by admin | Aug 25, 2026 | Business Tips
Every business experiences problems. Customers complain. Cashflow tightens. Staff leave. Projects run late. Margins shrink. Most leadership teams respond exactly as you would expect. They identify the issue, implement a solution and move on to the next challenge. For a while everything appears to improve. Then, a few months later, the same problem returns. It might have a slightly different appearance but it is fundamentally the same issue.
That is rarely bad luck.
It is usually a sign that the business has treated the symptom rather than addressed the underlying cause.
One of the most valuable questions any business owner can ask is not, “How do we solve this problem?” but, “What problem are we actually trying to solve?” It is a subtle change in language but it fundamentally changes the quality of the discussion. Instead of reacting to the issue in front of you, it forces you to understand why it exists in the first place. That is where meaningful improvement begins.
One of the biggest misconceptions in business is that the visible problem is the real problem. In reality, most business issues are simply signals that something deeper within the organisation needs attention.
Take cashflow as an example. When cash becomes tight, many businesses immediately focus on collecting overdue invoices, extending supplier terms or increasing their overdraft. Those actions may relieve the immediate pressure but they rarely solve the underlying issue. The real cause may be poor pricing, declining margins, inefficient production, excessive inventory, weak project management or an overloaded operation that delays invoicing. Cashflow is simply where the problem eventually becomes visible.
The same pattern appears throughout almost every business. High staff turnover is often blamed on recruitment when the real issue is inconsistent leadership or a poor workplace culture. Declining sales are frequently attributed to the sales team when the real problem is an unclear value proposition or an undifferentiated offering. Customer complaints may seem to indicate poor service when they actually reveal broken internal systems, inconsistent processes or unrealistic expectations.
Symptoms are important because they tell us that something is wrong. They are rarely useful because they tell us what is wrong.
If identifying root causes is so important, why do so many capable business owners continue treating symptoms?
The answer is surprisingly simple. Leadership operates under pressure. Customers expect immediate answers. Employees need decisions. Suppliers want payment. Problems arrive faster than time allows for careful analysis. In that environment, taking action feels productive while investigation can feel like a luxury.
Unfortunately, speed and effectiveness are not always the same thing. A quick solution often provides immediate relief, which reinforces the belief that the problem has been solved. In reality, the underlying system remains unchanged. Eventually the symptom returns and the organisation finds itself investing more time, more money and more energy solving exactly the same issue again.
Over time this creates a culture of firefighting. Leaders become exceptionally good at responding to problems but make very little progress eliminating them. Meetings become dominated by operational issues. Teams become frustrated because familiar challenges keep resurfacing. Improvement slows because attention is continually drawn back to yesterday’s problems instead of tomorrow’s opportunities.
Imagine visiting your doctor with recurring headaches.
A good doctor does not simply prescribe painkillers every time you walk through the door. They ask questions. They examine your lifestyle, medical history, stress levels and other possible contributing factors before recommending treatment. Their objective is not simply to remove the pain. Their objective is to understand why the pain exists.
Business leaders should approach problems with exactly the same discipline.
When a recurring issue appears, resist the temptation to immediately search for a solution. Instead, become curious. Ask what changed. Look for patterns. Examine the processes surrounding the issue. Challenge long-held assumptions. Sometimes the first explanation is correct. More often, it is only the beginning of the investigation.
Businesses improve far more quickly when leaders become skilled diagnosticians rather than highly efficient firefighters.
One of the simplest techniques for uncovering root causes is the Five Whys. Popularised through the Toyota Production System, the technique is exactly what its name suggests. Rather than accepting the first explanation, you continue asking “Why?” until you uncover the underlying issue.
Imagine a business that regularly misses customer delivery dates.
The initial conclusion might be that production scheduling is poor. Asking why reveals that production is constantly falling behind. Asking why again shows that equipment is frequently unavailable. Another why reveals that preventative maintenance is continually postponed. Digging further uncovers that maintenance is postponed because the factory has no spare capacity to stop production. Finally, the business recognises that its real constraint is insufficient production capacity rather than poor scheduling.
Without this disciplined questioning, management might invest months refining production schedules while the underlying capacity constraint continues creating delays. The symptom changes very little because the system producing it has never been improved. This principle sits at the heart of Chapter 2, which encourages leaders to move beyond obvious explanations and identify the true source of recurring business problems.
One of the defining characteristics of high-performing businesses is that they spend less time solving individual problems and more time improving the systems that create results.
Rather than continually responding to customer complaints, they redesign the customer experience. Rather than repeatedly replacing employees, they improve recruitment, onboarding and leadership capability. Rather than chasing cash every month, they strengthen pricing, forecasting and operational efficiency. Rather than blaming individuals, they examine whether the existing processes make success easy or difficult.
This approach requires patience because improving systems usually takes longer than implementing quick fixes. It also produces significantly better outcomes because well-designed systems continue delivering results long after the original problem has disappeared.
As the saying goes, every system is perfectly designed to produce the results it currently delivers. If the results are disappointing, the first place to look is the system itself.
The next time a recurring issue appears in your business, pause before discussing solutions and ask a different set of questions.
1. What problem are we actually trying to solve?
2. Have we experienced this issue before?
3. What evidence suggests this is a symptom rather than the underlying cause?
4. Which business system allowed this issue to occur?
5. If we solved the underlying cause, would this problem disappear permanently?
Those questions may take longer to answer than implementing another quick fix but they often prevent years of repeated frustration.
A root cause is the underlying reason a problem exists. Removing the root cause reduces the likelihood of the problem recurring because it addresses the source rather than the symptom.
