Ever been in a meeting or presentation and felt confused about what’s being discussed and why?
This bewildering experience is all too common in companies today, and there are some easy ways to avoid it.
Great communications start with great questions. And the questions don’t need to be hard ones.
In fact, the simplest questions often generate the best and most helpful answers when it comes to rallying teams, aligning resources, and charting a course for success.
There are universal questions you can use for just about any discussion. You’ll want to tailor them to the situation, but these can help you uncover key pieces of information quickly for prioritization, planning and problem-solving:
- What are the problems at hand? Start with what needs to be better, different, fixed or eliminated. Separate symptoms from root causes. For example, slow sales may be a symptom of fundamental problems with people, product or process. Isolate the variable and focus on that.
- Are they worth solving now? Look at the implications of solving vs. not solving. Is it worth the time, talent and hard-earned dollars? Does the payoff fit with the overall vision and goals of your organization?
- Ask “Why” at least five times. Basically, you want ask why until you get to the root cause, and five is a good rule of thumb. Why are sales slow? Because we don’t have enough leads. Why don’t we have enough leads? We’re not reaching enough of the market. Why don’t we reach enough of the market? You get the idea…
Sometime we fear asking important questions because we don’t want to look dumb, or we think our question may be too basic.
Simple but good questions promote engagement, clarity and understanding. You can never have too much clarity or simplicity when it comes to tackling a problem.
Don’t sit in silent confusion. Speak up, ask why, and open a dialogue that gets stuff done.
Have a great week.
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