Innovative Thinking and Questions

1. SCF Webinar
Innovative Thinking
and Questions
Russell Cummings
6 December 2018

2. Agenda
• Asking great questions
• Making good decisions
• What is holding you back?

3. Asking great questions

4. Types of Questions
Direct - These are aimed at one person to check their understanding. You will need to take into account
that focusing on one person can make them feel uncomfortable, especially if they do not know the
answer.
Indirect /Overhead - These are presented to the whole group.
Yes/No - These are closed questions, which are usually answered with a very short statement or a ‘yes’
or ‘no’. These tend not to encourage discussion and are generally used simply to check for progress.
Leading - These are open ended questions requesting more information from the learner and generally
require more time to answer. They usually start with a “what”, “when”, “who” “where” or “how”.
Leading questions are a good way of starting a group discussion.
Reflective - Double check questions are used to check participants understanding by rephrasing
responses. If the answer is not clear then double check questions can be used for clarification.
Attitude - Attitude questions are used to check the feeling or attitudes of the group. As there are no
right or wrong answers they can be useful for facilitation group discussions.

5. 5 Steps to asking good questions
• Focus
• Purpose
• Intent
• Framing
• Follow-up

6. Focus
• What specifically do I want to know?
• What information am I missing?
• Is this more than a simple YES or NO
question?
• Am I going for deeper knowledge?

7. Purpose
• Why am I asking this?
• Do I want to gather facts or
opinions?
• Do I need simple clarification?
• Do I want to offer a different
perspective?

8. Intent
• How do I want people to respond?
• Do I want the answer to be of help to others?
• Am I asking to start an argument or open a discussion?
• Is the question superficial and not really useful or important?
• Am I asking out of frustration or curiosity?
• Do I really care about the answer?
• Am I willing to show respect/deference to the person I’m asking?

9. Framing
• Am I using easily understandable terms and
wording?
• Is my question neutral or does it contain bias
or opinion?
• Is it too long or too short?
• Does it contain the focus of what I want to
know?
• Does the question focus on only one thing?
• Is it muddled with other inquiries that don’t
belong?

10. Follow-up
• Do I have any more specific questions to add?
• Will the person I’m asking be available for other
questions if need be?
• If I still don’t have the answer I need, what’s my
plan?
• What can I do if I still don’t understand?

11. Making Good Decisions
What are the critical elements of good decisions?

12. Take the time to stop and think

13. Clearly define the
problem
Clearly define the problem by creating a
leading question:
“How do we <issue> in order to
<objective>?
Example: “How do we improve our
spraying technique in order to increase
fruit yields?”

14. Define the Issue
• “How do we improve our
spraying technique in order to
increase fruit yields?”
Have we addressed the
Question tips?
• Focus
• Purpose
• Intent
• Framing
• Follow-up

15. Gather
Information
• Make sure you have enough
information to make a decision,
especially that you have the
right information
• Be aware of your biases

16. Define the Alternatives
• Clearly define the key alternatives/options for
your decision – have at least 2 or 3 alternatives
• Include a “Do Nothing” Option

17. Define the decision criteria
• Make sure you understand the criteria you are going to use to make
your decisions
• Weigh those criteria, if they will have a different impact on the
outcome
Standard Criteria:
• Will it make things easier? Management, people, safety
• Will the benefits outweigh the costs? Less inputs, lower unit price
• Does it fit with our SCF Values?

18. Evaluate
• Objective measures
• Intuition

19. Make a decision and take Action
• Set up a plan to take
action
• Document the initial steps
to get the process rolling
• Allocate responsibilities
and timeframes
• Key Measures?
• How will you know if its
not working?

20. Reflect
• 2 points of reflection:
1. Before you ”pull the trigger” to make it happen
2. After the program has been operating for a short while
• Did you ask the right question?
• What is your gut feel/intuition telling you about this decision?
• Do you have any clear measures that will tell you that its
going to plan?

21. Alternatives
CRITERIA Weight
Option 1
Retrench
30 15 25 20
25 12 15 20
15 8 8 10
30 15 5 10
TOTAL 100 50 53 60
Sales
Profit
Brand
Speed
Option 2
Sell Business
Option 3
Grow
Option 4
Merge
13
15
14
5
47
Decision
Matrix
How do we
change the
performance
of our
business in
order to
survive the
changing
economy?

