The Leadership Coach™

A $20million Question

Posted on 05. Jul, 2008 by Paul Andrew in Leadership, The Leadership Coach™

I had lunch the other week with Don, a friend who always has a fascinating story. He met a guy recently who was a futurist who described his job as “helping people look around corners”. He had recently worked with a major multinational on a project and happened to ask what else they had coming up. The CEO and his team mentioned a $50m asset purchase they were about to make after many months of discussions.

Then the futurist asked a simple question that left them floored… “In all of those meetings did anyone ever ask the question ‘Is there another way?’”. The CEO had someone pull the files with reams of minutes from no less than 76 meetings they had held. They pored over the minutes but it just wasn’t there. Not once had anyone asked the simple and yet profound leadership question… “Is there another way?”

With that, the futurist went on to suggest another way, an alternative technology, and saved the company tens of millions of dollars… with those four words…

Who knows what had transpired in those 76 meetings, but if they were like many I’ve attended over the years it’s likely they missed the mark on creativity and thought leadership. Perhaps people simply did their “due diligence” rather than their personal best. Perhaps all that activity was simply gathering data to support a decision they had already made at the outset. All we know is that, yes, there was another way. A much cheaper yet more effective way.

So here’s a thought for you this week… Use those four words…
• In your meetings,
• Before making decisions
• Rather than settling for mediocrity

IS THERE ANOTHER WAY?

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Tags: Executive Coaching, Keynote Speaker, Leadership Coaching, Leadership Development, Leadership Training, Mentoring, Paul Andrew, Performance Coaching