Let’s say you’re in charge of a project or team with a specific goal. Here’s an exercise to give you some incredible clarity and focus as you pursue your objective:
Imagine you have the ability to create a dashboard that gives you the answers, in real time and with perfect accuracy, to any five questions related to the project. What five questions would you plug in?
Here’s an example – I’ve recently started getting into Formula 1 racing. It’s neat! I still don’t know much at all about racecar engineering, driving strategy, etc. But if I was placed in charge of a team right now, I at least know what my goal is: To have one of my cars (every team gets 2) come in first place, and ideally to have both of my cars in the Top Two.
Without knowing anything else, what would I pick as my Top Five Questions? Probably:
- How long is it taking each car to complete a lap?
- How long is it taking each car to complete the whole race?
- What position did we finish in each race?
- How much time did we gain or lose between each race?
- What were the road conditions in each race?
With the answers to those five questions accurately displayed for me, I could start making strategic decisions about how our car is designed, how our racing strategy is deployed, et cetera. Now, obviously the actual decisions would be much better if made by someone with real experience, but I would at least not be flying (or driving?) blind.
Often in business, people with great and relevant experience are still letting themselves “fly blind” because they don’t know the answers to the most important questions affecting their project. I’ve met sales leaders who didn’t know how many pitches their salespeople were making. I’ve met project managers who didn’t know how many man-hours were being spent on their projects, or how many were available. I’ve met HR leaders who didn’t know the turnover rates or costs at their companies. It’s rampant, and it makes for poor decisions even if leaders have the relevant expertise to make good ones.
In order to make good decisions, you need to have the expertise and the data. And getting the right data starts with asking the right questions.
The Opportunity Machine 