# Suggested Interview Questions

For podcasters, journalists, conference moderators, and panel hosts. Mix of opening / depth / payoff questions to fit a 30–45 minute conversation. Each pairs a hook with a follow-up to help the host go deeper if the answer earns it.

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## Opening — biographical and motivational

**1.** The book takes its title and inspiration from Victor Hugo Green's original Negro Motorist Green Book of 1936. Why was that the right anchor for a book about the modern workplace?
> *Follow-up: What did Green's book actually do for travelers, and what's the parallel to what your book does for careers?*

**2.** You served as CHRO at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Was there a moment — a specific meeting, a specific feedback loop — when you knew the rules of the game had changed?
> *Follow-up: How long between recognizing the shift and deciding to write this book?*

**3.** A lot of career advice comes from people who've never lost. You wrote this from inside an experience most authors are insulated from. How does that change what you can credibly say to readers?
> *Follow-up: What can you say in this book that a consultant who hasn't been on the receiving end of it cannot?*

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## Depth — frameworks and ideas

**4.** Your central principle is "clarity beats charisma." Walk us through what that means tactically. What does someone do tomorrow morning that they weren't doing yesterday?
> *Follow-up: Why is charisma a liability in hostile climates specifically, when it's an asset in functional ones?*

**5.** The Workplace Hostility Index gives readers a 20-question diagnostic that places them in one of four tiers — Cold, Warm, Hot, Combustible. Why score the climate before choosing tactics?
> *Follow-up: What's the most common mistake professionals make about which tier they're actually in?*

**6.** The Visibility ROI Map is one of the book's distinctive frameworks — projects plotted on effort versus promotion conversion. What pattern do most readers discover when they map their current work?
> *Follow-up: What's the difference between a "Drain" and a "Silver" project, and how should each be handled?*

**7.** You introduce something called the Evidence Operating System. Why is documentation a strategic act, not just a defensive one?
> *Follow-up: What does the EOS protect against that informal memory or trust does not?*

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## Topical — political and organizational context

**8.** The book is explicit about what it was written in response to — the post-2023 dismantling of DEI infrastructure, Project 2025, state-level legislation across the South. Some authors would have softened that framing for a wider audience. Why didn't you?
> *Follow-up: What's the cost of being this direct, and what's the cost of not being?*

**9.** You write that hostile climates evaluate people on "tone" and "fit" more than on outcomes. What's the practical difference for a professional in real time, and how do they shift the conversation back to outcomes?
> *Follow-up: How do you handle it when the manager you're talking to genuinely believes "fit" is performance?*

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## Payoff — what readers do with this

**10.** If a reader finishes this book and does only one thing in the next thirty days, what should it be?
> *Follow-up: What changes between day one and day ninety if they actually run the system?*

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## Bonus questions (use as backups or for longer-form interviews)

- The book's dedication reads, *"For every professional who has ever left a meeting knowing their work was strong, yet feeling the room had already decided who they were. And for those who stayed — and those who left — with their dignity intact."* Who specifically did you have in mind when you wrote that?

- You're not telling readers to fix their organizations. You're telling them to navigate them. Some readers will hear that as resignation. How do you respond to the critique?

- What's something you believe about workplace bias that most HR professionals would disagree with?

- The Escalation vs. Exit Decision Tree in Chapter 18 is a careful structure for one of the hardest decisions a professional makes. What's the bias that pushes people to escalate too early — and what's the bias that pushes them to stay too long?

- You also offer companion tools at greenbooktools.netlify.app. What does an interactive tool give a reader that a chapter cannot?

- Your consulting practice now serves executives navigating workforce transformation across multiple sectors. How has writing this book changed how you advise clients?

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## Notes for the host

- **Sensitive territory.** Some questions touch personal experience with bias. Paul has spoken openly about this in writing; he's comfortable in interview, but allow space rather than pressing.
- **Avoid the "DEI wars" frame.** The book is precise about its political context but isn't a polemic. Hosts who frame it as a culture-war book miss what makes it useful.
- **Pacing.** The frameworks (WHI, Visibility ROI Map, EOS, Decision Tree) deserve at least one specific worked example each. Allow the time.
- **Where to send listeners.** professionalsgreenbook.netlify.app for the book site; greenbooktools.netlify.app for the interactive tools; Amazon ASIN B0DLKZGQ8H / ISBN 9798247711773 for purchase.
