The third arena of questioning is the interpretive level where the depth grappling is done to get at the meaning of a topic. The interpretive responses build on objective data, plus the associations or feelings from the reflective level. Interpretive questions highlight the layers of meaning and purpose that people ascribe to situations and responses. They invite a group to create the significance or importance of an occasion. A clue word at this level is why.
Interpretive questions help people build a story of what is happening.
Unless the dynamics intended in the objective and reflective levels have been experienced within the group, the effectiveness of the third level will be diminished. This level may very well take the most time, since the questions call for a deeper response. If this level is omitted Group gets no chance to make sense out ofthe first two levels. The fourth part of the focused conversation is the decisional level where implications and new directions are discussed. Here, some kind of resolve brings the conversation to a close.