This document outlines 5 questions to ask staff to have productive conversations about projects or tasks: 1) What did you intend? 2) What happened? 3) What can you learn from it? 4) What should be done differently next time? 5) What should you do now? For each question, brief explanations are provided about gathering intentions, facts, opinions, lessons learned, how to improve for the future, and immediate next steps. The questions are meant to have a constructive discussion rather than fixate on mistakes.

1. 5 simple and profound
questions to ask your staff

2. Q1

3. What did you intend?

4. What did you intend?
This can be a simple
restatement of their
objectives

5. What did you intend?
What were they trying to
achieve?

6. Q2

7. What happened?

8. What happened?
This is useful for just
getting a sense of what
really happened

9. What happened?
Rest assured that any
person’s perspective of
events is only one of the
versions

10. What happened?
Collect both "the facts"

11. What happened?
E.g. costs, number of
people involved, etc

12. What happened?
& differing opinions

13. What happened?
On what worked
and what didn't work

14. What happened?
When commenting on
another's role

15. What happened?
Capture specific behavioural
events

16. What happened?
Rather than your own
conclusion about what they
did

17. Q3

18. What can you learn from it?

19. What can you learn from it?
There will be different levels
of learning

20. What can you learn from it?
From the specific

21. What can you learn from it?
“When I do that the
photocopier jams.”

22. What can you learn from it?
To the more abstract

23. What can you learn from it?
“This project wasn't close
enough to my life purpose
for me to be motivated.”

24. What can you learn from it?
Don’t be fixated on mistakes

25. What can you learn from it?
Pull out the positive

26. What can you learn from it?
“What went well?”

27. What can you learn from it?
“What do we need to
capture for the future?”

28. What can you learn from it?
Also

29. What can you learn from it?
Ask

30. What can you learn from it?
“What still puzzles us?”

31. What can you learn from it?
Be clear about what is still a
mystery

32. Q4

33. What should be done
differently next time?

34. What should be done
differently next time?
This is a powerful question

35. What should be done
differently next time?
It plants the seed for the
‘next time’ conversation

36. What should be done
differently next time?
Without these seeds, we
default back to a collective
memory

37. What should be done
differently next time?
The collective memory of:
“This is how we do things
around here"

38. What should be done
differently next time?
The collective memory does
not capitalise on the
collected wisdom

39. Q5

40. What should you do now?

41. What should you do now?
There may well be actions to
take right now

42. What should you do now?
Things to do, people to
connect with, etc

43. What should you do now?
As with all actions

44. What should you do now?
Set up accountability

45. What should you do now?
Accountability?

46. What should you do now?
What will be done, by whom
and by when

47. 1. What did you intend?
2. What happened?
3. What can we learn about it?
4. What should be done
differently next time?
5. What should you do now?

48. Thank You
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