Making the Connection: Strategies to Build Effective Personal Relationships (Collection) (40 page)

If you want the basics, the following list should suffice. There is a lot more to asking a question than merely using an interrogative, but these words do cover the full managerial spectrum of interrogation.

Basic Questions

For all managers in any situation at any time

What?
Where?
When?
Why?
Who?
How?
How much?
What if?
¹

These questions are universally applicable. If you are ever in a situation where you need a question, or if you want to make certain all questions have been asked, just run down the list. This list also serves as a handy checklist when you need to make a quick decision. Consider which of the issues implied by these interrogative words have not been addressed in the situation you are facing, and then raise those issues.

This list happens to be my personal shorthand way of making certain I have covered all perspectives in a discussion. You can add a number of other questioning words and phrases. Words such as
which
,
is
,
could
,
would
,
should
,
do
,
can
,
will
, and so on are used every day and could be the basis for another list. It all depends on what you expect to accomplish.

Organizations need all their managers to be successful, not just the ones who ultimately end up in the executive suite. The purpose of focusing on improving the quality of questions is to improve the quality of management, all management.

Success does not necessarily follow the ability to ask questions. It rests on the confluence of a lot of variables. However, by spending time considering how to improve a basic management skill—questioning—the outcome should certainly be better than what it would have been otherwise.

Could any of the well-known corporate disasters of our day have been avoided with better questions, asked more often by more people, such as the boards of these companies? We will never know. However, by improving questioning skills among more managers in a business, chances are good that other disasters can be averted in the future.

You can use the monosyllabic queries previously listed, if you choose, or you can work on developing questioning as a skill. Either way, the purpose of this book is to influence managers to think about questioning differently. In addition to the basic list of questions, you can use the accompanying rules to improve the act of asking a question.

Try these ten simple rules. Their use will help improve the clarity of your communication.

Ten Basic Rules for Asking Questions

1. Be direct.

2. Make eye contact if asking the question in person.

3. Use plain language.

4. Use simple sentence structure.

5. Be brief.

6. Maintain focus on the subject at hand.

7. Make certain the purpose of the question is clear.

8. The question must be appropriate for the situation and the person.

9. The manner of asking should reflect the intent.

10. Know what to do with the answer.

2. Asking Questions Is the Skill of Effective Management

Managers do not need answers to operate a successful business; they need questions. Answers can come from anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world thanks to the benefits of all the electronic communication tools at our disposal.

This has turned the real job of management into determining what it is the business needs to know, along with the
who/what/where/when
and
how
of learning it. To effectively solve problems, seize opportunities, and achieve objectives, questions need to be asked by managers—these are the people responsible for the operation of the enterprise as a whole.

All questions asked in a business setting are asked within the context of organizational expectations. This context is the “expectations of success” context in which all corporate discussions are conducted. I have yet to find a business that is seeking anything other than success, however it is they choose to define it.

This context of expectations defines the box that business people “think in.” Success is specifically defined by the function, such as sales or research, or by the market, but the box frames the questions for each specific inquiry—or, in some cases, the
inquisition.

Expectations of Success

QUESTIONS + ANSWERS = SUCCESS

The inquiry process is characterized as a linear model, and for our purposes of this discussion, it is linear. All the divergent thinking, outside-the-box thinking, or any other paths people may follow move along this general line—from questions to answers to results.

The process of asking a question within this context has eight basic elements:

1. What do we know?

2. What do we not know?

3. What are our objectives?

4. What do we need to know now to reach our objectives?

5. Who are we going to learn this from?

6. How are we going to learn it?

7. What are the expected results from deploying what is learned?

8. What do we do as a result of learning the answer?

This is the basic process along which questioning proceeds. Elegant models can be added to improve any aspect of inquiry a business might need. However, the focus remains the same, it remains simple, and it remains defined as success. If more success is desired, ask more questions. If the business wants to pursue a new business model, build a new box of expectations.

3. How Good Are Your Skills?

The numbers of brain workers, or nonproducers, as they are called, should be as small as possible in proportion to the numbers of workers, i.e., those who actually work....
—
Fredrick Winslow Taylor,
²
father of modern management

“Brain workers” was the original concept of scientific management pioneered by Fredrick Winslow Taylor. His theories produced the foundation for management portrayed as “modern” in the twentieth century. Think about how much has changed over time. Brain workers are now the producers in today’s world of business.

Historically, managers possessed the knowledge, experience, and skills necessary to perform the tasks relevant to the daily operation of the business. They could function as both bosses and employees. This competency was the primary reason business owners promoted their employees to management. The complex needs of the modern business have changed this model.

Such diverse knowledge is now required in business that an individual manager is rarely expected to be knowledgeable enough to run all aspects of the business successfully without employee specialists. So, what do generalist managers have to know to maintain the progress of their enterprise?
They must know how to ask questions.

