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Put simply, I want to know what changes they would like to see between now and some imaginable time in the future. A year from now is sufficiently long to make a change, but not so far into the future to be put off by the abstraction of it. I’m asking them to establish a goal relative to the level of energy and effort they intend to expend over the coming twelve months. In some ways, I’m asking how they define success for their efforts.
Depending on the circumstance and my relationship to the person, I’m asking about what role they expect me to play in that change. This question signals, “You have my attention, you have my participation, what do you expect to be different with me here?” Moreover, it reframes a problem (what is wrong right now) to an opportunity (what do you want to strive for)?
This question works on a number of levels for a variety of circumstances. I can ask a project stakeholder about what changes they expect on their project over the course of a year. I can ask a mentee what they expect to get out of our coaching arrangement. I can ask my manager what changes they expect to see in my performance following a performance review or career planning session. Ultimately, this question is for people undertaking, participating in, or observing activities intending to bring about change. This question is for people who know these activities will be valuable, but may not have imagined what change they will bring about.
Often people know what they want to do but not what change they can or should expect from doing it. Follow-up questions can help them tease out the likely consequences of the actions they intend to take, perhaps even encouraging them to revisit their plans. On the other hand, they might know what changes they want to see in the world, but are too ambitious or unrealistic about their expectations. Saying it out loud and then connecting their desired changes with the anticipated activities is the first step in developing a more realistic plan.
I like hearing a person’s vision of their future, or their project’s future, after they’ve laid out the problem. After they’ve told me everything that’s going wrong, in that moment I ask about how they expect things to be different. This question is the perfect fulcrum from what the problem is to what they’re doing about it.
While we want to work toward the question, “What can I do to help bring about this change?” it’s worth exploring the desired change itself. It’s likely necesseary to validate their response, to find out why they want things to look a certain way a year from now.
If I’m talking to someone named Cass about their career growth and it’s January 2022, I might frame the question like this:
How is January 2023 Cass different from January 2022 Cass?
There’s something powerful – tangible, achievable – about placing the person themselves into that picture of the future.
ALTERNATE