Successful Enquiry Answering Every Time (Web PDF) von Tim Buckley Owen

Introduction: Why thinking skills matter

• Eight essential thinking skills for successful enquiry answering

1. What do they really want?

• Using your analytical thinking skills to understand the question
• Avoiding misunderstandings
• Asking the right questions
• Does all this really work?
• Agreeing the task
• Finding out how long you’ve got
• Coming next – when the enquirer’s not there

2. Why remote enquiry handling is different

• Anticipating problems by thinking emphathetically
• Can’t see, can’t hear – the risk of misunderstanding, even offence
• Keeping your remote enquirer on-side
• Keeping good records
• Coming next – avoiding panic, thinking on your feet

3. Getting started

• Dealing with the panic by thinking imaginatively
• Imagining the final answer
• Choosing the best type of source and delivery medium
• Does all this really work?
• Identifying actual sources
• Coming next – smarter searching

4. Smarter searching

• Developing efficient search strategies by thinking systematically
• Who needs to be able to search smarter?
• Working out your search strategy
• Searching systematically
• Making the most of indexes
• Electronic search tools
• Reading strategically
• Making sure that what you find is reliable
• Coming next – even more things that can go wrong

5. Help! Everything’s going wrong

• Using lateral thinking to get out of difficulties
• Vital versus urgent tasks
• Your working timetable
• Managing expectations
• Plan B
• Referrals
• Coming next – adding value

6. Success! Now let’s add some value

• Using your creative thinking skills to present your answer well
• Quality-checking your answer
• Presenting your answer – orally
• Presenting your answer – in writing
• Copyright, licensing, ethics
• Has the answer arrived – and does the enquirer like it?
• Sign-off: what can we learn from this enquiry?
• Coming next – adding even more value

7. Don’t just give me another reading list!

• Using critical thinking skills to add further value to your answer
• POWER and KISS
• Making your search results manipulable
• Selecting, rejecting, prioritizing 140
• Strategic reading – finding the best bits of each document
• Capturing the content for your report
• Now you’re ready to write!
• Making sure your work gets read and valued
• Coming next – choosing your toolkit

8. Choosing your toolkit

• Using your predictive thinking skills to determine the resources you’ll need
• Making best use of your Time, Intellect and Money
• Keeping track of your enquiries
• Discovering information in your own resources (and beyond)
• Choosing and using the right search engine
• Adding value to your search results
• Starter Sources
• Your goal: successful enquiry answering – every time