6 Questions About CHANGE

• NOTHING is perfect!

• NO ONE has the answer!

• EVERYONE wants CHANGE!

Perhaps that is why marriages don’t last, churches are biligerently different, businesses aren’t profitable, cities aren’t hospitable, politics have replaced statesmanship. and governments aren’t friendly.

If we all seek ‘answers’ – then there must be ‘questions’ from which answers would of course result. Instead, we are often busy seeking ways to be heard – rather than listening. And if listening for the best answers is the better approach, shouldn’t we be seeking the BEST ‘questions’ (like that one for instance)?. For anything to change, some things have to be decided first:

• Who gets to decide (representation)
• How will they(we) decide (objectivity)
• Who gets the benefits of the change (impacts)
• When will the changes take effect (priority)
• And, there are certainly more questions…

In their recent book ‘How The Wise Decide‘, authors Aaron Sandoski and Bryn Zeckhauser provide six fundamental principles that are consistently used by the successful leaders whom they studied. Their observations confirmed that these six concepts are both true and useful for anyone, universally:

• Go to the Source
• Fill a Room with Barbarians
• Conquer the Fear of Risk
• Make Vision Your Daily Guide
• Listen with Purpose
• Be Transparent

If those are true for business, how would they work for government, city councils, non-profits, fraternal or religious groups, or even our individual thought patterns? That is another good question. How would our relationships, communities, or nations work if we were consistently guided in those principals, in that process, and toward the proven benefit of ’success’? What core questions can give us those answers, those results?.

The conviction to find those questions is a challenge I embraced after reflecting on broken conversations, broken relationships, broken processes, broken companies, broken churches, broken governance, and the broken lives that lay in the wake of all those patterns of broken thinking. Again, I do not wish to lay claim, just reflect that in my own parallel experience I too am a believer, witness, and recipient of the missed opportunities of the past.

However, I am also now aware of the unlimited power that is possible in the future by these truths and the ‘profound’ questions that could change our way of thinking – about our beliefs, about each other, about our world.

Turns out that it may take only six simple and familiar questions to change our way of thinking – for good. Since four questions form the core process, I have called it ASK4™ – for now. The other two questions relate to us as people – on which the process depends and for whom the benefits accrue. The questions can be used as a way to:

• Make Vision My Daily Guide – goal-focused (hurdle-aware)
• Fill a Room with Barbarians – relish others’ opinions
• Conquer the Fear of Risk – allow for unlimited outcomes
• Go to the Source – drop my ‘because’/get to the root cause
• Listen with Purpose – retain vision while allowing for options
• Be Transparent – accept my limits and seek the highest good

By viewing the world through the simple 6-question lens, it is possible to easily and consistently engage these principles in any situation to:

• Normalize the perspective – to enable any participant at any level in any culture/language to describe THEIR situation/need/or offer
• Formalize the process – for collecting everyone’s feedback so that forward progress can be initiated/tracked/completed/measured
• Legitimize participants – by evaluating and then endorsing those thought leaders who cooperate to craft viable solutions
• Recognize the contributors – reward champions for their support
• Optimize performance – engage, manage, and enhance a continuous improvement process and monitor its pertinent results
• Organize involvement– so that everyone can share in the creation of viable solutions

- so that we all can…

• Realize – these same cooperative benefits, globally

As now defined ASK4™ is useful as a tool for process improvement. It can also become a powerful online tool for ‘crowd-sourcing’. It does change our conversations, it will change our collaboration, it can change our consensus, or even CHANGE – our world.

We’ll see…

What’s about YOU? – care to comment?

- dare to COOPERATE?

NOTE: While this website is my personal initiative, the ASK4™ approach is a participant-managed collaboration platform and the U-Netted Nations™ is the result of our ‘Collaboration On Purpose’. My voice becomes one in a million – immediately.

ASK4™ CAN BE…

(THE QUESTIONS THAT FIND…)

THE ANSWERS YOU NEED!

Free Press (or SupPress)

Democratic Convention or ‘Autocratic Contention”. Right-or-Left (or right-or-wrong, ’sin’-or-’spin’), the offset is the same:

Opinions are important – and so are outcomes!