The Five Whys is a structured questioning technique that repeatedly asks “Why?” until the underlying cause of a problem becomes clear. It is a simple but highly effective way of improving business problem solving and is discussed in Chapter 2 of The Questions You’re Not Asking.
Recurring problems usually indicate that the underlying process, system or behaviour has not changed. Temporary solutions may remove the immediate symptom but they rarely prevent it from returning.
Not always. Many business issues have several contributing factors. The objective is not to find one perfect answer but to identify the few underlying causes that will have the greatest impact if addressed.
Business owners are paid to make decisions but great leaders know that good decisions begin with good questions.
The next time your leadership team encounters a recurring challenge, resist the temptation to jump straight to solutions. Slow the conversation down. Challenge the obvious explanation. Keep asking why until the discussion shifts from symptoms to systems.
The quality of your business will rarely exceed the quality of the questions your leadership team is prepared to ask.
Chapter 2 of The Questions You’re Not Asking explores practical techniques for identifying root causes, improving decision making and solving problems that matter rather than simply treating the symptoms. If your leadership team feels like it is having the same conversations every quarter, the answer may not be better solutions. It may be better questions.
Explore The Questions You’re Not Asking About Your Business → https://amzn.asia/d/0a8fUXkU
Most business problems don’t appear suddenly.They build quietly while leaders stay busy reacting. In this practical and thought-provoking book, business coach Russell Cummings reveals the hidden questions many business owners avoid until it’s too late.
Drawing on four decades of experience across hundreds of businesses, Russell explores the real issues behind growth, leadership, culture, profitability, productivity, strategy, and resilience.
by admin | Aug 10, 2026 | Business Tips
One of the biggest challenges facing business owners and managers is not a lack of ideas. It is finding enough uninterrupted time to think properly about those ideas before the next operational issue takes over.
Most working days are filled with meetings, emails, staff questions, customer demands and decisions that need to be made quickly. Somewhere in the middle of all that activity, an important thought appears. You might see a solution to a long-standing problem, recognise a new commercial opportunity or suddenly understand what needs to happen next. Unfortunately, those moments of clarity often arrive when you are nowhere near your desk.
Some of my best thinking happens while I am driving home from a client meeting, walking between appointments or reflecting after a strategy discussion. The problem is that by the time I get back to the office, another issue has taken priority and much of that thinking has disappeared.
For years, I relied on notebooks, emails to myself and voice memos. They captured fragments of information, but they rarely helped me organise the full train of thought. More often than not, they became another collection of notes that I planned to revisit but never did.
I now use a much simpler process. I open ChatGPT on my phone, navigate to the right chat, tell it what I am about to do, ask Siri to set a nine-minute timer and then think out loud. I do not try to structure the conversation or turn it into a polished explanation. I simply talk through the issue, idea or opportunity in the same way I would with a trusted adviser in a stream of consciousness flow. I let the ideas and comments come in whatever order they appear.
When the session is complete, ChatGPT organises everything I have said into a concise summary, identifies the key insights and highlights any actions that logically drop out of the update. It is one of the simplest ways I use AI, but it is also one of the most useful because it helps me capture and organise my thinking before it is lost.
Many people still think of ChatGPT mainly as a writing assistant. It is certainly useful for drafting emails, proposals, reports and marketing content, but that is only one part of its value. Used well, ChatGPT can also act as a practical thinking partner.
Most business owners do not think in perfectly structured paragraphs. We work through ideas by talking, testing assumptions, revisiting earlier points and following the conversation wherever it leads. If you have ever started explaining a problem to someone and realised halfway through that you already knew the answer, you have experienced the value of thinking out loud.
Talking helps you connect ideas and clarify what really matters. It can also surface assumptions, concerns and possibilities that are difficult to identify when you are staring at a blank page. The challenge is capturing the complete conversation and turning it into something useful once the thinking is finished.
That is where ChatGPT helps. It can remove repetition, group similar ideas, identify recurring themes and convert an unstructured stream of thought into a practical summary. The ideas, experience and commercial judgement still come from you. AI simply helps organise the material so you can review it more clearly and move towards action.
This is an important distinction. The purpose of the exercise is not to outsource your thinking. It is to make better use of the thinking you are already doing.
I have deliberately kept this process simple because a complicated workflow is unlikely to become a regular habit. The whole setup takes less than a minute and can be used whenever you need to work through a problem, explore an opportunity or capture ideas while they are still fresh. I will refer to ChatGPT but you can use your AI platform of choice eg. Claude, Copilot, Gemini, etc
Open the ChatGPT app on your phone and go to the conversation where you want to capture your thinking. You can use a normal chat, although I recommend creating a dedicated ChatGPT Project if you expect to use this approach regularly.
Keeping related Thinking Sessions together makes it easier to revisit earlier discussions, compare how your thinking has changed and build a useful record of decisions, ideas and opportunities. You might create Projects called Weekly Thinking Sessions, Business Strategy, Leadership Journal, Blue-Sky Ideas, New Product Development or Business Opportunities.
The name is not particularly important. The benefit comes from keeping related conversations together rather than allowing them to become scattered across dozens of unrelated chats.
Before you start recording, tell ChatGPT what you are about to do and how you want it to manage the session. Explain that you will be thinking out loud, that your thoughts may be unstructured or repetitive, and that you may send several voice recordings on the same topic.
You should also tell ChatGPT not to analyse the information after every recording. Instead, it should simply acknowledge each part and wait until you say the full session is complete. This is particularly important when you are exploring a complex topic because you do not want the AI reacting to an incomplete version of your thinking.
