I just saw today that there is a revised edition of Peter Drucker’s book on MANAGEMENT. Drucker was certainly the management guru of all gurus and master of simplicity. (Although MANAGEMENT is 568 pages!)
It reminded me of my favorite Drucker book which is THE 5 MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS YOU WILL EVER ASK ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION. Jim Collins, Philip Kotler and Francis Hesselbein all contributed here.
Here are Drucker’s 5 self-assessment questions:
1. WHAT IS OUR MISSION?
2. WHO IS OUR CUSTOMER?
3. WHAT DOES THE CUSTOMER VALUE?
4. WHAT ARE OUR RESULTS?
5. WHAT IS OUR PLAN?
I love Peter Drucker’s thinking and his ‘stuff’. Although he has positioned these 5 questions for any ‘ORGANIZATION’, I think they could be slightly re-worded or re-positioned for all FOR IMPACT ORGANIZATIONS.
1. WHAT IS OUR PURPOSE?
Vision. Impact. Mission. Reason for our Existence. Highest Level of Engagement.
2. WHO DO WE IMPACT?
Directly. Indirectly. Ripple Effect. Individuals, Families, Community, Diaspora, the World.
3. WHAT ARE OUR PRIORITIES?
Goals. 3 Circles. 3 Buckets. Focus.
4. WHAT IS OUR PLAN?
Action Plan. Funding Plan. Math.
5. WHO SHOULD INVEST?
Impact Drives Income. Ideal Profile. Master Prospect List.
Obviously, I’m not Drucker. He was brilliant, produced 40 books and thousands of articles before he died at 2005 at the age of 95.
However, I wanted to re-work these 5 Questions in a way that you could utilize them immediately. It always amazes Nick and me in working with some incredible organizations that they would have trouble with ANY of these 5 questions. The fact is, almost no organization we’ve ever worked with has thought out simple answers, that are clear, concise and compelling, to these questions..
Once you’ve thought about these ‘answers’… you can turn them into a wonderful PRESENTATON TOOL around PURPOSE, PRIORITIES and PLAN.
