I. Questions about the past

A. Performance

• How has this organization performed in the past? How do people in the organization think it has performed?
• How were goals set? Were they insufficiently or overly ambitious?
• Were internal or external benchmarks used?
• What measures were employed? What behaviors did they encourage and discourage?
• What happened if goals were not met?
• If performance has been good, why has that been the case?
• What have been the relative contributions of the organization’s strategy, its structure, its technical capabilities, its culture, and its politics?
• If performance has been poor, why has that been the case? Do the primary issues reside in the organization’s strategy? Its structure? Its technical capabilities? Its cultures? Its politics?
• What efforts have been made to change the organization? What happened?
• Who has been instrumental in shaping this organization?
• What is the stated vision and strategy of the organization?
• Is it really pursuing that strategy? If not, why not?  If so, is the strategy going to take the organization where it needs to go?
• Who is capable and who is not?
• Who can be trusted and who cannot?
• Who has influence and why?
• What are the key processes of the organization?
• Are they performing acceptably in terms of quality, reliability, and timeliness? If not, why not?

II. Questions about the present

• In what areas (people, relationships, processes, or products) can you achieve some early wins?
• What are the best methods to communicate those wins?
• In what areas is the business most likely to face stiff challenges in the coming year? What can be done now to prepare for them?
• What are the most promising unexploited opportunities? What would need to happen to realize their potential?
• What are the most formidable barriers to making needed changes? Are they technical? Cultural? Political?
• Are there islands of excellence or other high-quality resources that you can leverage?
• What new capabilities of the culture should be preserved?
• Which elements of the culture should be preserved?
• Which elements need to change?