Whether you are a for-profit or non-profit we thought that the following rings true: "A good question beats a good answer."
As Polly LeBarre, editorial director of the Management Innovation Exchange recently remarked... ’The first thing you notice when you have your ears pricked for questions is that most people (especially businesspeople) are more interested in presenting solutions, making assertions, and sharing their vision rather than listening to other’s opinions'.
So why ask questions instead of trying to have all the answers? Perhaps because it is impossible to have all the answers - and sometimes questions can identify more possibilities and new ways of thinking about the same old issues.
Vineet Nayar, CEO of the $3.5 billion global IT services firm, HCL Technologies keeps a list of twenty questions and makes time to think about them on a regular (almost daily) basis. Sometimes the most simple of questions can be the most thought provoking. The things he asks can easily be relevant for a non-profit. Things like:
- Would my children (or my employees' children) want to work/volunteer/donate in/to a company like mine?
- What would happen if there were no CEO at my company (or at any company in the world)?
- Who would want to work/volunteer/donate to our organisation?
- What ideas are we fighting for?
- What do we stand for (and what are we opposed to)?
- Why does what we do matter?
We like the idea of questions being asked and explored as a group as they generate more solidarity, engagement and progress. This is how contributors to an organisation can help define its future and buy-in to its success and prosperity.
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