According to research, a four year old child asks more than 300 questions a day. Why? Why this? Why that? Why not? Why do we do it like this?
They question everything. Even the most obvious. Especially the obvious.
Somewhere along the path to becoming a CEO, we lose that habit. We stop asking naive questions. We stop challenging the basics. We stop interrogating what “everyone knows”.
And that is where strategic thinking starts to decline. The CEO Trap is Sophisticated Answers to Unquestioned Assumptions. Senior leaders are rewarded for having answers.
But real strategic maturity is not about having better answers. It is about asking better questions. Like a four year old! Why do we structure the organisation this way? Why do we serve this customer segment? Why do we price like this? Why do we accept these margins? Why do we tolerate this cost base? Why have we “always” done it this way?
Often the most powerful strategic insights come from questioning what looks obvious. And obvious questions often reveal non obvious problems.
The Gorilla on the Basketball Court
There is a famous experiment where participants are asked to count basketball passes. In the middle of the game, a person in a gorilla suit walks across the court. Most people do not see the gorilla. Why? Because they are focused on counting passes.
Organisations do the same. They focus on quarterly targets, reporting cycles, KPIs, projects. And they stop seeing the gorillas.
This is why consultants can sometimes be useful. Yes, unbelievable, they can :) Not because they are smarter. But because they ask questions insiders stopped asking. They see what professionals immersed in day to day operations no longer see. They question the status quo. And that is uncomfortable. They challenge “We’ve Always Done It That Way”.
So like a four year old, you must challenge the organisation logic. Why is this the dominant business model? Why is this the standard pricing structure? Why is this how value is created and captured? Why is this cost considered “fixed”? Why is this function organised like that?
Often the most powerful strategic tool is simply "business common sense". Unlike it name implies, business common sense is not that common. Few leadership teams truly re examine:
• How the company acquires clients
• How it creates value
• How it captures value
• How it spends money
• How it allocates capital
• How decisions are really made
Etc.
There is no such thing as a stupid question in strategy. There are only unasked ones. So Be Dumb. On Purpose. Strategic thinking requires intellectual humility. It requires the courage to look naive. To ask: Explain this to me again. Why exactly do we believe this? What if the opposite were true? What would a new entrant question immediately? If we started today from scratch, would we build it this way?
The best CEOs I have worked with are not the ones with the fastest answers. They are the ones comfortable sitting in questions longer than others. They challenge the obvious. They revisit fundamentals. They are willing to sound “dumb”. And that makes them strategically sharp!
Let the Child In
So here is a simple discipline for you and your executive team. In your next strategy discussion. let the child in you ask 300 questions. Because in strategy, finding the real problem is often half of the solution.
And sometimes the most powerful move a CEO can make is to dare to look dumb for long enough to see what everyone else has stopped seeing.
Author: Anael Granoux | Strategy Advisor, Lecturer, Speaker