Quality Questions

April 18, 2022
April 18, 2022 Jamie Michelson

Quality Questions

As a longtime Jeopardy viewer, I know how important an answer is. Yet, it’s the question that’s most important. In many meetings I often find myself focusing on the probing questions individuals ask that help move us beyond the ordinary.

For our agency’s EOS* planning meeting, our pre-work was to come prepared with answers to a set of questions. Thought I’d use this email to share these questions:

  • What are you proud of from the past year?
  • What do we want to see done more consistently?
  • What drives us crazy? (the only negative tinged question)
  • How do we make our values more than words on a wall?
  • What are some simple things we can do to keep work morale up and positive?
  • What really worked for building connections via screens (Zoom, Teams …)?
  • Imagine it’s three years from now and the value of SMZ has trebled. What likely happened to get us there?

The team’s answers went up on flip pages all over the office’s Circle Room. It wasn’t groupthink. It was the fruits of a thinking group with ideas that should help make us better in the coming years.

I’d love to hear what questions you’re pondering and please circle back with me if you’d care to discuss our answers.

So, in true Jeopardy style, I’ll end this with a question: How will you make today a great day? Now that’s worth making a true daily double.

*EOS stands for Entrepreneurial Operating System, a people-operated system we have implemented at SMZ. I’m happy to discuss it further with you.