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Analyze Your Current Methods
Question #2 "How are we trying
to do it?" If you are
experiencing resistance, perhaps
your method is wrong. Be willing
to objectively analyze your
approach by asking, "How are we
trying to do it?" Is this the
right way? Could there be a
better way? What if our method
was completely wrong? How else
could we approach it?
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Tips for Challenging Assumptions
Ask 'Why?
What If?' Questions
Ask
Learning SWOT Questions |
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Clarify Your Desired Result
Question #1 "What are we trying to do?" Whenever you become
frustrated with slow progress for any reason, step back and ask this
again and again, "What are we trying to do?"
Analyze Your Current Methods
Question #2 "How are we trying to do it?" If you are experiencing
resistance, perhaps your method is wrong. Be willing to objectively
analyze your approach by asking, "How are we trying to do it?" Is
this the right way? Could there be a
better way? What if our method
was completely wrong?
How else could we approach it?
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Could You Be Wrong?
It requires
courage to face the possibility
that you may be wrong but it also leads to your seeing new
possibilities. The rule is: Always decide what's right before
worrying about who's right.
Question Your Assumptions
Another good question is, "What
are our assumptions? About the person, the product, the market,
the business? What are our assumptions? Could we be assuming
something that is incorrect?" Someone once said that "Errant
assumptions lie at the root of every failure". What if your unspoken
or implied assumptions were wrong? What would you have to do
differently?
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Put Past Decisions On Trial
Another form of focused questioning is what I call "Zero based
thinking." This method requires that you
put every past
decision on trial for its life regularly by asking, "If I had
not made this decision, knowing what I now know, would I make it?"
If I had not hired this person or gotten involved in this project,
knowing what I now know, would I do it over again?
If the answer is "NO" to one of these questions, then your aim should be
to get out of the
decision
→
as fast as possible. Be willing to "cut your losses," and try
something else.
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