That’s why information is so important to making critical decisions. Ask anyone and you will get an opinion – or two. Then ask for the reason behind their opinion and you will eventually uncover some vested interest, the true desire that is being leveraged ‘because..’ that need is what is REALLY wanted. We need to be on the critical path toward the actual benefit. Instead, we waste our energy on misplaced efforts based on some mis-stated intentions.

What’s the ‘carbon footprint’ of misinformation?

Why wouldn’t it be better to actually ’state’ the real issue, identify the real cause, address that real need, and create real and lasting solutions? If information is the ‘vehicle’, then perhaps it has to do with how we’re ‘driving’.

Who is at the wheel, and where are ‘they’ taking us..?

Imagine getting on a bus marked ‘Downtown’ and arriving instead at the dead end of some country road. Recent interest in ‘The Press’ has begun to uncover the accidental if not intentional collusion of those who would ’suppress’ or overlook important insights, invite us on board with their ‘weighted’ opinions, and then wrongfully take us to uninformed conclusions, ineffective decisions, and unintended results. What information leads us to global decisions that lead us to wars? What influences are behind the efforts to place troops in harms way – or even call them home again, perhaps before ultimate victory? How could Hillary have lost to Barrack? What insight has been ‘overlooked‘ that perhaps even now could change results – if it was uncovered, remained unbiased, and then made public to everyone’s benefit?

Whether personal, secular, religious, political, or governmental, any incremental ‘white lie’ (or mis-statement that we might overlook as just ’spin’) always aggregates to a larger mis-perception, and eventually to some level of ‘tyranny’. Unfortunately, our personal DECISION processes, including our political systems and voting choices, ride on this broken vehicle, delivering us to unintended locations and even greater peril.

It has to stop – and today is the ONLY time we are alloted!

Tomorrow we will have already been mislead by managed news channels, today’s biased pundits (’spin doctors’?) and their misplaced or intentional beguiling. Our destiny may already be some unintended location from which there may be no easy return.

We can’t stop some global tyranny without addressing personal responsibility – OURS (not theirs). We (each) need to know the truth and share the truth so we can each act in our individual and collective interest.

We can not collectively get to the truth by being ‘politically correct’ and agreeing to overlook those little ‘unimportant’ nuances that serve the other person ‘because…’ that’s where they want us to go – for their self-interest.

Our challenge is always ‘to challenge’..! The truth will surface.

Clearly, obviating the truth can result in lack of clarity, confusion, or even powerful propaganda to re-direct the minds and decisions of those who ‘count’ (or vote). Are you impressed, suppressed, depressed – ?

• Whose opinion shapes your decisions?
• Whose ‘bus’ are you riding -where is it REALLY going?
• Why aren’t YOU ‘driving’ your own thought processes?
• Where are you currently – need a ride back ‘downtown’..?

Maybe it’s time to ASK4™ it..

What’s about YOU? – care to comment?

- dare to COOPERATE?

NOTE: While this website is my personal initiative, the ASK4™ approach is a participant-managed collaboration platform and the U-Netted Nations™ is the result of our ‘Collaboration On Purpose’. My voice becomes one in a million – immediately.

ASK4™ CAN BE…

(THE QUESTIONS THAT FIND…)

THE ANSWERS YOU NEED!

Gold Medal!

…or DISQUALIFIED!! Olympic contenders fear that word – and so should the rest of us. “Unfit to Compete” – imagine being suspended for such a reason. Yet, according to the United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (www.ahrq.gov), “all US adults could be overweight in 40 years”.

While that is serious enough, there is a parallel universe of contenders, in business. Their habits of ‘excess’ have positioned them in exactly the same place where their ability to compete is diminished. They are too top-heavy in management or carrying too large a ’spare tire’ of unproductive personnel who follow antiquated ‘training’, inefficient processes, and the like. While some struggle and defend their inability to loose this ‘poundage’, others have found ways to trim budgets and become ‘lean’ and more ‘agile’ in their practices. Most have done so by returning to a proven diet of basic ‘food groups’ of business importance. And in an interesting parallel, many of those same thought leaders have also realized the business benefits of that same healthy approach in the lifestyles of their personnel. They have all found that common basic solution. rather than giving up and quitting.

