"Ask, and it shall be given you..."
The following suggests a number of power questions that can help you build a more resilient and prosperous local economy. Whether you are a business owner, an employee, manage an organization, lead a group, or just want to make a difference, these questions can help you create power questions of your own to get the results you want!
Exercise Initiative
Accept responsibility to make good things happen. Accepting responsibility for producing a desired outcome gives you the power to decide a course of action and account for the results. In terms of our local economy, some good questions might include:
1) Why is it important for me to accept responsibility for building a more resilient and prosperous local economy?
2) What contributions of time and effort can I make to building our local economy?
3) Who can help me take action today to strengthen our local economy?
4) How will my accepting personal responsibility for strengthening our local economy make a positive difference?
5) Where can I find the resources to make a positive difference in our local economy?
6) When have you been at your best in taking initiative to accomplish what's important to you?
Know Your Outcomes
Identifying the specific results you want gives direction to your efforts. When you know where you are going, it's easier to come up with effective ways to get there. You are able to measure your progress and that feedback makes it possible for you to fine-tune your efforts. Some possible power questions might include:
1) What are three ways you want our local economy to improve and prosper?
2) Whose help will you need to produce those results?
3) Why will those results make a positive difference in our local economy?
4) How will my actions today contribute to achieving those results?
5) When have clarifying my outcomes made it easier to measure my progress?
6) Where can my efforts be most effective in producing those improvements?
Begin Now
Knowing what to do first is important. It saves time, money, and effort. Often it will be obvious where to begin. At other times, a clear pathway of priorities will be less evident. In either case, the most important thing to do now is act. If you act and do not make the progress you want, at least you will have some feedback to make a course correction early on and try again; that is why clarifying your outcome is so important. Power questions that may help in knowing where to begin are:
1) Where should I begin.
2) How will doing this make progress toward my desired outcomes (a more prosperous economy)?
3) Who can help me decide on what to do first?
4) When has making a decision and then acting on that decision made it easier to accomplish my outcomes?
5) What can I do today to move closer to my desired results?
6) Why will starting today give me an advantage?
Create Mutual Benefit
When you create compelling value for everyone involved in your project, you insure cooperation for its success. Whether it's a customer, employer, employee, a supervisor, etc., a win/win approach always helps produce the results you want. The following power questions can be helpful in creating mutual benefit for our local economy:
1) Who are the people who will benefit from my efforts?
2) How will they benefit?
3) Where will the see the effects of these benefits?
4) What can I do to communicate these benefits to them?
5) Why are these benefits important to them?
6) When have you created mutual benefit for others that has resulted in greater cooperation from them?
Listen to Understand
Who do you want to benefit from building a more prosperous local economy? Whoever it is, getting a clear picture off what's important to them is vital to satisfying their needs. Being on the same page with those you want to serve and influence is key to satisfying their needs and solving their problems. If they feel that you understand their situation they will be more inclined to consider you solutions and ideas.
These power questions can help you better understand people and their needs and wants:
1) What pressing needs do individuals/organizations have and are looking for ways to satisfy them?
2) Who are these individuals/organizations?
3) Where can I go to find these individuals?
4) How can seeking out and listening to individuals help me better understand them and what they want?
5) Why is listening to these individuals important to building a more resilient local economy?
6) When did my listening to others help me better understand what's important to them?
Multiply Your Options
Systematically and regularly seeking out innovative ways to get the results you want helps you become more productive with your time, money, and energy. By developing this habit you become a person who creates compelling value for others. Because you have developed this habit others seek you out and pay you well for your efforts.
Examples of power questions that help you multiply your options are:
1) What should I do to use my time, money, and energy more effectively in building a more prosperous local economy?
2) Who can help me become more productive with my time, money, and energy?
3) How can I systematically and regularly seek out innovative ways to become more productive and help others do the same?
4) When am I most effective in thinking of better ways if doing things?
5) Where can I find good ideas to help build a more resilient local economy?
6) Why will seeking out ways to become more productive help build a more prosperous local economy, now and in the future?
Sharpen Your Skills
Learning, consistently applying, and mastering skills that complement you strengths leverages your time, money, and energy. When you focus your efforts on your strengths you get more done in less time, with less money, and less energy. Here are some power questions that will help you master skills that complement your strengths:
1) What are three skills that will complement your strengths and build a more resilient local economy?
2) Who can help you learn, consistently apply, and master these three skills?
3) Why are these skills essential to you being more productive?
4) Where can you apply these skills to get the results you want?
5) When will you learn, consistently apply, and master these three skills?
6) How will you learn, consistently apply, and master these skills?
Getting Results
Asking power questions guides our thinking and thinking leads to learning those things that produce the results we want. It's a powerful process that can be applied over and over again. With each application your mastery of the process increases as well as your ability to get desired results in less time. Whether you're building a more resilient and prosperous local economy or accomplishing any worthwhile purpose, power questions leverage your efforts. They get results!
Question
Why not ask yourself one power question each day that will help you and others take action to build a more resilient and prosperous local economy in 2014?
Next Post
"Where To Find Resources You Need."
What Do You Think?
As always your constructive comments are welcome and appreciated.
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The Silver Creek Economy 2014 blog is sponsored by Partnering Technologies, an Arizona-based Learning & Development Company. Their focus is helping individuals and organizations learn, consistently apply, and master a skill-set that is always in high demand, always highly valued, and always highly paid. Its founder is Jim Sanderson.
Visit their website at www.partneringtechnologies.blogspot.com and find out what they are doing to build a more prosperous economy for our community in 2014.
