Carragee Consulting

Curiosity of children

I love this image from Roberto Ferraro

It would be maddening if executives asked questions the way my 3 year old does, but imagining that they will (or allowing yourself to do so) can drive surprising clarity.

You eventually fall back to answering “because I said so”, but the more times you can drill down the better you understand.

Imagine taking requirements for a new Sales Performance Report:

Q1: Why do you want a new dashboard?
A: So we can track performance.

Q2: Why do you want to track performance?
A: So we can know top/bottom team members

Q3: Why do you need to know top/bottom?

A — the third answer is often the real “So What”

3a: So we can pay them commensurate with the value they create.

3b: So we can bring up the bottom performance by showing how the best succeeded.

3c: So we can plan for the future and adapt our offerings to the market.