Characteristic of the Socratic method, the use of poignant questions can provoke the questioned onto paths of inquiry.
These questions can begin open ended and eventually reach a point where the elenchus can be employed to hone in on a particular past statement.
Because the perplexity created was ‘selected’ by the employer of the elenchus, there is some directionality toward what might need some further understanding. There is some guidance here.
After the perplexity is reached, leading questions can be used to guide to some kind of insight on the situation, resolving the perplexity.