I ask each member of my team this question at the end of the ‘Any Other Business’ part of our meeting.
I used to think of it as a management question: what can I do – or stop doing – that will make you better at your job?
And it’s a great management question.
It’s also a really helpful question to bear in mind when you’re working on a product or process, and when talking to customers.
- How can our skills help you achieve your goals?
- How can we make our curriculum (product) easier to use? Could we make it fun to use?
- Can we change our training materials (product, service) so that training is easier to deliver, and teachers learn the most important things better and faster?
- How can I organise information so that it’s easy for my team to tell customers what they want to know: what we offer, how much it costs, what they get in exchange for their money and time, and when and how they can get it?
- What can I do to make reporting (process) as easy and as light touch is possible, and generates information that is useful – and actually gets used?
Everyone wins when you ask questions like these, listen, and take action.