What are we not doing well at?
Where should we focus our attention?
What do you need from me for us to be a success?
The first question is the hardest to ask, the flood gates will open and teams will spend the most time here as people jump onto their answers and add more – good. If your team has nothing to say, keep prodding, there is always something, always.
The second question gets the team to set the priority, you get to set the context – yes this is an issue – but we have these other items on our plate and these are other criteria we have to think about as well. Remember though, the team sets the priority, this is their ownership.
The third question tells the team that you are there for them but also that you will stand back if needed. If there are roadblocks, you will clear them. It’s easy to get excited at the first two questions to then be let down at question number three when the team wants to you to run interference and/or take on grunt work while you figure things out and not have you in the meat of things.
This is good, they have ownership, they have direction and now they have your support, this is what your goal was – now commit to it and help them see it to the end.
Once complete, rinse and repeat.
