3 Questions that will help every L&D professional

“Now, what should we do?” asked the Vice President to me. I was young and in the early days of my career in Learning & Development. For me, every problem had to be a learning solution. I diligently picked up words like trust, team bonding, friction, delay in deliverables and quickly suggested a workshop. When I look back, I realize how impatient and a bad listener I was. Soon I was on the next flight, traveling to where the teams were. Got a 90%+ feedback for my workshops. Six months later, I received a call from the same Vice President who said disappointingly, that he did not see any visible change in the way the team operated.

I felt miserable that night. After years in the L&D space, I thought I knew what I was offering, until I was introduced to this concept of 3 questions:

What? (History)

So, what? (Impact)

Now what? (Solution)

WHAT happened?

It is important to know the history of the problem. Asking questions like the ones below would give a complete understanding of the problem.

• When did it start?

• What was it like before it started?

• What do you think led to this?

SO, WHAT happened?

It is important to understand the impact of the problem on people or on the culture. Probe more and paraphrase often for more clarity. Identifying areas which should be focussed on the most is critical for the early wins. You can only impact what you can measure!

NOW WHAT should happen?

Thorough diagnosis in the above steps 1 & 2 would help to provide the best solution. Jumping the earlier steps would lead to patchy, temporary fixes and short-term solutions.

“Allow me to deep dive again and I will come back with some long term solution…” I requested the Vice President. This time with the newly acquired knowledge and a firm validation from several others involved, we realized that managers who were managing their teams were the ones who were creating nuisance and needed coaching and development (not training!). This was the first time in my career, where I did not rush to provide any training and yet experienced the satisfaction of having arrived at the right solution.

What has been your experience like?