Would you say this to your mother?
It can be intimidating to question the expert. But effective advocacy requires tough questioning. Whether it’s your mother or your business, your body or your roof, write out a list of questions and don’t let up until every one of them is addressed. Write out a list of questions and don’t let up until every one of them is addressed. If the specialist you’ve chosen can’t or won’t answer your questions, see that as a red flag, a clear sign that you need to get a second (or third) opinion. Ask more until you’re comfortable that you understand the problem and the pros and cons of each possible solution.
After the Diagnosis, the Strategy
Al Darby, Steve Miller, and Teresa Gardner lead very different lives, but they all use diagnostic inquiry to identify and solve problems. They question with open ears. They ask why the problem exists and where it comes from. They look for bad news. They ask about the past as well as the present. They work under pressure. They listen for detail, and they seek a cure.
That’s how Teresa became well known. She was profiled on 60 Minutes, the longest-running TV magazine show in America, with an audience of more than 10 million television watchers and millions more online. The story showed her driving her beat-up old Winnebago through Appalachia, asking her questions to treat her treasured “human train wrecks.” It revealed the dimension of the problem and her commitment to address it. The attention was more than she bargained for, but speaking invitations and donations followed and Teresa finally got a new Winnebago Health Wagon.
Diagnostic questions identify a problem, a cause, and a response and take you to the next leveclass="underline"
Now what?
What’s the risk associated with the treatment?
What should we be watching for?
Steve Miller thinks CEOs should lie awake at night asking what’s-gone-wrong questions so they can move on to the really big questions.
Are we in the right business?
Are we looking forward?
Do we fully envision the problems and opportunities ahead?
Do we stand for the right values?
Do we have a sustainable business model?
Whether you are a Wall Street tycoon, a nurse practitioner in Appalachia or anything in between, only after you diagnose the situation can you move to the next level of inquiry, where you set your sights and ask about long-range challenges and opportunities in pursuit of an ambitious goal.
CHAPTER 3
THE GENERAL’S CHARGE
Strategic Questions
BILL AND MELINDA GATES didn’t just wake up one morning and decide, over a bowl of organic oatmeal, to throw themselves and their money at the fight against malaria. They knew the terrible toll of the disease—symptoms that usually appear within two weeks of the mosquito bite: fever, chills, headache, and vomiting. They knew that, if not treated within twenty-four hours, the illness can become acute and kill. They’d seen the data: The disease was afflicting up to 300 million people a year. Most were pregnant women and children. Most were in Africa.
?
With their vast wealth and giant foundation, they were looking for philanthropic investments that could make the biggest difference for the most people. At a forum of more than 300 health and political leaders in 2007, Melinda Gates called for an all-out assault: “Advances in science and medicine, promising research, and the rising concern of people around the world represent a historic opportunity not just to treat malaria or to control it, but to chart a long-term course to eradicate it.”
The call to eradicate malaria led to one of the most ambitious mobilizations of research and medicine in the world. Researchers and doctors made tremendous progress—in just a few years deaths came down 50 percent—but if the campaign actually eradicated the disease, it would save millions more lives and untold suffering. It would unlock immense potential in places where the disease is a debilitating curse on families, communities, and entire countries. Defeating malaria would be an epic human achievement. Like other ambitious undertakings, it requires huge investment, commitment, strategic alliances, massive time allotments, and boundless energy. But how did the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others determine that an ambitious campaign against Malaria was feasible and could succeed? What did they ask about objectives, resources, hurdles and challenges that made them come down on the side of an all-out assault? They posed big, strategic questions.
What is the extent of the problem?
What will it take to succeed?
Are we up to the challenge?
In Chapter 2, I showed you how diagnostic questions help identify a particular problem that’s defined by a unique set of symptoms or circumstances. Strategic questions ask about the bigger challenge and the long-term goal—about stakes, opportunities, costs, consequences, and alternatives—as you focus on the big picture. They help you set your sights, clarify objectives, and consider obstacles as you think about future benefits and consequences.
Set Your Sights
Perhaps you’ve been invited to join a startup venture. You like the people. They have a couple of years of funding. The business plan is exciting. There could be a big payoff. But the idea is untested and the competition is moving fast. You’ll have to leave your corporate job, and there’s no job security in the startup world.
Maybe your partner is lobbying for a move across the country to get out of the rat race and reboot your lives. The idea has appeal. But you’re not sure what you will do out there, or how much of a real difference the move will make. Truth is, you’re not loving life right now either, but this would be a quantum leap into the unknown. Will the change be worth the effort? And what about that paycheck you now get reliably every two weeks?
Your company is considering a major investment in a product that it believes will increase market share. You have to weigh in. Something is needed because the competition is eating your lunch and just launched a brilliant ad campaign that brought it a ton of buzz. Maybe the new product will make a difference, but it will require a huge investment, a lot of your time, and a big marketing push. It seems pretty cool, but there’s no guarantee it will be the blockbuster you need.
These are all-in moves that come with a daunting list of pros and cons and plenty of unknowns. They call for fundamental changes and new ways of thinking. They require questions that look over the horizon.
“Strategy, by definition, is about making complex decisions under uncertainty, with substantive, long-term consequences,” Freek Vermeulen, associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the London Business School, wrote in the Harvard Business Review in September 2015. Vermeulen crafted an elegantly simple description of a word that almost everyone overuses and poorly understands. But by asking strategic questions, you can define and articulate your long-term goals. As you challenge your assumptions, you weigh the investment and risks involved. These are tough questions, built on a few overarching principles. Like an imaging satellite miles above the earth, strategic questions start wide and zoom in to see the landscape in detail.
Get the big picture. Define the challenge or opportunity. Ask why it matters. Articulate the goal. Does it reflect your values? Who else cares? What are others prepared to do? What does it look like from 60,000 feet?
Know what you’re up against. Recognize that you have a worthy opponent, whether it’s a person, place, or, in the Gates’s case, a disease. Give it credit. It’s the biggest obstacle that stands in your way. Ask what your opponent can dish out and what you’re willing to take.