I have included the full compound Thinking Session Prompt at the end of this article. It sets up both the data collection process and the final analysis before you begin, so you only need to give the instructions once. Copy and paste this into your AI platform of choice.
Before I press the microphone button, I say:
“Hey Siri, set a timer for nine minutes.”
I use nine minutes because the voice recording limit I work to in ChatGPT is around ten minutes. The nine-minute timer gives me a buffer, which means I do not have to watch the clock or worry that the recording will finish before I complete an important point. Obviously, you can do this on Android devices with a similar command. Check the recording length on your AI of choice – ChatGPt is currently about 10 minutes.
ChatGPT features and limits can change between versions, devices and plans, so it is worth checking the current limit in the version you are using. The practical principle remains the same: set the timer slightly below the recording limit so you can focus on the topic rather than the technology.
This small step makes the process much easier. Once the timer starts, I can give the conversation my full attention.
Press the microphone button and start talking. Do not try to sound polished, organise every idea or create a logical structure before you begin. This is not a presentation, and you are not preparing formal meeting notes. It is simply a chance to work through the topic while your thinking is fresh.
Talk as though you are sitting with a trusted adviser. Explain the background, what you are trying to achieve, what concerns you, what opportunities you can see and what options you are considering. It is fine to repeat yourself, change direction or realise halfway through that your original view was wrong. That is how genuine thinking often works.
You might use the process for weekly planning, a difficult leadership issue, a client debrief, a sales opportunity or an important decision. It is also particularly useful when the topic is less defined and you want to explore possibilities rather than solve an immediate problem.
Examples include:
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Blue-sky thinking about the future of the business
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New product development
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New service concepts
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Market and growth opportunities
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Partnership opportunities
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New customer segments
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Alternative business models
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Improvements to an existing product or service
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Marketing and content ideas
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Priorities for the next 90 days
The objective is not to create a perfect transcript. The objective is to capture the full train of thought before it disappears.
[Screenshot: Recording a voice message in ChatGPT]
When you have finished your final recording, type, or say:
Session complete.
Because you set up the process at the beginning, ChatGPT already knows what analysis you want. My preferred instruction is deliberately straightforward:
Give me a summary, key insights and any actions that logically drop out of the update. Be concise and organised.
This usually gives me exactly what I need. I receive a structured summary of the discussion, the most important insights and a practical list of actions that naturally arise from what I have said.
From there, I can continue the conversation if further work is needed. I might ask ChatGPT to turn the actions into a project plan, identify assumptions that need to be tested, draft an email, develop a 90-day plan or turn the thinking into a presentation or article.
The initial summary is useful, but it is often only the beginning of the process. Once your thinking has been organised, it becomes much easier to decide what should happen next.
Some topics need more time than a single recording allows. A strategy review, a leadership issue, a new product idea or a major commercial opportunity may take 20, 30 or 40 minutes to unpack properly.
The solution is to keep every recording inside the same ChatGPT conversation.
When the nine-minute timer sounds, finish your sentence and send the recording. ChatGPT should reply only with:
Part received.
You can then reset the timer and start the next recording. Continue exactly where you left off, or briefly explain what the next part will cover. For example, you might begin by saying:
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“This is Part 2. I want to explore the opportunity in more detail.”
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“This is Part 3. I now want to think through the customer problem.”
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“This is Part 4. I want to consider the risks and practical barriers.”
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“This is Part 5. I want to identify what a small pilot might look like.”
You can repeat this process for as many recordings as required. The important point is not to request a separate summary after each section. Let ChatGPT collect the complete discussion first and analyse everything only after you say the session is finished.
I have found that multiple recordings can actually improve the quality of the Thinking Session. The short pause between each section gives me time to reflect, remember another point or recognise an assumption I have not yet challenged. Rather than interrupting the thinking, the pause often improves it.
By the time the session is complete, ChatGPT may have 30 or 40 minutes of material, but it can still consolidate that information into one concise summary, a set of key insights and a manageable list of actions. Type or say “Session Complete” and your AI will proceeed with the initial analysis and summary.
This process is not limited to solving operational problems. In fact, some of its best applications involve topics where the answer is not yet clear.
Blue-sky thinking often begins with fragments. You may have noticed a trend, heard repeated feedback from customers or recognised a capability in your business that could be used in a different way. At this stage, the ideas are rarely ready for a formal business case, and trying to structure them too early can shut down useful thinking.
A voice-based Thinking Session gives you space to explore the possibilities without forcing an immediate conclusion. You can talk through what you are seeing, why it might matter and where the opportunity could lead. ChatGPT can then organise those fragments into common themes and help identify which areas deserve further investigation.
The same approach is useful for new product development. You might discuss:
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Problems customers repeatedly mention
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Gaps in your current offer
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Ideas for improving an existing product
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New services you could provide
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Different ways of packaging or pricing your offer
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Potential customer segments
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Delivery models or partnerships
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Risks that may affect commercial viability
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What a small pilot or test might involve
After the session, you can ask ChatGPT to help distinguish between an interesting idea and a genuine commercial opportunity. It can identify assumptions that need to be tested, suggest questions for customer research and help organise the next stage of evaluation.
For example, you might ask:
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Which ideas appear to have the strongest commercial potential?
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What customer problem does each idea solve?
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What assumptions need to be tested?
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What evidence would we need before investing further?
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Which opportunity could be tested quickly and at low cost?
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What are the major risks, barriers and dependencies?
AI should not make the final commercial decision, but it can help you start that decision with your thinking already organised.
The ChatGPT voice recording workflow works well whenever the topic benefits from reflection, exploration or structured thinking. It can be used for operational issues, strategic questions and creative work.
