Using questions to build agreement to a shared purpose
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Good questions are the most powerful tools available to us
The questions we use to support Alignment are intended to develop a sense of shared and compelling purpose for the meeting that goes beyond assumed acceptance of the stated objectives.
This can involve taking explicit ownership for the objectives, perhaps by augmenting them in some way, through to developing a shared sense of a jointly defined goal.
Simple Questions
Confirmatory questions:
- Are you willing to support the stated objectives as they stand?
- Do the stated objectives reflect a worthwhile goal for this meeting?
- Do the stated objectives represent a worthwhile investment of your time?
Exploratory questions (can augment or add detail to the objectives):
- If you could change the objectives for this meeting, what would you change and why?
- What big challenge are we bringing to this gathering?
- What do you hope to get from and give this group or community?
- What problem are we trying to solve?
- What would success look like for you at the end of this meeting?
- What do we need to deliver in this meeting for you to see it as a success?
None of these questions is intended to be rhetorical, and any appearance that they might be so will prove counterproductive. If people do not share the objective, it is better to find one that they can share than to proceed with a group that is essentially disengaged.
Adjusting the objective may have implications for the planned structure of the meeting, but once the group has ownership of the goal, they will be supportive in working out what of the original plan still has value, or of postponing the meeting to allow for its redesign.
Structured/Sequenced Questions
These help define specific objectives within a meta-objective – for example: ‘Make progress on X’, ‘Solve the problem of Y’ or ‘Improve Z’. They can help to provide an agreed focus within a larger goal. However they tend to require a high-level or adaptive meeting structure in order to accommodate them.
- If you were ten times bolder, what big idea would you recommend? What first step would you take to get started?
- What is most important to you (about this topic) right now? Why? And why is that? Why …? Why …?
- What new advance, if it were possible, and if it were invented tomorrow, would put us out of business right now? Why? Is there anything we could do that could have a similar effect?
- What would be different if we were successful? How different can that be?
Advanced Questions
One of the most powerful developments in recent years has been the growth of crowd-source and intrapreneurial events where staff are given, en-masse, the time and opportunity to form project teams on any shared area of interest, and to develop a proposal to pitch to the leadership. These can be based on open space technology, and the question is simply: What can you propose to us that we will find so attractive that we will give you the time and resource to pursue?
Usually the proposals generated are product, service, operational or process advancements. However, the impact of such events can have a marked impact on the energy and ownership of people.
Such cultural improvements are increasingly key to organisational success, despite the difficulties of setting objectives in this space. These difficulties can be significantly reduced by means of maturity models, wherein the team can align around improvement by working through three questions:
- What level are we currently on each of these axes?
- What level do we want to be operating at within a reasonable timeframe?
- What are the key things we need to address to get there?
General
Many of the above questions can be asked simply of individuals or groups, but it is often helpful to consider more sophisticated or progressive groupings to better support engagement with the question and refinement of the answers. Options to do this can be found in Grouping options within meeting sessions
Track your progress to ensure the efficacy of this strategy.