BIZBUZZ: Gerald Nader & William Chandon: Smart Questions

This is episode 12 of BIZBUZZ.

I stimulate conversations in order to challenge business owners to Be Different and to Act Boldly.

The following video highlights some content from Smart Questions, co-written by Gerald Nader and William Chandon. I thought that it was well written and offers some interesting observations.

Hi, I’m Gary Brown a FocalPoint business coach.

Welcome to BIZ BUZZ.

I’ve chosen to comment on Smart Questions, a book co-written by Gerald Nader and William Chandon that discusses problem solving as its central theme.

There are three assertions made by the authors that I find particularly interesting.

The first one is that we should adopt an attitude of solution creation rather than problem solving. The idea is that creating solutions can lead to bigger possibilities. It’s a mindset that can lead us to different results.

Secondly, the authors speak about three foundation questions that they feel should be employed when seeking solutions. The first question is: who should be involved to help assure that we’re working on the right problem?  The second question is: what’s the purpose we’re trying to achieve?  The third foundation question is a stress test for the second question. By that they repetively ask: and what is the purpose of that?

Finally, the authors have included a insightful quote from John Kenneth Galbraith.

“People are the common denominator for progress.  No progress is possible with unimproved people.”

Well, that’s it for Smart Questions

Thanks for watching.

Your comments are always welcome.

Stay tuned for more BIZ BUZZ.

Or Is It?

I recently completed two posts and I used the expression ‘or is it?’ in both. That got me thinking about some reading that I’ve done recently on the subject of decision making.

We are often confronted with situations in which we are called upon to make a decision. Our decisions frequently look like binary choices. That is, we pick one of two choices. We either choose to do something, or we choose to do something else.

My posts spoke about two choices. Different choices, but essentially two choices in each case.

Why do we so often get fixated on the ‘EITHER/OR’ choice? Why don’t we pause long enough to consider that the best choice might be the ‘AND’ choice? In other words, why don’t we choose to do both?

I am not trying to suggest that the ‘AND’ choice is the best. But, if others are impacted by our decision making, then considering ‘AND’ demonstrates some sensitivity towards others. This in turn could lead to more creative thinking on the part of others because they feel that their input is being listened to and is being considered.

Who knows, perhaps making the ‘AND’ choice will open up opportunities that simply would not have been possible otherwise.

Hot or Tepid?

The hot and hazy days of summer are upon us.

It’s time to kick back, relax and maybe even get some sand between our toes

Or is it?

Certainly, we all need some down time to relax and re-energize ourselves. Finding a balance between the various elements of our lives is important and health sustaining.

Maybe it’s the way some people talk, but I frequently get the impression that some SME business owners treat the summer like the doldrums. They perceive that it is a time of inactivity for their customers. These individuals will make the claim that “everyone has gone away and of course, we don’t expect to be able to conduct much business during the summer anyway”.

I feel that these business owners are essentially saying “I’ll get back to work when my customers return in September”.

When I speak with someone who displays the above attitude, I can’t help but think that I’ve just encountered someone who is very complacent about his/her business. It makes me wonder how they’ve managed so far.

Our customers are still around. Eight to ten weeks of holidays hasn’t become the norm yet. Admittedly, you may need to be more persistent in reaching your contacts. And, shame on us if we don’t plan ahead. After all, we do know that summer has a habit of occurring every year at about the same time!

But, even if you do find yourself with a lull in your schedule, what a great opportunity to engage your employees and consider how your organization could be different. What a wonderful opportunity to get some training completed. What a great time to renew your strategic plan.

It seems to me that the summer provides a period in which we can work ‘on’ our business rather than ‘in’ our business. It affords us the opportunity to get serious about our next efforts to differentiate our businesses.

It would be a shame to “go Hot on summer” while going “Tepid on our Business”.