A legislator receives a call from a frantic citizen about an issue with a state agency. A drafter gets a one-sentence email from a legislator requesting a bill draft on a complex policy topic. A staff leader receives vague instructions from a committee chair about an upcoming hearing.

What do each of these scenarios share?

All are requests from a constituent, someone a legislator or legislative staffer is serving, and each constituent is asking for a problem to be solved or an issue to be addressed while providing opaque or brief information. And certainly, each constituent wants the problem solved immediately-the state benefit restored, the bill drafted by the end of the day, the instructions acknowledged and acted upon. Throw in the constant pressures of the legislature: high performance expectations, rigid deadlines, heightened emotions.

After taking a deep breath, what comes next?

Asking "clarifying questions"-questions posed to bring clarity to an issue or request before proceeding-is a good place to start. It takes the guesswork out of what the requester is seeking and can help the responder get to the heart of the request without making assumptions.

Clarifying questions consist of three types of inquiries-open, probing and closed-and can be used in nearly any situation:

Open Questions: These questions give constituents the opportunity to fully explain their problem. Open questions are formed and asked to illicit more information. For example, the legislator who takes the call from the frantic constituent can ask, "What information can you share about that issue you're having with the state agency?"

Probing Questions: To probe is to investigate. Once one has a better idea of the issue at hand, it's time to take a deeper dive to get specifics, gain additional context or learn helpful background information. To get additional clarity about the bill the legislator is requesting, the drafter can ask, "To help me further understand what you want to accomplish, can you share an example of the issue this bill would address?"

Probing questions can also be used to understand expectations or a desired outcome. For example, the staff leader who received the vague instructions from the committee chair can ask, "You shared many concerns about the logistics for the upcoming hearing. What's your most pressing concern?"

Closed Questions: Using closed questions is a good way to end the conversation and to firm up details. These questions should illicit yes or no responses. The legislator can ask the constituent, "Is this phone number the best way to reach you?" The bill drafter can ask the legislator, "Can we meet tomorrow morning so I can go through the specifics of the bill with you?" And the staff leader can close the conversation with the committee chair by reiterating what was discussed and asking, "Did I cover all the aspects of the hearing you wanted to discuss?"

The order of these questions matters and often is compared with a funnel-wide at one end and narrow at the other. Open questions are at the top of the funnel and are used to get the most information; probing questions in the middle of the funnel help get the specifics. Closed questions, at the narrow end of the funnel, are used when all the needed information has been shared and there is clarity about what the constituent wants.

Constituent problems are presented every day in the legislature-some clear and some vague. Asking clarifying questions is a simple and useful tool to truly understand the issue at hand and, once that is known, to work quickly to solve it.

Angela Andrews is a senior professional development partner with NCSL's Legislative Training Institute and provides soft skills trainings to legislators and legislative staff.