Understanding and job alignment are two keys to high performance. Executives often face a difficult challenge of explaining their company’s business in a simple format.

The Business Model Canvas helps solve this problem. In a single page, the canvas captures:

1. Key partners
2. Key activities
3. Key resources
4. Value proposition
5. Customer relationships
6. Channels
7. Customer segments
8. Cost structure
9. Revenue streams

Originally designed for business brainstorming, we see useful applications for explaining the big picture to employees and engaging them in the process of improving all business functions. It’s a document that executives can use for presentations, leave with employees after meetings, and post in public spaces around the company.

As a bonus, it’s a useful strategic planning document for the executives to use in retreats and other strategy sessions.

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Next time you’re away from a computer and have a question, try texting Google SMS for the answer. Simply text your query to 46645 (GOOGL on most phones), and Google will send you a restaurant listing, look up the definition of a word, find the price of a product, or even calculate a tip.

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Next time you hold a brainstorming session, try emphasizing quantity over quality. Many creativity experts recommend setting a goal and a time limit for the session to stimulate the flow of ideas, e.g. 100 ideas in 20 minutes. Having a quantity goal also prevents you from judging ideas immediately, which is creativity killer.

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Next time you are struggling in a brainstorming process, try using the SCAMPER method to increase the flow of ideas. Each letter in the word stands for a different way to think about your challenge. “S” means to substitute ideas as you examine a challenge, “C” means to combine parts of the problem, and so on. 

• S  Substitute: Think about a way to substitute part of your product/process for something else. 
• C  Combine: Think about combining two or more parts of your problem to achieve a different product/process. 
• A  Adapt: Think about which parts of the product/process could be adapted to remove the problem or change the nature of the product/process. 
• M  Modify: Think about modifying part or all of the current situation, or to distort it in an unusual way. This process often prompts you to think of an alternative product/process. 
• P  Put to other purposes: Think of how you might be able to put your current solution/product/process to other purposes. You might think of another way of solving your own problem or finding another market for your product. 
• E  Eliminate: Think of what might happen if you eliminated various parts of the product/process and consider what you might do in that situation. 
• R  Reverse/rearrange: Think of what you would do if part of your product/process worked in reverse or happened in a different order. You can use this to see your problem from different angles and come up with new ideas. 

Read more about SCAMPER .

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You’ve most likely heard the story about the executive ranting and raving at a meeting about why his company’s scientifically engineered dog food is not selling as projected. Other executives speculate about far-flung reasons until one young salesperson in the back asks, “Um, sir, do dogs like it?”

That is the power of great questions. They make brainstorming more productive. They set the stage of constructive debate. They inspire.

• Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.
• To be or not to be? That is the _____.

Our New Year’s resolution for 2004 is to ask better questions.

According to creativity expert and author Michael Michalko, the key to better questions is transforming them into a challenge using the phrase “in what ways can we…”

How can we increase sales? might become In what ways can we reward our best customers and increase their business? Instead of How do we improve employee morale?, you might use In what ways can we motivate employees during stressful peak periods?

The CEO of Winter Garden Salads most likely used a similar train of thought when he decided to give employees a $50 bonus before the holiday rush. The change in philosophy led to a 50 percent increase in productivity.

In what ways can you use the power of questions to improve your business in 2004?

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