My job as a strategy consultant makes me a “professional question asker”. It is both an art and a science. It also a major part of what all of us do – asking good questions. So, with apologies to David Letterman, here are my top 5. I consider them “must have, ‘go to’” questions for every interview script. I’ve included a short explanation of why I think each of these is important.
5. In your opinion what do you think the mission of your organization should be?
This validates any review you’ve performed of existing mission statements. It will also tell you if the current strategy has consensus support.
4. What are the top two or three things that would make a meaningful impact that the organization should do?
This question pushes toward a simple Pareto analysis of the issues that would be most readily addressed within the organization. If 20% of the issues cause 80% of the problems, this will give you an indication of what the real issues are. By the way, Pareto is capitalized because it is named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. And if you want to have a totally useless fact to throw out at your team’s next happy hour, let everyone know that his middle name was Fritz.
3. In your opinion, how should the organization be structured to serve its customers and accomplish the mission?
This question is the customer focus question, designed to see if there is a general consensus on the nature and identity of the organization’s customers. It will often reveal who is “managing up” at the expense of the organization’s real customers.
2. Are there any roadblocks in place that need to be navigated in order to accomplish the mission?
This question is designed to surface the legacy issues that are inherent in an existing organization. Every organization has them, whether it is a year or a century old, there will be legacy issues. These are often experienced as “garden rakes” by the current workforce. I call them this because I once had the outrageous good fortune of a sudden introduction to the handle of a garden rake. I stepped on the tines of one and was rapidly introduced to a solid ash handle. It had been left out in the yard and the grass had grown just enough to cover it up. Organizations can have the same kind of issues. Things that were once useful have been left unattended and these become legacy issues.
1. How satisfied are you with the current performance/state of the organization?
This question is designed to assess current resource allocation within the organization. It is useful in revealing what service offerings might be useful for the organization. It can identify white space, and it is the gateway that will help you expand the Booz Allen presence.
There you have it, my top five. What questions would you ask if you could only ask five? And what questions would you add if David Letterman insisted you needed ten?
eklego 