TO DO OR NOT TO DO - 3 KEY QUESTIONS

When undertaking a new venture, there’s a simple but powerful tool that will help you achieve several worthwhile goals:

• Assess new possible projects
• Improve the design of the way forward
• Enhance confidence in producing successful outcomes

Whether you are embarking on a project of your own or assisting clients in their own projects, ask these three questions:

What’s the best that could happen?
What’s the worst that could happen?
What will probably happen?

What’s the best that could happen? The purpose in asking this question is to determine what your vision is for the project. What results are you after? Who will benefit and in what specific ways?

What’s the worst that could happen? Ask this question to figure out what the cost will be if the project doesn’t go well. What could you lose? Will it damage other opportunities that you might have had?

What will probably happen? This question will help you decide what is predictable. To do this, examine past results from similar endeavors and evaluate what you might do differently. How could you improve on those results?

The best, worst, probable tool can assist greatly in examining the practicability of a new idea. It can provide remarkable insight into the undertaking far beyond the cursory examination people commonly perform before they leap headlong into a new project. This inquiry can uncover needed structures to put into place to ensure the success of the new project. Even better, the three questions can help assess the value of any action.