I sat in a meeting when someone asked, “how could you bring next year’s results into this year?”
I sat in another meeting and, after sharing two different and conflicting goals, I was asked, “how could we define these approaches so they didn’t conflict?”
In yet another meeting I said something about cheap, fast, and quality. You know the quote. I was asked, “how could you deliver all three?”
Initially these small questions are easy to ignore because we conclude that the asker doesn’t understand things.
Over time I’ve learned they’re more than that. They’re challenges to think more creatively. More intently. To challenge me to think more and think better.
How do you react to those small (and seemingly crazy) questions? Do you have people asking you them? Are they applying the kind of pressure I wrote about yesterday?
If you don’t have those people, asking those kinds of questions, find them. They’re valuable.
It’s incredible how a small question can have such power.