Common applications include:
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Weekly and monthly planning
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Leadership challenges
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Staff performance and difficult conversations
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Client meeting debriefs
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Sales pipeline reviews
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Strategic planning
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Blue-sky thinking
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New product development
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New service development
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Growth and market opportunities
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Business model ideas
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Partnership opportunities
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Marketing and content planning
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Workshop and presentation development
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Quarterly business reviews
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Identifying priorities for the next 90 days
It is also useful after a meeting, workshop or strategy session. Rather than relying only on rough notes, you can record your own reflections while the discussion is still fresh and ask ChatGPT to identify the implications, priorities and actions that matter most.
Like any AI workflow, this process is not perfect. ChatGPT may misunderstand names, acronyms, technical language or industry terms, so you should review the transcript and final summary before relying on it. A small transcription error can significantly change the meaning of an important point.
You should also be careful with confidential information. Think before sharing sensitive client details, employee information, financial data, commercially important material or early-stage intellectual property. Make sure your use of AI is consistent with your organisation’s policies and your professional responsibilities.
It is also important to remember that ChatGPT is organising your thinking rather than replacing your judgement. AI can summarise, identify patterns and suggest actions, but you remain responsible for deciding what is accurate, practical and commercially appropriate.
This matters particularly when you are discussing blue-sky ideas or new product development. AI can make an incomplete idea sound more developed or attractive than it really is. Customer demand, commercial viability and practical feasibility still need to be tested.
Finally, platform features and recording limits can change. Check the version of the AI platform you are using rather than assuming the same limits will always apply.
People often focus on finding the perfect AI prompt, but prompts only create value when they are part of a practical routine. A good workflow used regularly will usually deliver far more value than a clever prompt used once.
This process works because it is easy to repeat. You open ChatGPT, navigate to the right conversation, set up the task, ask Siri for a nine-minute timer and start talking. There is no complicated preparation and no need to create a formal brief before you begin.
The real benefit is not better note-taking. It is better thinking.
You create space to work through an issue, explore an opportunity or develop an idea. You capture your thoughts before they disappear, identify what matters and turn the discussion into practical actions while the thinking is still fresh.
For a busy business owner or manager, that can save time, improve decision-making and reduce the number of valuable ideas that are lost during the working week.
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Capture your thinking while it is fresh. Your best ideas often happen away from your desk. ChatGPT voice recording gives you a practical way to capture and organise them before they disappear.
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Use multiple recordings for larger topics. Keep every recording in the same conversation, allow ChatGPT to acknowledge each part and request the analysis only after you say “Session complete.”
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Use AI to explore opportunities as well as solve problems. Blue-sky thinking, new product development and commercial opportunity exploration are often where this workflow delivers its greatest value.
Copy and paste this prompt into ChatGPT before you begin. It sets up both the collection of your recordings and the final analysis, so you do not need to provide new instructions after each part.
Step 1 – Purpose of the session
I am going to think out loud about one business topic. My comments may be unstructured, repetitive or incomplete, and my thinking may change as I talk through the topic.
Your role during the recording stage is to collect the information without interrupting the flow of the session or attempting to analyse an incomplete version of my thinking.
Step 2 – Collecting multiple recordings
I may send this Thinking Session across one or more voice recordings. Treat every recording as another part of the same continuous conversation and retain the context from all previous parts.
After each recording, reply only:
“Part received.”
Do not summarise, interpret, analyse, challenge or recommend anything after an individual recording.
Wait until I say:
“Session complete.”
Step 3 – Analysing the complete session
When I say “Session complete”, review every recording together as one complete Thinking Session.
Provide:
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A concise summary of the overall update
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The key insights that emerge from my thinking
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Any actions that logically drop out of the update
Where relevant, group related ideas together, remove unnecessary repetition and note any important contradictions, gaps or unresolved questions.
Step 4 – Separating my thinking from AI suggestions
Clearly distinguish between:
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Points, ideas or conclusions that came directly from me
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Additional observations, interpretations or suggestions that you have added
Do not present an AI-generated suggestion as though it were something I said or decided.
Step 5 – Output style
Be concise, practical and organised. Use clear headings and dot points where they improve readability. Avoid unnecessary detail, repetition, hype and generic business language.
Focus on the information that will help me understand the topic, make a decision or take the next practical step.
Step 6 – Confirmation
Confirm that you understand these instructions by replying only:
“Ready for Part 1.”
This Thinking Session Prompt is one example of how a well-designed prompt can turn ChatGPT into a practical business tool rather than simply a content generator.
My book, AI Prompts for Business Success, contains practical prompts and workflows developed specifically for SME business owners and managers. It covers planning, leadership, meetings, marketing, productivity, strategy, new opportunities and decision-making, with a focus on real business applications rather than AI theory.
Whether you are planning the next quarter, developing a new product, preparing for a difficult conversation or exploring a new commercial opportunity, the book gives you prompts that can help you organise your thinking, save time and improve the quality of your work.
Order your copy of AI Prompts for Business Success and start using AI more practically across your business.
by admin | Aug 10, 2026 | Business Tips
If you’ve been in business for a while, you’ll probably remember the term VUCA. It became popular after the Global Financial Crisis and quickly found its way into boardrooms, strategic planning workshops and leadership discussions. Originally developed by the US military following the end of the Cold War, it described a world that had become Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. At the time it was a useful way of explaining why traditional planning was becoming more difficult and why leaders needed to think differently.
I believe the term is still relevant today, but it no longer tells the whole story.
