Thursday, July 24, 1997

Consultants ask: What is your company's dirty little secret?

By MARCIA H. POUNDS / Sun-Sentinel, South Florida

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - What would your organization be like if your mother ran it?

What is your company's dirty little secret?

What department do you find to be irrational, deranged and in need of intensive group therapy?

These are the kind of provocative - and often amusing - questions that can be found in a new book, "75 Cage-Rattling Questions to Change the Way You Work" (McGraw-Hill, 14.95).

The book is the brainchild of Dick Whitney and Melissa Giovagnoli, both Chicago-based consultants who use shake-'em-up questions to "open meetings, ignite discussion and spark creativity."

"Look at children. They ask 200-plus questions a day. They have a rapid rate of growth," Whitney said. "(Adults) get to ask 10 to 15 questions a day. No wonder we stop learning."

Employees can use this process for self-discovery, he said. Whitney said it pays to ask questions in today's performance-driven corporate culture.

"We're compensated for getting to answers quickly."

In a group setting, Whitney recommends that someone with expertise from outside the company facilitate the discussion. "Take them outside the culture, outside the business constraints," he said.

Being consultants, Whitney and Giovagnoli describe their question process in an acronym, ASK:

-- A for awaken, or igniting discussion.

-- S for spin cycle, which refers to following up with lots of other questions to arrive at a deeper level.

-- K for kindle, or action steps that address the issues raised.

The facilitator must gain the trust of those participating.

"If you don't assure them confidentiality, you're out of business," Whitney said.

Management should not use the discussions for a specific solution, but to get people to open up.

"It's great for relieving tensions, for breaking down some of those political barriers, for finding out what is important or not important, and for just general release," Whitney said.

Some questions address the underlying culture of a company:

-- What games do you have to play to get on the right side of people who matter in your company?

"These are things that people think about on a regular basis, but talk about only at home or outside the company or in a limited group within the company," Whitney said.

"If we can get out on the table what is really bugging employees, then we can marry it up with what management thinks. Often there is a big disconnect with what management thinks is going on and what is really going on in the company."

In discussing the "mother question," Whitney directed the question toward a woman who wasn't participating.

She burst out with, "I'm afraid my mother wouldn't be very proud of me." It turned out she was being asked to do unethical things at work and feared for her job.

Some questions put employees in the shoes of management:

-- Top management is wiped out by a tidal wave at their annual retreat in Bora Bora. Your team is put in charge. How would you change things?

Employees get their opinions out with this question, but also discover "just what a tough job management has," he said.

A few questions in the book I found silly, such as: What would appear bizarre, shocking or amazing to a Martian visiting you at work?

"There are certain groups that can really get into that (question). There are engineers at some high-tech companies who would really run with that. Some people I've worked with at advertising agencies would find that kind of ordinary," Whitney said.

Sometimes, the discussion just doesn't work. "If a group fights it all, we just shut it down. You can't force-feed it. To some it may appear silly and not businesslike enough," he said.

The cage-rattling concept is not intended as a one-time seminar, but for use on a regular basis, Whitney said. "It's an attitude and process of questioning everything. Ask a cage-rattling question on a daily basis. Once you do that you start to discover things, you start to grow."