The Best Tool of Thinkers- Focused Question Method

I believe this is one of my important blogs.

Reading about the different self-made experts made me realized that they all used the same technique to uncover the current or coming problem.

I call this

Picture Source: Unkown

technique- Focused Question Method.

All top experts of any field have ability to ask specific focused questions; and in the process of answering these questions, they discover the innovative solutions.

In this blog, I’ll share some of the ‘questions’ which experts of different field used to ask to get the solution of the problem. You can ask these questions to answer both organizational and personal problems both.

[I solely take responsibility for the explanation of each question]

1.  Where do you hope to be in 5 years? And 

     How will you reach this goal? By what method?-  W. Edward Deming (Father of Quality)

This was the question which Deming used to ask from his clients to know exactly what his clients want; and do they have any plan of action.

2.  What is our Business? Who is our Customer?-  Peter Drucker (Father of Management)

Most of the organisations fail to answer these two questions ‘honestly’ and this leads to their downfall.

3.  What we will not do?- Jim Collins, Author of Good to Great

Jim Collins, in his book, studied 11 visionary companies and found that all visionary companies know what they will not do, no matter what happens. Knowing what we will not do is equally important as knowing what we will do.

4.  How do you want people to remember you when you will die?

     - Stephen Covey, Author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Close your eyes. Imagine that you are dead and your soul has left the world. Ask yourself- What exactly do you want people to say at your back. Write those things on a piece of paper. Start living the life you want. Prepare your life for death.

5.   What are the things which make me jealous?

      - Susain Cain, Author of Quiet: Power of Introverts

We can learn a lot from our negative emotions, if we can keep our mind open. We all have some amount of negative emotions inside us, but instead of suppressing them we should study our emotions carefully. This small practice can reveal some hidden facts about our personality.

6.  What is the Reality? – Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric

I remember, once I met a woman who had a goal that within a year she would become a millionaire. She didn’t have any job or business, and her boyfriend was also not a rich guy. After the year passed, she wanted to give million dollars in charity. Many people in life live in a strange type of mental illusion. They have constructed their own mental world and live a fool’s life, ignoring all the facts. Realism is a point between optimism and pessimism. One of the traits of great leaders is that they are realistic in life. Before, making any assumption ask yourself- what is the reality? Be brutally honest while answering this question.

7.   Have I visited the market myself? – Kim Moore, CEO of LG Companies

Sometimes, when we become supervisor of large team we start avoiding meeting customers directly and visiting the market because we believe that our team members should do that and not us. This could bring major downfall in the life of executives and companies both.  Meeting customers, dealers, sub-dealers, etc. gives us clarity about the market, for instance, once my team member told me that he was unable to find a caterer in the Block, in which he was posted. I myself went to that Block and identified three caterers for him. He accepted his mistake because he didn’t explore the nearby areas properly. Though it is a very small example, but let me tell you we all are human beings and we can do mistakes. Therefore, never come to an conclusion if you yourself have not done the monitoring.

I have a long list of questions, which top people asked themselves or others and made a great change. But, I selected only these 6 questions because I personally have liking for these questions.

Whenever, you are in a problem- simply start asking questions about the problem, for instance, What is the real problem? What are the causes? Why I want to solve this problem? How can I solve this problem? Who can help me in my work? These simple and focused questions can give great clarity to our thought process.