I recently looked at a book called Essential Questions. It’s focused on school-aged children, and how we can teach them the essential questions that drive them to do deeper exploration of ideas, concepts, and lessons; the questions that get them in the critical thinking mode. I appreciate this approach, as I believe one of the best things we can do for our children is teach them how to think and to understand that there are many ways of arriving at a workable solution for any given problem. I think we do them a disservice when we teach them there is only one path to an answer and only one way to solve a problem. I think we fail them when we teach them to merely memorize material, as opposed to seeking a fuller understanding of the context, the issues, the players involved.
So it is with strategy and running a business. Asking the right questions can be critical to the success of an endeavor. Good questions cause us to think. Good questions hold us accountable, as they don’t allow us to take the path of least resistance. Good questions feed effective strategic planning.
Today, I encourage you to spend some time developing a dozen or so key questions you can you in strategic planning to help your team / organization stay focused and in alignment with your vision and goals. When you have them written down, share them with a few respected colleagues and ask them to edit or add to your work. Then, use them the next time you do any strategic planning.
Here are some examples to help you get started:
What are we trying to accomplish?
Are our current efforts allowing us to achieve the results we desire?
How would our replacements approach our future?
Who (or what organization) is achieving the results we want? What are they doing that is driving them to success?
What ideas / actions will move us closer to our vision?
What are our core competencies and how do we master them?
Use any or all of these as your base, or develop an entirely unique set, specific to your business. As you do your strategic planning over the next couple of years, continue to fine-tune your list, keeping the ones that work well and eliminating the ones that are not helpful, then add new questions that will better serve you?
