Questions are the foundation of improvement. Yet, we often approach our jobs as if all the questions have already been asked and answered. It’s human nature: you work through a problem, find a solution that eases the challenge or yields good results, implement it, and it becomes “the way you do it.”

But consider the discipline of continually questioning the status quo. Most people are creatures of habit. Imagine the power of challenging those habits daily. Imagine the advantage, as an individual or a company, if we make asking questions a regular practice. Here are a few examples to get started:

– What’s the greatest safety hazard that confronts me today?
– How can I improve my product or service to delight my customers?
– What do my customers think about my service?
– How much of my workday is truly productive? How can I increase throughput?
– Who is the best at my job in our plant, and what makes them so effective?
– What does that part cost, and when was the last time I checked prices?
– What detail about my machine’s operation could I learn to improve its performance?
– What keeps breaking down? Do other plants face the same challenges?

You get the idea. Try adding questions into your day-to-day routine. Experiment with a new approach. Learn a skill. Make a mistake trying something different. Form a new hypothesis. Even ask for a discount. Make “asking” your new habit, and it will set you apart.

-Howe Q. Wallace Jr