist. You might want to as well, and you don’t have to be a storyteller to reap the benefits of that question.
@robwozny “Is there anything else you’d like to add?” The power of this closing question can resonate anytime you are interviewing someone for an article, podcast, book or other media. It can yield some great, unexpected responses and interesting stories. As a professional business storyteller, author, content strategist and former journalist, I’ve capped off thousands of interviews with that simple question. Try it the next time you are interviewing someone! #mediatraining #interview #storytellingforbusiness ♬ original sound - Rob Wozny
When media training senior leaders, business owners, and their leadership teams, developing and delivering messaging to maximize the response to that question is a must, largely because as a journo, almost third of the interviews I did, the response was often a tepid, “I have nothing to add.” That’s a lost opportunity.
Shifting the balance of power
When I look back at the majority of interviews I’ve conducted over the years, the clips that have made the cut, largely come from the spontaneity and creativity of an interviewee who leans into the open-ended question,” is there anything else you’d like to add?” During interviews, the interviewer holds most of the balance of power in the interview dynamic by directing their questions. “Is there anything else you’d like to add?” is open-ended as a question can get that shifts power back to the interviewee because the content of the answer is completely up to the responder. In addition to benefiting from the free flow of information and creativity of answers, I’ve also found “is there anything else you’d like to add?” puts people at ease. In many interviews, I have observed that the interviewee’s body language relaxes and releases some tension from the trepidation of scripted questions to the unscripted.
“Is there anything else you’d like to add?” is an opportunity for interviewees to circle back to their key messages or drive home a point they didn’t get a chance to during the interview, along with elucidating on some aspects of their expertise in a memorable moment of reflection.
For example, in my second business book, I’m Just Gerry, I did dozens of interviews with employees from the shop floor to the owner of the company. Each interview ended with “is there anything else you’d like to add?”, and many of the responses made the final manuscript as quotes because of what I’m sharing in this article.
Be prepared
As a spokesperson for a number of organizations over the years and now a business storyteller, I've learned that while “Is there anything else you’d like to add?” is a chance opportunity to nail the answer, you’re always better as an interviewee to be prepared. Open-ended as it may be, “is there anything else you’d like to add?” is also a strategic way of interviewers to extract more information that perhaps some interviewees were not prepared to share, largely from not being prepared.