Over the past few years we’ve watched geopolitical conflict disrupt global supply chains, governments introduce sweeping regulatory and taxation changes, tariffs reshape international trade and inflation, interest rates and labour shortages place pressure on businesses across almost every sector. Add to that the rapid emergence of Artificial Intelligence and widespread digital transformation, and it’s easy to see why many business owners feel they’re operating in a completely different environment.
The difference isn’t simply that the world has become more volatile. The difference is that everything is happening faster. Before we’ve adjusted to one major event, another has arrived. Information moves instantly, customer expectations continue to rise and technology evolves faster than most organisations can comfortably absorb. That’s why I believe VUCA needs another letter.
S for Speed.
Not because speed is another business challenge, but because it amplifies every one of the others. We are no longer operating in a VUCA world. We are operating in a VUCA-S world, where volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity are all accelerated by the increasing speed of business.
Volatility isn’t new. Markets have always risen and fallen, governments have always changed policy and competitors have always emerged. Uncertainty has always been part of running a business, and every experienced owner knows that perfect information rarely exists when important decisions need to be made.
What has changed is the pace at which these forces now move.
Volatility arrives faster. Uncertainty spreads globally within hours. Complexity increases as businesses become more connected through technology, regulation and global supply chains. Ambiguity lasts longer because information now travels faster than facts, making it increasingly difficult to separate informed opinion from speculation.
For business owners and managers, that creates a very different leadership challenge. The issue is no longer simply understanding change. It’s understanding change quickly enough to make good decisions before circumstances shift again.
One of the biggest mistakes I see is businesses confusing speed with urgency. They aren’t the same thing.
Urgency often creates reactive behaviour. Every new headline demands attention. Every customer request becomes an emergency. Every new technology suddenly appears to require immediate investment. Before long, leadership teams spend their days responding to whatever seems most pressing rather than concentrating on what is most important.
The businesses that perform well in uncertain environments don’t necessarily move faster than everyone else. They make better decisions sooner because they’ve already invested time thinking about possible futures. They have clearer priorities, stronger systems and more disciplined decision-making processes. When disruption occurs, they don’t have to start thinking from scratch because they’ve already considered many of the possibilities.
That’s one of the reasons I’ve become such a strong advocate for scenario planning. As I discuss in The Questions You’re Not Asking About Your Business, the purpose of planning isn’t to predict the future. It’s to prepare for several possible futures so you’re ready to adapt as events unfold.
Artificial Intelligence hasn’t created this new environment, but it has certainly accelerated it.
Tasks that previously took hours now take minutes. Marketing content can be produced almost instantly. Reports can be analysed in seconds. Customer enquiries are answered around the clock. Software development, research, forecasting and administration are all becoming significantly faster.
That’s an extraordinary opportunity, but it also creates a trap.
When information becomes instant, leaders can begin believing that every decision should also be instant. Yet judgement still takes time. Experience still matters. Reflection still matters. AI can process information at incredible speed, but it cannot replace the commercial judgement that comes from understanding your customers, your people and your business.
Technology should help us make better decisions, not simply faster ones.
None of this means strategic planning has become less important. If anything, it’s become more important than ever. What has changed is the rhythm of planning.
There was a time when many businesses developed an annual plan, reviewed it periodically and expected it to remain largely relevant for twelve months. In today’s environment that’s becoming increasingly unrealistic. Your long-term direction may remain unchanged, but the path you take to get there will almost certainly require regular adjustment.
That’s why I continue to encourage clients to think in multiple time horizons. Have a clear long-term strategy. Translate that into annual priorities. Then execute in focused 90-day cycles, reviewing assumptions and making adjustments as new information becomes available. Businesses that shorten their learning cycles will almost always outperform those that simply produce longer plans.
For years, businesses were encouraged to focus on efficiency. Reduce inventory. Minimise costs. Remove spare capacity. Optimise every process. Those disciplines remain important, but recent events have reminded us that efficiency without resilience can leave a business surprisingly vulnerable.
The organisations that have navigated uncertainty most successfully have generally shared a number of common characteristics. They have built financial buffers, developed stronger leadership capability, diversified key risks and created systems that allow them to respond calmly rather than react emotionally. They understand that resilience isn’t wasted capacity – it’s strategic flexibility.
As I explore throughout the book, resilience isn’t something you build during a crisis. It’s something you build before the crisis arrives. Cash reserves, capable people, documented systems and thoughtful planning all buy something incredibly valuable when uncertainty strikes: time. And time allows leaders to make better decisions.
260613 Questions A5 softcover – FINAL.pdf
There’s another lesson hidden inside the VUCA-S world. As the speed of business increases, unnecessary complexity becomes a significant competitive disadvantage.
Every additional approval slows decision-making. Every unnecessary meeting consumes leadership capacity. Every extra system creates friction. Every poorly designed process delays execution. Complexity doesn’t simply reduce productivity; it reduces agility.
That’s why one of the simplest disciplines I encourage businesses to adopt is continually asking three questions:
Can we eliminate it?
Can we automate it?
Can we delegate it?
The goal isn’t simply to become more efficient. It’s to create a business that can respond quickly without becoming chaotic. In a world where change is accelerating, simplicity becomes a strategic advantage.
We can’t control geopolitical conflict, government policy, global markets or technological disruption. We can’t eliminate uncertainty, and we certainly can’t predict every change that’s coming next.
What we can do is build businesses that are capable of adapting without losing focus.
That means strengthening resilience before it’s needed, simplifying operations before complexity becomes overwhelming and reviewing strategy often enough to respond intelligently as circumstances evolve. It also means resisting the temptation to react to every new development and instead maintaining the discipline to focus on what matters most.
