How could asking ‘why’ questions ensure your business survives and thrives in uncertain times?
‘WHY?’ – a word that you probably use 100 times a day.
Especially now, with so many changes for you and your team and still so much uncertainty about the future.
‘WHY?’ is crucial to the present and future of your business.
Breakthrough ideas start with ‘WHY?’.
Breakthrough ideas that will help your business weather the storm and come out of the other side stronger.
The 3-question formula to create breakthrough questions starts with ‘WHY?’.
Warren Berger in his book ‘A More Beautiful Question’ uncovered this formula, a formula that goes a long way to explaining how some of the best business ideas and innovations have been created.
‘WHY?’ wakes you up, so that you become aware of and understand the problems facing your business.
‘WHY?’ is about seeing and understanding, looking with a fresh eye, which when you are entrenched in the everyday issues dominating you and your team right now, is not easy to do!
To ask the right ‘WHY’ question you need to do the following:
- step back – take time-out to really look at things with a fresh perspective – this is vital now with all the business challenges you are facing
- notice what others miss, try to see what is lacking – given the changes, the way your business looks now is probably very different to how it looked pre-Covid
- challenge the natural assumptions of your business – including your own
- question the questions – get the team involved – ask the naïve and simple questions – sometimes people are too afraid to speak up, encourage open and honest conversations
- get a ‘stranger’ involved when you start asking ‘WHY?’ questions about your business, customers, products or services, this enables you to step back and really think about the questions being asked
Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky asked a simple ‘WHY?’ question when struggling to pay their rent on their San Francisco apartment, with astonishing results. They created a business from nothing that is now worth £2billion.
