Vervago Publications

“Precision Questioning:
A New Form of Intellectual Leadership” (coming soon)
by Dennis Matthies and Monica Worline
In some of today’s most successful companies are leaders who rose up from the ranks in technical fields like engineering, science, medicine, or finance. In their early days they were recognized as having world-class intellectual skills. The high standards for critical thinking that served these leaders so well in the first stages of their careers are the same high standards they apply now as they review policies, products, and strategies. They are ‘thought leaders’ in their companies, not by virtue of having the best ideas, but by virtue of setting the highest bar for when the thinking is finished.

Inside PQ companies an intellectual milieu is being created that rivals, and in many ways outstrips, what is found in the world’s best universities. In response to the relentless increase in complexity, these companies are breeding a form of quick acuity, the essence of which is Precision Questioning.

“Precision Questioning: A New Form of Intellectual Leadership” will help you understand these executives and the companies they create. To read more, click here. (PDF)

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“The Precision Questioning Handbook” (coming soon)
by Dennis Matthies, Robert Stocking, and Felix Tsai
In today’s business environment, with its relentless increase in complexity, organizations face intense pressure to think and learn at increasingly higher levels. For over a decade, a number of global corporations have used Precision Questioning to respond to this pressure. Precision Questioning (PQ) is a one-question-one-answer discussion format used to ensure better analysis. In PQ, the questioner uses precise questions to quickly get to the heart of an issue, expose weaknesses in thinking, and bring key unknowns to the surface. PQ is used in problem solving and decision making, and it plays a crucial role in executive reviews where the standards for Precision Answering (PA) are particularly high.

“The Precision Questioning Handbook” shows you how to put PQ and PA into practice and includes:

• A detailed description of the PQ format for discussion and its internal logic.
• Tools for self-assessment of skill level at PQ and PA.
• Breakdown of the competencies that PQ requires, such as getting to the heart of the matter, surfacing key unknowns, and judging credibility.
• Practice with the seven basic categories of analytic questions.
• Practice with the most difficult aspects of Precision Answering, including bullet point answers and the appropriate use of qualifiers.
• For individuals and teams, workouts designed to build specific core competencies.
• Simple techniques for responding to colleagues who seem unable to perform PA.
• Tips and advice for the PQ manager.
• Advice for interacting with PQ executives.
• Organization checklists. What fosters or discourages the exercise of PQ competencies? To what extent is your organization question-friendly? Question-driven?
  

Click here to be notified of book publication