Quick Question: How will we know we’ve succeeded?
Quick Question
Here is today's quick question for you...How will we know we’ve succeeded?
Ask it when you're...
Forming a new project team - Aligning on a vision for and specific measures of success will help galvanise a new team as they commence a significant challenge.
Restructuring your organisation - underperformance is often the catalyst for restructuring. That can lead to a narrow view of success for your change efforts. Taking a broader view can help ensure that all strategic pillars are considered in the redesign process.
Starting a new business - it can seem counterintuitive to talk about the end when you’re only at the beginning. Failure to genuinely align on end goals is one biggest reasons for the breakdown of co-founder relationships so it’s worth taking some time to dig into it at the start. (And if you need help with that, try 52conversations cards).
Listen for...
It’s easy to talk about high-level success indicators - but it’s worth taking the time to listen for measurable outcomes wherever possible.
Try to listen for:
Quantitative commitments - for example, changes to revenue, profit, new customers, customer retention or team engagement
Changes in energy - listen and watch how energy and enthusiasm change as team members discuss potential outcomes of the work
New information - through the course of the conversation, new ideas, preferences, and potential constraints will likely come to light.
This question creates alignment and commitment to strategic goals and outcomes.
Follow up with...
Sometimes, the greatest value comes from the one extra question you take the time to ask.
In this situation, you could try…
Who will benefit from our success? In what way?
What impact will our success have?
What does failure look like?
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