Soft Skills: Anything Else vs. What Else

As a Scrum master, I make a conscious effort to allow the team to be creative and voice their ideas, however, sometime I need to control the pace in time-boxed activities. 

A common activity is asking the team to list items which I write on a whiteboard.  Sometimes teams can be a little distracted, tired, bored, or unsure of what should be on the list.  Sometimes teams are very engaged, passionate, and focussed.  In either case, there are two questions I ask, which I learned from Chris Sterling, which helps me control the pace.

"Anything else?"
I ask this question when we need to move on to another part of  the activity or conversation.  This is most commonly used, but is easy to say "no".  Here is an example exchange:

I am going to the market to get milk.  Do we need anything else?

No, that is it.  thanks.

"What else?"
I ask this question when I think there are more items to put in the list. It is easy to say "no" to "anything else", but when asking "what else", there is more of a compelling reason to give an answer. 

I am going to the market to get milk.  What else do we need?

Hmmm...we need eggs too.

With either approach, if there are or are not any items left for the list, the team has a way out, but one way is easier than the other.