22. Alternatives
CRITERIA Weight
Option 1
Retrench
30 15 25 20
25 12 15 20
15 8 8 10
30 15 5 10
TOTAL 100 50 53 60
Sales
Profit
Brand
Speed
Option 2
Sell Business
Option 3
Grow
Option 4
Merge
13
15
14
5
47
1. Define the
problem
How do we
change the
performance
of our
business in
order to
survive the
changing
economy?

23. Alternatives
CRITERIA Weight
Option 1
Retrench
30 15 25 20
25 12 15 20
15 8 8 10
30 15 5 10
TOTAL 100 50 53 60
Sales
Profit
Brand
Speed
Option 2
Sell Business
Option 3
Grow
Option 4
Merge
13
15
14
5
47
2. Gather
information
How do we
change the
performance
of our
business in
order to
survive the
changing
economy?

24. Alternatives
CRITERIA Weight
Option 1
Retrench
30 15 25 20
25 12 15 20
15 8 8 10
30 15 5 10
TOTAL 100 50 53 60
Sales
Profit
Brand
Speed
Option 2
Sell Business
Option 3
Grow
Option 4
Merge
13
15
14
5
47
3. Define
alternatives
How do we
change the
performance
of our
business in
order to
survive the
changing
economy?

25. Alternatives
CRITERIA Weight
Option 1
Retrench
30 15 25 20
25 12 15 20
15 8 8 10
30 15 5 10
TOTAL 100 50 53 60
Sales
Profit
Brand
Speed
Option 2
Sell Business
Option 3
Grow
Option 4
Merge
13
15
14
5
47
4. Define
decision criteria
How do we
change the
performance
of our
business in
order to
survive the
changing
economy?

26. Alternatives
CRITERIA Weight
Option 1
Retrench
30 15 25 20
25 12 15 20
15 8 8 10
30 15 5 10
TOTAL 100 50 53 60
Sales
Profit
Brand
Speed
Option 2
Sell Business
Option 3
Grow
Option 4
Merge
13
15
14
5
47
5. Evaluate
How do we
change the
performance
of our
business in
order to
survive the
changing
economy?

27. Alternatives
CRITERIA Weight
Option 1
Retrench
30 15 25 20
25 12 15 20
15 8 8 10
30 15 5 10
TOTAL 100 50 53 60
Sales
Profit
Brand
Speed
Option 2
Sell Business
Option 3
Grow
Option 4
Merge
13
15
14
5
47
6. Select and
move to action
How do we
change the
performance
of our
business in
order to
survive the
changing
economy?

28. Alternatives
CRITERIA Weight
Option 1
Retrench
30 15 25 20
25 12 15 20
15 8 8 10
30 15 5 10
TOTAL 100 50 53 60
Sales
Profit
Brand
Speed
Option 2
Sell Business
Option 3
Grow
Option 4
Merge
13
15
14
5
47
7. Reflect
How do we
change the
performance
of our
business in
order to
survive the
changing
economy?

29. Other Decision Making Tools
Mindmap Forcefield

30. Homework Exercise
1. Select an larger issue that you need to make a decision
on with your team
2. Pick one of the Mindshop tools
3. Practice using the tool
4. Take a photo and send it to me

31. What is holding you back?
Shackles and Shields

32. Shackles
• Think about an area that you would like
to improve in…maybe your role at SCF.
• What is holding you back from achieving
your full potential?

33. Shield
What are you “hiding behind”
that is enabling the Shackles to
stay in place?

34. Next Steps
1. Over the Christmas break, when there is a lull
in activity, take the time to reflect on your year
and make some notes on the areas you would
like to improve on in 2019 – especially on areas
that you would like to improve in your role.
2. The Program officially wraps up at the end of
Feb 19 – so now is the time to complete some
of the online training and get the most out of
the process.
3. Book a coaching call in the near future – use
the link.

35. Thankyou
Have a safe, happy and healthy Christmas
See you in 2019
Thank You
Russell Cummings
Business Consultant
M: 0414 929 585
W: www.shifft.com.au
E: russell@shifft.com.au