[MUSIC]
[BLANK_AUDIO]
>> Ms. Barra, GM knew about the defect in the ignition switches as far back as 2001,
13 years before the recall.
Correct?
>> The in-
>> Yes or no will work.
>> The investigation will tell us that.
>> You don't know when GM knew about the defect?
>> I, I will. I would like-
>> Take a look at tab seven in your notebook, Ms. Barra.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
>> Is this the one she wants?
>> This is a GM document.
And what this GM document talks about is this switch.
It says, tear down evaluation on the switch revealed two causes of failure.
Low contact force and low detent plunger force.
Do you recognize that document, ma'am?
>> This is the first I've seen this document.
>> Some questions are so important that the way you answer them will have a huge,
outsized impact on your career.
Mary Barra is a GSB grad.
She's an alum.
And she'd only been CEO at General Motors, for
three months before she was called to testify in Congress like we just saw.
And her performance there really defined, has defined her brand as CEO.
My name is Steve Grossman.
And we're here to talk to you today about we, what we call extreme Q & A.
And I wanna try and convince you guys that,
that this situation is something important to think about now.
And that all of us over the next few years will face situations where we
answer questions in public.
And how we answer those questions is really gonna define our,
our careers as well.
And the same techniques that apply in front of all the lights, and hot
TV lights and cameras in Congress, equally apply in our, in our careers right away.
We're also gonna ask you guys, ask two things of you guys.
The first is that you find a resource for how to address these situations.
And the second is that you,
you actually invest the time in practicing these techniques now.
Because it, it takes time to develop muscle memory.
Which is really what you're gonna be relying on when, down the road in
your career, when the same situation that, that Mary Barra was in.
Talking about resources, the best one that we found is a book, called,
In the Line of Fire, by Jerry Weissman.
Jerry was a producer for, 60 Minutes, so
he has a lot of experience asking tough questions.
And he has a career now advising CEOs, as they prepare to take their companies
public on how to answer the toughest questions, during an IPO roadshow.
He also, the book is highly recommended by some really important people.
So don't, don't just take, our word for it.
>> [LAUGH] >> So, Jerry uses the analogy that high
stakes Q&A is a martial art, a martial art that has four key components.
We're going to dissect those components one at a time.
And Chunsoo's gonna start at
the logical beginning with the importance of preparation.
>> On August 24 of 2008, Governor Sarah Palin was nominated as the first
female candidate of Republican Party for Vice President of United States.
A poll taken right after her nomination, she was more
popular than either Barack Obama or John McCain.
It was truly the inflection point in her career.
However, journalists and critics kept asking this one question.
>> Governor, let me start by asking you a question that I
asked John McCain about you.
And it is really the central question.
Can you look the country in the eye and say,
I have the experience and I have the ability to be not just Vice President but
perhaps President of the United States of America.
When I asked John McCain about your national security credentials,
he cited that fact that you have command of the Alaska National Guard and
that Alaska is close to Russia.
Are those sufficient credentials?
[BLANK_AUDIO]
>> They kept asking on this question,
which was about her foreign policy credentials.
After her first interview with Charlie Gibson, she was soon scheduled to have
another interview, another prime time TV interview, with Katie Couric.
Incidentally, it was rumored that she refused to
have preparation due to in fight that went on within the McCain campaign.
And when Katie asked her, about her foreign policy credentials,
it wasn't the first time she was asked.
And if anybody, if there's a one question that anybody could had thought of
that evening was that was it.
She didn't prepare for it.
And now let's watch what happened.
>> You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia.
>> Mm-hm.
>> As part of your foreign policy experience.
What did you mean by that?
>> That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country,
Russia and on our other side, the land boundary that we have with Canada.
It's funny that a comment like that was, kind of made to, charac.
I don't know.
You know?
Reporters. >> Mocked.
>> Yeah, mocked.
I guess that's the word.
Yeah. >> [LAUGH]
>> It was devastating.
Devastating to her image.
Devastating to her Republican Party campaign.
They never recovered from it.
Preparation.
Perhaps, is the most important thing we can do to do
well in answering the questions that will define our career.
At GSB, we talk about role playing through our many classes.
Jerry Wiseman in his book,
uses this term, murder board approach, which takes it one step further.
First you want to find the setting that is most similar to
the situation that you'll be situated in.
So, from room orientation to lighting and so on.
Second, you want to find someone who's willing to ask you a question in
a way that is from ordinary to the nastiest possible.
And lastly, you want to practice over and over again.
It's like practicing bowling to perfect your tennis game.
Now let me turn it over to Peter, who's going to talk about,
specific techniques to use once you're situated in the extreme Q & A setting.
