The Question:  Is it really what you meant to ask?

Every once in awhile I find that I get a surprising answer to a question.  When I confirm the answer, I find that the respondent thought I was asking an entirely different question.  Does that sound unrealistic?  It should not.  I think we are all victims of this kind of miscommunication.  I like to tell of an experience I had about six years ago when I was teaching math to second graders.  The teacher asked "Who can tell me how long it took to build the pyramids?"  There was a long silence and then a young man raised his hand.  He stood up and said, "The Pharaoh" and sat down.  He answered her question but not the question she intended to ask.  Another event happened when I was lost in central Kentucky.  I pulled up to a farmer and asked, "How do you get to Louisville?" to which he replied, "My son-in-law usually drives me."  Just kidding, but I thought it fit the topic.

Those cases sound out of the ordinary, but consider what we usually do every day.  For instance, how often do we ask respondents if they are "a working mother."  I see this almost every day.  What we really have are two questions.  First, "Are you a mother?"  And second, "Do you work?"  But there is a problem here.  We are usually looking for women who are EMPLOYED outside the home.  We don't ask that.  As a matter of  fact, some may say they are working mothers who are not employed but consider the raising of one or more children WORK.  As my wife has said many times, "If you don't think raising five children and my husband is work, you try it for awhile."

A good example of this type of problem was when I got a call from a friend who was director of R&D for a very large company.  He had a large, six-figure piece of research that as he said, showed that 50% of the adult females in the U.S. did not ever shave under their arms or shave their legs.  We did not believe the results.  He sent me the report and the questionnaires involved in the data collection.  Sure enough the report said that 50% did not shave under their arms or their legs.  The questionnaire contained questions about the frequency of doing all kinds of activities like washing floors, shampooing, brushing teeth, hair removal from legs, washing windows, waxing furniture, hair removal from underarms, etc.  We did what should have been done before conducting the research, that is, we pilot-tested the questionnaire.  Sure enough, in the post-test, pilot-test, about 50% again said they did not remove the hair from their underarms or legs.  Upon questioning, we found out that they interpreted the question as written, removed, not cut.  Some of the respondents thought we were interested in the use of depilatories only, NOT SHAVING.  When the questionnaire was drafted, the designers meant the question to include both shaving and the use of depilatories.

It is also not only the words you use but how you use them.  Consider a test that a professor uses to illustrate the point.  Add the correct punctuation (two commas):

        Woman without her man is useless

Which of the following is correct?

        Woman, without her, man is useless.  -- or --  Woman, without her man, is useless.

The simple shifting of the comma can totally change the meaning.  Choice of words and punctuation do make a difference.

Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI)

I have previously referred to the Creative Problem Solving Institute as a group that I found helpful in my work.  Even though I have not attended a conference since the early 1980's.  I just received a notice for CPSI '99.  This will be their 45th Annual Meeting.  The meeting is June 20-25 at the State University of New York at Buffalo.  Again, they will have over 900 people from 30 countries in attendance.  This year's title is "Creating on the Edge of Tomorrow."

This is the world's largest Creativity Conference.

If you are interested, you can download your copy of the CPSI brochure on their web site "www.cef-cpsi.org." Or you can contact them directly for more information at (800) 447-2774, E-Mail "cefhg@cef-spsi.org."