My answer to this latest 'meme' is in a conference hotel in Frankfurt where I was helping a group of leaders think about how they could communicate more effectively with their sprawling global organisation.
Amidst all the usual welter of flip charts, pocket cards, powerpoint slides, laminated posters, nifty newsletters, electronic templates, gleaming video-conferencing displays, virtual webinars and even the unreliable glimmerings of holographic beaming, there were eventually just two questions that resonated with me:
'What did you do to delight a customer today?' and 'How can I make it easier for you to do your job?'
Imagine if these were the two standard management enquiries woven into the very fabric of a business, embedded deeply in the DNA of an organisation's discourse, the very yin and yan of your next workshop? They reminded me once again of the power of the open question, the importance of its careful, simple framing and the remarkable energy that it can generate through an honest response.
Because, unlike the 21st century's constellation of global superstars, I suspect that most leaders in large organisations will be remembered for the quality and tone of their questions rather than for the weight and length of their answers - and certainly not for the sublime beauty of their dancing.
Where were you...?
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