That’s what Focused Execution has always been about. It has never been about producing the perfect plan. It’s about creating the discipline to review, adjust and execute consistently as the world changes around you.
In a VUCA-S world, that discipline may become one of the few sustainable competitive advantages left.
VUCA still describes today’s business environment, but speed now amplifies every element of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
Competitive advantage is increasingly determined by how quickly a business can adapt without losing strategic focus.
Focused Execution, Scenario Planning and regular 90-day reviews provide a practical framework for leading confidently in an increasingly unpredictable world.
In a VUCA-S world, the goal isn’t to predict exactly what happens next. It’s to ask better questions, challenge your assumptions and build a business that is prepared to adapt as circumstances change.
That’s one of the central ideas behind my book, The Questions You’re Not Asking About Your Business. Several chapters are particularly relevant to leaders navigating today’s volatile, uncertain and fast-moving environment:
Chapter 13 – Are you planning for One Future or preparing for many?
Why single path planning limits agility and increases risk.
Chapter 19 – When did you last test your assumptions?
Why strong businesses invite pressure before the market applies it.
Chapter 24 – What is Your Strategy?
Why activity without clear choices is not strategy.
Chapter 25 – Are you reinventing without the panic?
Why delayed adaptation increases risks and limits opportunity.
Chapter 26 – Would your business withstand a shock tomorrow?
Why resilience is designed before it is needed.
Together, these chapters explore many of the capabilities that matter most in a VUCA-S world: scenario planning, strategic clarity, challenging assumptions, adaptability and resilience.
You can’t eliminate volatility, uncertainty, complexity or ambiguity and you certainly can’t slow the world down. But you can build a business that is better prepared to respond to them.
Explore The Questions You’re Not Asking About Your Business → https://amzn.asia/d/0a8fUXkU
Most business problems don’t appear suddenly.They build quietly while leaders stay busy reacting. In this practical and thought-provoking book, business coach Russell Cummings reveals the hidden questions many business owners avoid until it’s too late.
Drawing on four decades of experience across hundreds of businesses, Russell explores the real issues behind growth, leadership, culture, profitability, productivity, strategy, and resilience.
by admin | Aug 10, 2026 | Business Tips
Mention 5S to many business leaders and you’ll often get the same response.
“Isn’t that just about keeping the workplace tidy?”
It’s an understandable misconception.
Photos of neatly organised workshops, labelled shelves and colour-coded tool boards have become synonymous with 5S. While these are visible outcomes, they aren’t the purpose of the methodology.
5S was never designed to create tidy workplaces. It was designed to create productive workplaces. The difference matters. Because clutter isn’t simply untidy. It’s expensive.
Every minute spent searching for information, looking for equipment, correcting mistakes or working around disorganisation is time that adds no value for the customer.
5S eliminates that waste.
That’s why it remains one of the most powerful Lean practices – whether you operate a factory, an office, a construction business or a professional services firm.
What Is 5S?
5S is a structured approach to organising work so that people can perform their jobs safely, consistently and efficiently.
The five Japanese terms are:
● Sort – Remove what isn’t needed.
● Set in Order – Organise what remains so it is easy to find and use.
● Shine – Clean and inspect the workplace regularly.
● Standardise – Create consistent ways of maintaining the improvements.
● Sustain – Build habits that make the improvements permanent.
Although simple, these five steps fundamentally change how work is performed.
They reduce friction. They reduce errors. They reduce wasted time. Most importantly, they make problems visible.
Productivity Is Lost in Small Moments
Many organisations search for major productivity breakthroughs.
New technology. Large restructuring programs. Significant capital investment.
Meanwhile, they overlook the hundreds of small interruptions that quietly consume every working day.
Employees searching for files. Looking for tools. Checking which document is the latest version.
Walking across the office to collect information. Recreating work that already exists. Waiting because something couldn’t be found.
Each interruption lasts only a few minutes. Across an organisation, those minutes become hundreds of lost hours every month. 5S attacks these hidden losses.
Sort: Remove What Doesn’t Add Value
Most workplaces accumulate unnecessary items over time.
● Old files.
● Obsolete equipment.
● Duplicate forms.
● Unused software.
● Broken tools.
● Outdated templates.
The more unnecessary items that exist, the harder it becomes to find what really matters.
Sorting asks one simple question: “Do we actually need this?”
If the answer is no, remove it.
Less clutter means faster decisions, easier navigation and fewer distractions.
The goal isn’t minimalism. The goal is focus.
Set in Order: Make Work Easy
Once unnecessary items have been removed, everything else should have a logical place.
Think about your kitchen. You don’t spend time searching for cutlery because every item has a designated location.
Business should work the same way.
Frequently used items should be immediately accessible. Documents should follow consistent naming conventions.
Digital folders should be organised logically. Equipment should be stored where it is used. Information should be easy to locate.
The objective is simple. People should spend their time working – not searching.
Shine: Cleaning Reveals Problems
Cleaning is often misunderstood as a cosmetic exercise.
Lean sees it differently. Cleaning is inspection.
When equipment is cleaned regularly, wear becomes visible. Leaks are detected earlier. Loose fittings are identified. Damage is noticed before breakdowns occur.
The same principle applies in offices.
Reviewing documents uncovers outdated information. Cleaning shared drives exposes duplicate files. Tidying workflows reveals unnecessary complexity.
Clean workplaces expose problems that clutter hides.
Standardise: Create Consistency
One organised desk achieves very little.
An organised organisation creates sustainable performance.
Standardisation ensures improvements don’t depend on individual preferences.
