Do you have a challenge process?

Your business strategy deserves disciplined scrutiny.

THINK ON IT: Do you have a challenge process?

Your business strategy is so important, it should be challenged. In fact, as a leader you should demand it receive deep and critical scrutiny from your team.

Leaders who want to develop the best strategy for their business will not only welcome critique, they’ll create a process to encourage it.

Do you have a challenge process in your company? 

We all know that the elephant in the room can be a tricky thing to manage. Employees need to trust that their feedback — especially their critical feedback — won’t be met with resentment or retribution. 

But having a formal challenge process goes beyond just tearing down those elephant no-talk zones. It’s a critical discipline to apply to your strategy building to encourage your team’s best thinking. 

A formal challenge process does three things:

1. It establishes a norm and expectation that your most important business issues will require critical thinking from your team. 

2. It develops your team’s ability to think deeply rather than just reactively.

3. It establishes the way in which critique will be discussed and resolved, minimizing criticism that often takes place outside of the meeting.

Deploying a formal challenge process also cultivates a vital element to a successful strategy: buy-in. When employees are not only invited, but expected to challenge ideas, it frees everyone to get their best ideas on the table. And when your team ideas are heard in the planning process, they’re more likely to get behind the final product.

Every leader knows that even the best strategy, without buy-in and execution, is just wishful thinking.

Premium members: Read on for some ways to create a challenge process for your most important business issues. Become a Premium Member.

“The important thing is not to stop asking questions.” — Albert Einstein

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