Workforce Innovation Lab

A great article in Forbes Magazine lists 100 Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Be Asking, many of which are applicable to us in workforce development. 

Here's my list of the Top 10 Questions we should be asking ourselves as we think about our workforce programs and services. 

1. What counts that we are not counting?

We have our standard performance measures, but we know that they don't capture everything we do, nor do they give us all the information we need to improve our work. So what else do we need to be measuring and paying attention to?

2. Are we changing as fast as the world around us? 

A big issue for us. How are our people, systems and processes keeping pace with the changes in our world? What are we doing to make sure that we are able to keep up?

3. What should we stop doing?

Something we should be asking ourselves regularly. 

4. Do we underestimate the customer's journey?

When was the last time we went through the entire process a customer must go through to access and utilize our services? How have we underestimated how hard we may make it for them to get what they need? Is every hoop we put in front of them REALLY necessary?

5. What happens in our organization when people fail? 

Great success comes when we take risks. We often fail along the way. How we treat failures and the people who fail is indicative of our attitude toward risk.

6. Do our employees have the opportunity to do their best every day?

Are we playing to employee strengths? Are we doing what needs to be done to create an environment where our people can feel successful most days? If not, what needs to change?

7. What was the last experiment we ran?

Innovation comes from experimenting, trying things out. Are we continually and actively experimenting? What could we do to encourage a culture of experimentation?

8. What potential market trends could make our organization obsolete? Will we be relevant 5 years from now? 

Taking some time to really consider the trends in the world and how they may impact us is critical if we want to keep up with changes. 

9. What are the rules and assumptions our industry operates under? What if the opposite were true? 

Some very interesting ideas can come from exploring these questions. What are the underlying assumptions in workforce development? And what if the opposite is true?

10. How do we stay inspired?

It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of tasks and to-do lists. But customers respond best when we act from a place of inspiration and when we are able to inspire them. What do we do to inspire ourselves and to pass those inspirations on to our customers? 

What are  your thoughts? How would your organization answer these questions?