Thanks, Chunsoo. All right.
So, you've done your homework.
You are well prepared, and you have your presentation memorized.
So now what do you do when you step into the arena and
the volley of difficult questions comes your way?
It's easy to get set back on your heels.
But the important thing is for
you to re-engage and take control of the situation.
There are three ways that we say you can do that and
we've picked out from Wiseman's book.
The first is to always maintain self control.
The second is to establish your self-defense.
And the third is to give a balanced answer.
We saw on the Palin questions that she did none of these very well.
Now I'd like to show you another example.
And this is in 1987 with Colonel Oliver North in the Iran-Contra testimony.
And you'll see that he answers these questions much differently, and
we think with much more effective answers.
>> Colonel, was your work on the phone with Israelis leading you to
shred documents?
>> Okay.
>> On occasion.
>> Weren't you going through your files to get rid of the embarrassing documents?
>> Embarrassing no.
Documents that would compromise the national security of the United States.
Documents that would put lives at risk.
Documents that would demonstrate a covert action in the US direction and
control, and, and relationship to it?
Yes.
>> Are you? >> Embarrassing?
No.
I'm not embarrassed to be here, council.
>> So there you can notice the difference between the two responses there.
>> [LAUGH] >> Quite a contrast.
So the first thing that Colonel North does is he maintains his self-control.
So, he answered with conviction.
And most importantly, he doesn't get angry.
Most people's immediate response is to give an answer, to shoot it back,
sort of a knee-jerk response.
You're prepared and I'm gonna give an answer.
But oftentimes, it's ill-prepared.
And it doesn't give the message that you intended to.
So Colonel North in this case doesn't get angry.
If he had, he would have alienated his audience.
He would have conveyed a sense of evasiveness or defensiveness.
And when that happens, not only do you alienate your audience but
you can really distort your message.
So once you've maintained your self control,
is it time to give an answer just yet?
We say no.
The second thing is to establish your self-defense.
So, you've been knocked back on your heels.
And this is a time when you re-engage with your audience and
take control of the situation again.
The trick here is to clarify the question and to rephrase it.
Not restate it word by word but paraphrase it.
Take a negative question, turn it around.
Strip out the negative words and the connotations, and turn it into a question
that you're prepared to answer with a positive spin and a positive answer.
You'll see in that, in Colonel North's testimony, that he took a question about
shredding documents, and instead turned that around and gave an answer,
which was a statement on values, not his actions for shredding documents.
So finally, when you get to the, get to the point where you've prepared yourself
to actually give the answer for the question, you've rephrased it.
The trick here is to answer the question directly and take it head on.
So if you've established your presence, you're back in control.
And choose your words carefully at this point because I
haven't had the pleasure of, of testifying in front of Congress.
I hope none of us do for negative things.
But I have worked with congressional staffers.
And congressional staffers and the media have long term memories.
They pay attention to the words you say.
Those words have meanings.
And most importantly, your integrity is something that they won't forget.
So when you think about the words you say,
maintain your self-control, establish your defense.
And give a balanced answer that most importantly is straight forward and
honest and with conviction.
So now that we've talked about the preparation.
We've talked about how to, how to give the answer.
And I'll turn it over to Udit to wrap up the conversation.
>> Thanks Peter.
So what does this mean for all of us as Stanford grads interested in business?
[COUGH] So
hopefully we're not testifying in front of Congress in the next few years.
But we're all gonna be in plenty of high-stakes meetings.
We might be pitching a document for a consulting gig.
We might be pitching an investment.
Or we might just be asked to discuss what we've been working on on
a conference call.
But what we're saying here is.
It is, we need to establish, good performance in answering tough questions.
Because those people asking the tough questions will be
influential members of determining your career trajectory.
And as you perform well in your early career,
it will help reinforce a successful career in the future.
So, with those four things, preparation, self control,
self-defense and balance, let's translate into what that means for us.
Take the time to prepare for meetings.
Memorize the facts.
Know who's going to be in the room and know what questions they might ask.
Avoid getting defensive and flustered.
We're early in our careers.
We are already starting from behind.
We don't want to give any more reason to be,
look look immature and look, like we're not credible.
Clarify questions.
You don't want to answer the wrong question.
Make sure you know what question you're answering, and
make sure they know what it is.
And don't make up an anser.
Don't, don't try to BS an answer, as they say.
If you don't know, tell them you're gonna get back to them.
It's, they'll get caught on to the wrong answer the second you give it.
So don't take that risk.
And now let's practice some ourselves!
We have, we've talked about tough Q & A.
So let's give you guys the opportunity to see how we do on it.
[MUSIC]
[BLANK_AUDIO]