• Does our strategy-development process clearly identify where growth will come from and how it will be funded?
• Does our performance measurement, evaluation, and reward process really stimulate behavior that will enhance the business portfolio?
• Are we effectively communicating our commitment to growth to all our stakeholders – our customers, shareholders, and employees – and providing them with adequate information and milestones to measure our progress?
• Do we

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Management Questions

• Does our organization have an operational definition of complexity?
• Do we know how much complexity we have – quantitatively not anecdotally?
• Do we know how much value and cost the low-volume, nonstandard variations generate? Are they a source of profit or a sinkhole? Are they constraining our ability to be responsive?
• Do we have checks and balances to keep complexity under control? Are they set

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Management Questions

As you evaluate new businesses or consider reinventing your current business design, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is our current business model strong and sustainable?
2. Is our business in tune with shifting customer priorities and the changing environment?
3. Are we playing by the same set of rules for success as the rest of our industry?
4. Have the traditional rules suddenly changed in the past year?
5. How can we play

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Management Questions

• How do you make money in this business?
• What are your costs?
• What value are you creating and for whom?
• Can you describe what business you are in and how you will get paid in 4 sentences or less?
• Six months from now, what business will your customers want you to be in?
• Twelve months from now, what business will your customers demand you be in?
• Is your

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Management Questions

Customers
Current customer selection

• What is our revenue mix by customer?
• Where does profit come from?
• Is the origin of revenue and profit changing?
• Who are our most profitable customers?
• Which customers are showing growth?
• Which customers are integral to our strategy?

Customer service

• Which types of customers choose us?
• Why do those customers choose us?
• Are we making money off that differentiation?
• Why don’t customers choose us?

Strategic direction

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Management Questions

• What did we try to do?
• What did we actually do?
• What caused the difference? Were we dealing with conflicting agendas?
• What do we need to do more of? What else can we do?
• What do we need to do less of? Are any processes weak or assumptions wrong?

Source:
Thought Partnerships: The Muscles For High Performance Thinking
by Daniel D. Elash, … [ Read more ]

Subject: After-Action Reviews

The U.S. Army effectively instills the habit of dealing with facts by conducting “after-action reviews.” They take just 15 minutes, and they occur after every identifiable event — big or small. This review involves asking four simple questions:

• What was supposed to happen?
• What actually happened?
• What accounts for any difference?
• What can we learn?

That’s it. No memo gets filed; no … [ Read more ]

Subject: Management Questions

1. Rather than getting rid of an entire business unit, can you disassemble its operations and outsource the costly or cumbersome functions?
2. Have we pushed technology as far as we can, or are there still new ways it can cut costs, increase productivity and improve operations?
3. Do you have all the candidates for disposal on the table, not just the ‘dogs’?
4. Is it possible that the business you thought

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Management Questions

• What did I think I knew that turned out to be untrue?
• What did I think I understood until later discovering that my understanding was incomplete?
• What learning process do I seem to follow? Are any essential steps missing or poorly performed?
• What cues can tell me when I need to un-learn and re-learn?
• Do I explore special techniques to help me code and retain new material?
• Do I

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Learning Questions

Here are some needs and expectations one might have of a supervisor. Use the two columns below to say (a) how important each particular need is to you, and (b) how well the supervisor named below meets that particular need or expectation.

Score on a 0-5 scale, where a 0 means that the need is not important to you at all, and a … [ Read more ]

Subject: Leadership Questions