My favorite listening approach is silence. Instead of responding to speech by the other person with my own talking, as is the usual style, I intentionally remain silent, and it's amazing what people say to fill the "void".
On the flip side of Mark's point, it seems that free-form questions are a great opportunity for the answerer to steer the course of the rest of the conversation.
Next time I'm going into an important meeting like the ones Mark describes in his post I'll make sure to give some thought to how I want to answer these wide questions. I'll make sure my long winded free-form answers plant the right "nuggets" so that when the they start to drill down they are asking the questions I want to answer.
Mostly if you're doing the asking and you don't hear what you want you need a plan anyways for what you'll drill down on. If you don't go into the meeting with a pre-planned agenda you're unlikely to achieve objectives.
Why not just give the answers you want to give if they are free form questions?
Mark's point is that the person who is talking is not learning anything. If discovering more about the other party's needs, constraints, and objectives is your goal then you have to ask questions (and listen (patiently)), not answer them.
I highly recommend this workshop/class if you're interested in not only learning to ask questions more effectively but to also answer them more effectively. It's called Precision Q & A. I have no connection to the company, I just took the course and found it incredibly useful. I use these techniques practically every day.
I love this approach. Lately, when I go in to meet with people about what products they want or what they need to make their job easier, I just ask them exactly that. "What do you need to make your job easier?" "What pisses you off?" etc.
Just sit there and let the info flow :)
I work with a guy who is the exact opposite and i'm constantly glaring at him to get him to stop talking!