How Good Are Your Questioning Skills?

While I was traveling around the world on a business assignment that I discuss later in this chapter, I noticed that many managers asked similar questions and got amazingly different results. The way questions were asked appeared to be as important as the question itself. I looked around for a book to serve as a good training guide for myself on how to ask questions. The resources I found fell into two categories: professional training guides (such as for lawyers, teachers, and market researchers) and self-help books designed to enable the individual to get ahead (such as with interviewing skills, or improving a person’s thinking processes). These are all excellent resources. A number of them are referenced later. However, my goal was to find a basic skills book. I was unable to find one that met my criteria.

When I started studying questions, I started with the assumption that I knew nothing about them. So, I built this book as a personal reference because I was unable to find what I needed.

After I embraced my own ignorance about questioning, I started to see questions in a new light. I found that even experienced, successful managers run into problems with their questions on occasion. They fall into traps such as habit questioning, posturing, or putting answers in their questions. Other managers, particularly new ones, commit a number of errors, such as asking prejudicial questions or leveling complex questions about interesting but unimportant or even unrelated details. Fixing these mistakes early in a person’s career can lead to better personal performance over time. Fixing them among all managers can often lead to improved business performance.

The bottom line for all of us is that we need good questions because we want better answers. There was a need, at some point, at Enron, for example, for someone to ask the tough questions—
inquisitor’s questions.
Investors needed someone to ask serious questions of the people at Global Crossing and at many other firms where damage occurred. It is not the job of any government agency to clean up these messes by asking business questions; that is the responsibility of management.
Management
is an inclusive word to mean anyone in a position of authority/responsibility—from line supervisors to board members.

Lives and careers have been ruined, not by questions, but by the lack of questions. As managers, we either do not know how to ask, what to ask, or are unable to ask the question for a variety of reasons. Sometimes we avoid certain questions because we believe that by asking them we risk our job, our status, personal embarrassment, or perhaps we are just being polite.

If managers at all levels were empowered by improved skills to ask questions sooner, better, and with an eye on what is best for the business or for their organization, disasters could be reduced and in some cases perhaps avoided altogether.

Management needs questions before it gets answers.

4. You Ask Too Many Questions

A downside to questioning should be explained: It is possible to ask too many questions, to ask them at the wrong time, or to completely misunderstand your situation; in many cases, the mere act of asking questions can even cost you your job.

A young business division of a major corporation
³
was poised to introduce a new product, something the parent company had done, literally, a thousand times before. Only this time, a problem existed. Simply put, the product did not work. To make matters worse, no one appeared to be aware of this.

Was management blinded by the potential earnings from a product with a large gross margin? Perhaps it was the rush to get to market before the competition that caused such denial. Or was research, or manufacturing, or some other part of the company covering up the problem?

The situation came to a head about a week before the scheduled commercial launch.

Not a single person in management was aware of any problems. Everyone was focusing on the expected outcome—a boost in sales with a significant increase in earnings. The prospective new product had a large gross margin, and no competitive products were on the horizon. These kinds of opportunities do not come along every day, so all management eyes were on this product, this team, and the numbers.

The scene where the first inkling of a problem occurred was at the product team meeting. A half-dozen people were gathered in a small conference room at the divisional headquarters. They were conducting a rather perfunctory review of all aspects of the new product: technical development, manufacturing, marketing, sales, and service. The development process for this product had been flawless.

A massive report containing all relevant information sat in front of each person. The oversized notebook contained the marketing plan, manufacturing reports, technical service plans, global distribution plans, and a voluminous section filled with quality-control testing data.

Manufacturing was churning out inventory in anticipation of a worldwide release while the sales force was being trained on product benefits. Advertising and marketing materials were already distributed globally in a dozen different languages. All distribution plans had been checked and rechecked in preparation. This was all standard procedure in the company.

Everything had gone smoothly for the first-time product manager (PM) who was chairing this meeting. She eagerly anticipated the success of this product as a “career maker.” It had all the attributes that PMs dream of: large market demand, lack of competitive products, high projected earnings, low costs, and an experienced support team to help get her over any rough spots that might occur. Up to this point, it was smooth sailing.

Most of her team were old hands; the manufacturing superintendent and the technical development manager were both 20-year veterans, and the quality-control manager was a professional quality engineer (QE) and had participated in dozens of product releases. A just-hired technical-support person was the final member of the team. He was to be responsible for managing the technical service effort that would support customers after they purchased the product. He had been on the job all of one week, after a month of orientation training.

According to company procedures, all members of the product team were required to sign the product release form before any new product could ship. Even the newly hired person would be required to sign—company policy mandated that he be considered a full member of the team, with the same responsibilities as all other team members in the review and release of product. After all, he was to manage the support of the product after it was released into customer hands, so his was a key role in the process.