Seth Goodin in his book – ‘The DIP‘ looks (perhaps as one-of-a-kind) on the subject of ‘quitting’. Having been trained on a diet of “try-try-try”, the mere subject made me reluctant to consider its contents. What became clear after listening to his video interview – is that

true Olympians don’t practice everyone else’s sport.

They first consider their chances – and then focus on ONLY their own skill – to its excellence. Individually they can be at their best, and collectively as a team they can then rack up more ‘gold’ than competitors.

We need that Olympic reminder every four years. Somewhere along the way to life’s ‘games’, many have abandoned some of those principles – in favor of letting everyone ‘train’ everyone else to ‘eat’ whatever they want, letting anyone ‘participate’, and then giving everyone a ‘medal’. What that may be leading to is not only unhealthy individuals but also

unproductive companies and even indefensible nations.

As we enter the new relationship economy, the online global competition can uncover every possible flaw in our ‘routines’, openly, in front of the entire world, and in a matter of seconds. While we may prefer a quick fix or cosmetic surgery cover-up, the new transparency of the internet will expose how out-of-shape we truly are – individually and collectively. It will dynamically measure how we adjust to each other as team members and our global standings as well.

The challenge – and the opportunity – all lie in how we accept our individual responsibility to become ‘fit’ for this global competition.

We will all participate. We will all be judged. And…

Someone will win!

The question is:

How can we train to qualify – so we can at least compete?

ASK4™ CAN BE…

(THE QUESTIONS THAT FIND…)

THE ANSWERS YOU NEED!

PLEASE NOTE: While this website is my personal initiative, the ASK4™ approach is a participant-managed collaboration platform and the U-Netted Nations™ is the result of our ‘Collaboration On Purpose’. My voice becomes one in a million – immediately.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? – CARE TO COMMENT?

- DARE TO COOPERATE?

A Pattern for Progress

Piled high on the heap of human experience is the visible evidence of our misplaced effort and ineffective decisions. Perhaps forgotten are the words of prophets and sages.

Visible to those who will look closely are the patterns of information, insight, consensus, and initiative that resulted in each set of historical conditions. Taken as a model, that sequence can afford the incremental benefits that can aggregate to sustainable progress. Ignored, the results will testify to individual ignorance, global waste.

No matter what the situation or condition or issue, certain core things are common and can easily be described, evaluated, proposed, adjusted or initiated, and then considered again to ensure forward progress. Since each such structured approach creates a resulting end-point, other similarly structured components can be leveraged off that prior foundation. Repeat that consistently and your incremental insight becomes organized infrastructure, enterprise management, global value.

Let’s convert that to reality. In his book ‘Business School for People Who Like Helping People’ – Robert Kyosaki presents his tetrahedron model of the learning pyramid. It is composed of four elements of information or facets of knowledge. Ever wonder why a university was comprised of four colleges – that have attendees that also represent four personalities?  Perhaps each person (type) is a ready-made component that can assimilate well in one of four dimensions but share a convergent quest to better serve together in their aggregated world.

Do they want group consensus – help them find and share individual insight. Want them to launch large initiatives – help them manage each of their individual activities. There has to be a model and it must be effective in its smallest dimension to have integrity at its ultimate aggregated infrastructure design.

Do they want better government and (less ‘politics’) – help them to choose STATESMEN (not mere politicians). Do they want democracy and liberty for all – help them prevent individual anarchy. Anarchy ignores the model of cooperation, and its lack of ethics treads on the rights of others – at all levels.

The model itself can also become tyranny – if it is not kept true to form at the basic design element level. Each decision has to be both formalized and co-managed by ALL those it is designed to represent. Nothing can be added to or taken from its core structure or it no longer fits everyone – or works for anyone.

What is that minimal structure that can:

share divergent insight objectively

represent all stakeholders equitably

find uniform consensus on root cause

spawn initiatives that are sustainable

and above all, prevent the tyranny of excess constraint?

There are only four questions that apply to the incremental level and they can be scaled to the aggregate infrastructure level as well. Used as a way of thinking, I will gain insight. Shared as a means for our discussion, we can create a vision. As the basis of our collaboration, we can find a consensus. Mapped to our activity, it gives us focused direction. Polled against our initiatives it measures our progress. And should anything occur that is not to our individual or group liking, we can all check it against its own core design for clarification, resolution, and convergence into our co-managed decisions and self-improving results. It supports meaningful change – 24/7/365.