Everyone understands:
● where information belongs
● how documents are stored
● how equipment is maintained
● how workspaces are organised
● how routine tasks are completed
Consistency reduces confusion. It simplifies training. It improves quality. Most importantly, it creates stability – the foundation of every successful Lean organisation.
Sustain: Build Habits, Not Events
This is where many organisations struggle.
They conduct a successful 5S activity. The workplace looks excellent.
Three months later, everything has returned to its previous state.
Why? Because behaviour didn’t change.
Sustaining 5S requires leadership.
Regular reviews. Clear expectations. Visible standards. Positive reinforcement. Daily discipline.
The goal isn’t to maintain tidiness. The goal is to maintain productivity. That requires habits.
5S in the Office
Many people assume 5S belongs on the factory floor. In reality, office environments often contain just as much waste.
Consider the average working day.
How much time is spent:
● searching for emails?
● locating the latest document?
● checking which spreadsheet is correct?
● waiting for information?
● recreating work because nobody can find it?
Digital clutter is still clutter.
Applying 5S to office environments might include:
● standard folder structures
● consistent document naming
● removing duplicate files
● organising shared drives
● simplifying templates
● reducing unnecessary paperwork
The result isn’t simply a tidier computer. It’s faster, more reliable work.
5S in Professional Services
Professional services firms can benefit enormously from 5S.
Imagine:
● A standard proposal template.
● Consistent client onboarding.
● Clearly organised project files.
● Shared knowledge libraries.
● Simple meeting agendas.
● Repeatable review processes.
Every improvement reduces time spent searching, clarifying and correcting. Clients experience faster service. Employees experience less frustration.
The business becomes easier to scale because good systems replace individual memory.
5S Improves More Than Productivity
Although productivity is the primary objective, organisations often experience additional benefits.
Higher quality. Fewer mistakes. Improved safety. Shorter training times. Greater employee engagement. Better customer experiences. Reduced stress.
People enjoy working in environments that make success easier.
Well-organised workplaces communicate professionalism, discipline and respect for both employees and customers.
Leaders Must Model the Standard
One of the quickest ways to undermine 5S is inconsistent leadership. If leaders ignore agreed standards, everyone else soon follows.
Successful organisations treat 5S as a leadership discipline.
Managers organise their own work. Digital files follow the same standards. Meeting agendas remain consistent. Improvement becomes visible at every level.
Culture is reinforced through example, not instruction.
Five Questions Every Leader Should Ask
Take a moment to reflect on your own organisation.
How much time do our people spend searching instead of working?
What unnecessary items create confusion every day?
Would a new employee know where to find everything they need?
Are our digital systems as organised as our physical workspace?
What daily habits ensure good organisation is maintained?
The answers often reveal opportunities hiding in plain sight.
Small Improvements, Big Results
Many leaders underestimate 5S because each improvement appears small.
One organised drawer. One simplified template. One clearly labelled shelf. One standard folder structure. One cleaner workspace.
Yet these small changes compound. Five minutes saved each day becomes hours every month.
Across an entire organisation, those hours become significant productivity gains. This is the real power of Lean.
Small improvements applied consistently, delivering extraordinary results over time.
Final Thoughts
5S has never been about cleanliness for its own sake.
It’s about removing the friction that prevents people from doing their best work.
When workplaces are organised, information is easy to find and processes are consistent, productivity naturally improves.
Employees spend less time searching. Customers receive better service. Leaders spend less time solving avoidable problems.
Improvement becomes easier because the workplace itself supports high performance.
That’s why 5S has remained a cornerstone of Lean for decades. Not because tidy workplaces look impressive. Because organised workplaces perform better.
Ready to Improve Productivity Without Working Harder?
Join our upcoming Lean Bootcamp Training Course and discover how practical Lean tools like 5S can eliminate wasted time, improve team performance and create the stable systems every growing business needs.
Whether you lead a manufacturing business, office, construction company or professional
services firm, you’ll leave with practical ideas you can implement immediately.
Because productivity isn’t created through harder work. It’s created through better systems.
by admin | Aug 6, 2026 | Business Tips
Many business leaders are introduced to Lean through diagrams.
One of the most recognisable is the Lean House – sometimes called the Lean Temple.
At first glance, it looks simple. A roof. Two supporting pillars. A solid foundation. People standing in the middle.
Unfortunately, many leaders see it as just another management model. It isn’t.
The Lean Temple is a blueprint for building an organisation that consistently delivers value to customers.
Like any building, its strength depends on its foundations. Without stability, every improvement eventually collapses.
That’s why successful Lean organisations don’t begin by chasing sophisticated tools or large transformation projects.
They begin by building stable, repeatable systems.
Why Stability Matters
Imagine trying to renovate a house while its foundations are moving.
Every improvement becomes harder. Walls crack. Doors no longer fit. New problems appear faster than old ones disappear.
Businesses experience the same challenge.
● When processes constantly change…
● When priorities shift every day…
● When people perform the same task differently…
Improvement becomes almost impossible.
Leaders spend all their time responding to variation rather than reducing it.
Stability provides something incredibly valuable. Predictability.
Predictable processes make problems visible. Unpredictable processes hide them.
Understanding the Lean Temple
Although different versions exist, the Lean Temple is generally made up of four essential components.
● The foundation
● The pillars
● The people
● The roof
Together, they create a system rather than a collection of individual tools.
Let’s explore each part.
The Foundation: Stable Processes
Every successful Lean organisation is built on stable processes.
That doesn’t mean rigid bureaucracy. It means having clear, repeatable ways of performing important work.
Stable processes include:
● agreed standards
● documented procedures
● consistent workflows
● organised workplaces
● reliable equipment
● predictable scheduling
Without consistency, improvement becomes guesswork.
