Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 06

December 2018/January 2019 // Canadian Government Executive / 43 ing. It’s important to suss out logical fallacies. • What is the opposing view? As with Seinfeld’s Costanza, con- sider the opposing side of what is being suggested, weighing it with an open mind. It may reveal important insights or even offer a better path. • Which of the conflicting views has more evidence behind it? Choose that option. When faced with a problem, he suggests asking four “why’s”: Why does this problem matter? Why does this problem exist? Why hasn’t this been solved already? Why might that change now? Moving on to creativity, he notes we often complain we can’t be innovative since we lack the time. If you say (or think) that, here are four questions to ask yourself: • If I began to see my attention as a precious resource, how might I better protect it? • How can I shift from a “manager’s schedule” to a “maker’s schedule”? Managers tend to spend their lives in meetings, and usually the workday for everyone revolves around that kind of schedule. But makers – those who create reports and other important office output – need solid, uninterrupted blocks of time to concentrate. Creativity is more likely to arise in that second schedule. • Am I pruning the vine? Consider cutting back some tasks to provide more time for the truly important ones. • What if I trade the morning news for the “morning muse”? The morning can be a prime time for creative thinking. Slow down, avoid the news and other morning bustle, and unleash your mind. • Instead of taking a break from social media, what if I reverse that? Take breaks – but few of them – in which you engage with social media. Otherwise, stay away. To find your big idea, he recommends asking: What stirs me? What bugs me? What’s missing? What do I keep coming back to? What is ripe for reinvention? Connecting with others often starts at a first meeting with the perennial “What do you do?” Junk that question and instead try, “What are you most passionate about?” or “What problem do you wish you could solve?” or “What did you want to do when you were growing up?” Instead of the ritualistic “How are you?” when encountering a friend or colleague, try: “What’s the best thing that happened to you today?” Or: “What are you excited about in your life right now?” It opens the door for a more interesting answer. He has many questions to help your leadership. Four – drawn from legendary management guru Peter Drucker and other lu- web http://canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca/author/harveys/ minaries – are intended to sharpen your focus: What is the one thing I can do that would make everything else easier or un- necessary? What should we stop doing? What do I want to go big on? At this moment, what is the highest, best use of my time? There are many opportunities for what he calls “ambulatory inquiry” as you walk around the office and connect with subor- dinates. Instead of resorting to ineffective questions like “How’s it going?” or “Who screwed up here?” he recommends: • “What’s the biggest challenge you are facing?” This can be made specific by adding on “this project” or more general, with the words “in your job.” • “Are you making progress?” If they aren’t, frustration will oc- cur, so you should know. • “Help me understand what led to….” This is a less accusatory way of delving into a problem than asking who screwed up. • “Is it clear what we’re doing and why?” A vital, often unasked question. People can’t be aligned with your strategy or current efforts if they don’t understand it. • “How can I help?” Former Campbell Soup Company CEO Doug Conant calls this the “ultimate leadership question.” The book is probably the ultimate collection of questions for managers and executives. Yes, there are too many of them to di- gest in any one sitting. But it can be a valuable resource to turn to in your morning muse. H arvey S chachter is a writer, specializing in management and business issues. He writes three weekly columns for the Globe and Mail and The Leader’s Bookshelf column for Canadian Government Executive, and a regular column and features for Kingston Life magazine. Harvey was editor of the 2004 book Memos to the Prime Minister: What Canada Can Be in the 21st Century. He was the ghostwriter on The Three Pillars of Pub- lic Management by Ole Ingstrup and Paul Crookall, and editor of Getting Clients, Keeping Clients by Dan Richards. The Leader’s Bookshelf The book is probably the ultimate collection of questions for managers and executives. Yes, there are too many of them to digest in any one sitting. But it can be a valuable resource to turn to in your morning muse.