It’ so simple that anyone could have thought of it – and some may already have. What they may not have noticed is that it has a familiar approach. The only rules are that WE must all ‘ASK4′ it.

ASK4™ CAN BE…

(THE QUESTIONS THAT FIND…)

THE ANSWERS YOU NEED!

PLEASE NOTE: While this website is my personal initiative, the ASK4™ approach is a participant-managed collaboration platform and the U-Netted Nations™ is the result of our ‘Collaboration On Purpose’. My voice becomes one in a million – immediately.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? – CARE TO COMMENT?

- DARE TO COOPERATE?

Whose Fault?

This ‘tennis’ commercial for The Ladders (online resumes) depicts job search as a tennis match – with few if any rules, and everyone getting in on the game – ALL at once.

Imagine yourself somewhere in this picture. You are…in the game – and someone’s at fault!

This metaphor has many more applications, like showing the current state of the internet – social networking in particular. Everyone wants to be on the court – serving up their opinion or offering, standing behind the net that separates them from the ‘other side’, or trying to referee others who have served up something that is clearly out of bounds – “FAULT!!”…

Problem is (in WEB 2.0), there is no pre-qualification, no boundaries, no rules for winning, no game plan. Consider the Infosphere of the internet in which anyone can utter those words that pre-announce our fateful demise: “Here, hold my beer and watch this…”. Seen the latest idiot’s 15 seconds of infamy video?

Online I can out-shout you, can out-rant you, can out-perform you,,, ad nausea and etcetera. In the freedom that came with this self-publishing world, anyone can say anything, anytime, to anyone else – often with little positive effect. While rushing to have a say in the infinite open space of the web, we forgot to notice that total democracy can equate to total anarchy.

Who’s at fault for all that – WE are.

But ‘we’ can’t change that – unless ‘I’ choose to do so – and come to understand and appreciate and adhere to at least a few simple agreements.

How can “I” change all that? One insight at a time! One conversation at a time! One consensus at a time! One decision at a time! One initiative at a time! Then having done that, one re-consideration at a time!

Are you that ‘ONE’ ?

The realization that content is only as useful as its relevance is now at the forefront of the Semantic WEB 3.0. We are now advancing (back) to the structured approach that partitions our conversations and sequences our steps toward progress. Any database architect or project manager could have seen this dilemma coming and offered an insight if not a solution, if anyone was paying attention. Its hard to be heard as an ‘official’ when (virtually) everyone (else) is also in charge. For now there is no universally recognized approach. That will have to be one of the first things to change, and then keep changing.

It is nice to want to give everyone some playing time. But to do so at least requires a defined court, a defined manner and time to play, some means of determining official results so the next players can take the court as well.

• Who should define that? – WE should.
• Who should get to play? – WE should.
• Who should call foul? – WE should

What will that new ‘game’ look like? (in terms of WEB 3.0)

• Imagine a single portal through which you can express yourself freely
• Imagine an awareness of everyone’s ideas within a global perspective
• Imagine an economy in which your needs and expertise are valued
• Imagine a community in which your relationships are enhanced
• Imagine a self-correcting process of self-governance, globally
• Imagine everyone adhering to and benefiting from cooperation
• Imagine cooperation coming from consensus, shared insight
• Imagine shared insight coming from objective collaboration
• Imagine just enough structure to co-manage conversations
• Imagine that all you had to do was “ASK for it”…
• Imagine yourself as a U-Netted Nations citizen
• Imagine consistently getting what you need
• Imagine supplying what others desire
• Imagine who could win? – WE should!

Game On..?

ASK4™ CAN BE…

(THE QUESTIONS THAT FIND…)

THE ANSWERS YOU NEED!

PLEASE NOTE: While this website is my personal initiative, the ASK4™ approach is a participant-managed collaboration platform and the U-Netted Nations™ is the result of our ‘Collaboration On Purpose’. My voice becomes one in a million – immediately.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? – CARE TO COMMENT?

- DARE TO COOPERATE?