One of the questions I learned to ask when I served an arts organization as board chair was “what is our outcome?”  In a smaller community it was easy to have day-to-day or at least weekly contact with the Executive Director.  Typically there was a new fire burning each time.  Donors who had been disappointed by not being able to get tickets to a sold out concert, local artists who did not get into an arts and crafts festival, a community member who thought an instillation was too provocative.  

The temptation was to solve the problem with the Executive Director.  It was easy to start thinking through the action steps and role play the possible scenarios. I quickly learned that this was akin to both of us abandoning ship and rowing around in life boats in rough seas.  A lot of energy expended and no real results.  Instead I started asking, “what is our outcome?”  Then I would follow-up with, “why is it important and what critical steps do we need to take to meet the outcome?”  These three questions framed our overall goal, touched on the emotional issue (the why) and outlined the most important action steps for moving forward.  By asking these three questions the answers brought clarity and everyone could stay on the boat.  It became a template for our conversations and served us well since everyone understood what we were trying to achieve.

What important questions do you ask?  How do they focus your process and response?