If every employee completes the same task differently, leaders cannot determine whether changes actually improve performance.
Standardisation isn’t the enemy of innovation. It’s the platform that allows innovation to succeed.
Standard Work Creates Freedom
Many people misunderstand standard work. They assume it removes flexibility. In reality, it removes unnecessary variation.
Consider airline pilots. Every flight follows standard operating procedures. Not because pilots lack expertise. Because consistency improves safety.
The same principle applies in business.
When routine work follows agreed standards:
● quality improves
● training becomes easier
● mistakes decrease
● problems become easier to identify
Once stability exists, improvement becomes far more effective.
The First Pillar: Continuous Improvement
One pillar of the Lean Temple is continuous improvement.
Known through the philosophy of Kaizen, this pillar encourages organisations to improve every day.
Rather than waiting for major transformation programs, employees continually ask:
● Can this process be simpler?
● Can we reduce waiting?
● Can we improve quality?
● Can we eliminate waste?
Small improvements accumulate over time. Eventually, they transform the organisation.
Continuous improvement keeps the business moving forward.
The Second Pillar: Built-in Quality
The second pillar focuses on quality.
Traditional organisations often inspect quality after work has been completed. Lean aims to build quality into the process itself.
Problems are identified early. Errors are corrected immediately. Employees stop work when necessary rather than allowing defects to continue downstream.
This approach reduces rework. It improves customer satisfaction. Most importantly, it prevents problems becoming expensive.
Quality isn’t inspected into products or services. It’s designed into the system.
At the Centre: People
Many people are surprised to discover what sits between the pillars.
People. Not technology. Not machinery. Not software. People.
Lean has always recognised that sustainable improvement depends on engaged, capable employees.
The people closest to the work often understand the problems better than anyone else.
Successful Lean organisations invest heavily in developing their teams.
They encourage learning. They welcome ideas. They coach problem-solving skills. They build capability throughout the business.
Technology supports performance. People create it.
The Roof: Delivering Customer Value
Every part of the Lean Temple supports the roof.
The roof represents the ultimate outcomes.
These typically include:
● customer satisfaction
● quality
● productivity
● safety
● profitability
● sustainable growth
Notice something important.
Profit sits alongside customer value – not above it.
Lean does not pursue profit at the expense of customers. Instead, it improves profitability by creating greater value with less waste.
Financial performance becomes the outcome of operational excellence. Not the starting point.
Why Businesses Skip the Foundation
Many organisations become excited by Lean tools.
Visual boards. Kanban. Value Stream Mapping. 5S. Problem-solving workshops.
These are all valuable. But implemented too early, they often disappoint.
Why?
Because unstable organisations struggle to sustain improvement.
Without clear processes:
● Visual boards become outdated.
● Improvement ideas disappear.
● Meetings lose focus.
● Performance varies.
● Leaders conclude that Lean “didn’t work.”
In reality, they simply started in the wrong place.
The strongest buildings always begin with the foundations.
Stability Doesn’t Mean Standing Still
Some leaders worry that standardisation will reduce innovation. The opposite is true.
Stable organisations improve faster. Why? Because consistency makes opportunities easier to recognise.
When everyone follows the same process, even small improvements become obvious.
Changes can be tested. Results can be measured. Successful improvements become the new standard. Then improvement begins again.
Lean creates a cycle. Standardise. Improve. Standardise again. Improve again.
Progress becomes continuous.
Applying the Lean Temple Beyond Manufacturing
Despite its origins, the Lean Temple applies to almost every industry.
Professional Services
● Stable client onboarding.
● Consistent proposal development.
● Standard project reviews.
● Regular client communication.
Healthcare
● Standard clinical procedures.
● Reliable patient handovers.
● Consistent documentation.
● Daily quality reviews.
Construction
● Standard project planning.
● Visual site management.
● Consistent safety routines.
● Daily coordination meetings.
Professional Offices
● Clear workflows.
● Standard meeting rhythms.
● Document management systems.
● Defined approval processes.
● Different industries.
● The same principles.
● Stable systems.
● Engaged people.
● Continuous improvement.
● Customer value.
Five Questions Every Leader Should Ask
Before launching your next improvement initiative, ask yourself:
Do our people perform important processes consistently?
Where does unnecessary variation create problems?
Are we improving processes or simply working around them?
Do employees understand how they contribute to customer value?
Are we building systems that improve every year – or simply solving the same problems repeatedly?
The answers reveal the strength of your organisational foundations.
Building Your Own Lean Temple
You don’t need a major transformation program to begin.
Start by strengthening the foundation.
Document one key process. Create one clear standard. Organise one workspace. Simplify one approval process.
Introduce one daily review meeting. Encourage one improvement idea from every employee.
Build consistency first then improve it.
Small foundations support large organisations.
Final Thoughts
The Lean Temple isn’t simply a diagram. It’s a reminder that sustainable performance is never built on shortcuts.
The strongest businesses don’t rely on exceptional individuals rescuing poor systems. They create stable foundations. They develop capable people. They improve continuously. They deliver consistent value to customers.
Everything starts with stability. Because when the foundations are strong, every improvement
has somewhere solid to stand. And that’s how great businesses are built.
Ready to Build Stronger Foundations?
Join our upcoming Lean Bootcamp Training Course and learn how to apply the principles of the Lean Temple to your own organisation.
You’ll discover practical ways to strengthen your processes, engage your people and create a culture of continuous improvement that delivers lasting business performance.
Because successful Lean organisations aren’t built from the roof down.
They’re built from the foundations up.