Introducing the 3Ws: 3 questions leaders can ask to keep a team on track

On the flip side your team members are looking for ways to get feedback, make a contribution and move past the blockages they need support on. By introducing this simple model to your organisation you can open up the communication, feedback and support both leaders and team members are receiving.

So, what’s the answer?

Three simple questions, also known here as the 3 Ws framework. But you just need to remember 3 Ws.

• What do we want to achieve and why?
• Where are we now?
• What’s next?

It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? There isn’t a lot of time or headspace available for radical new thinking or complicated models, and honestly? Your team don’t need complicated. Sometimes the answer is simple and we’re all about pragmatic answers.

(We also have the 3 Cs if you want another easy framework – this one is great when your team is stuck. Read about it here)

How to use the 3Ws 

You could try opening your next team meeting with these three questions and guide your team through the discussion and then keep them as a regular standing item on the agenda. Or you could set aside time to focus on them away from the regular agenda. It really depends where and what your biggest challenge is.

W1: What do we want to achieve and why?

This opening question is all about the big picture and direction you’re heading in. It challenges you to get clear about the ‘why?’. It’s worth taking your time here to make sure everyone gets the ‘why’ because it’ll give context and clarity to the discussion you have around the second and third questions.

W2: Where are we now?

Time for honesty. Once you have clarity on the big picture, it’s time to reflect on where your team is now? You don’t have to all agree with each other, but people must be able to feel safe giving honest feedback without fear of repercussions.

W3: What next?

What do you need to do to make sure the plans you’re putting into place are the right ones for your team and the business?

Don’t wait for a crisis to use the 3Ws

Whatever you do though, don’t wait for a crisis to bring out the 3Ws. The beauty is that you can use them any time. But if you’ve spotted that:

• people are just firefighting all the time; or
• going off at a tangent and following their own pet projects and ideas
• there’s tension and conflict in the team; or
• the age old ‘this is how we’ve always done it’ is being heard a little too often.

maybe it is time to bring out the 3 ws.

Examples of the way leaders can use the 3Ws

The 3Ws model offers a versatile framework for leaders in various scenarios. LIW focus on simple tools that leaders can use in different ways to help them change their behaviour. Here are some examples to show how your leaders can effectively use this simple model.

Example 1: Team Meeting to Kick Off a Project

Setting the Stage: The leader opens the meeting by outlining the project’s end goal, emphasising its importance to the organisation’s broader objectives. For instance, the goal could be launching a new product that aims to fill a gap in the market, thereby increasing the company’s market share. From this point the leader acts as a facilitator to bring different teams and team members views ideas and concerns together to create the conditions for the teams success.

W1: What do we want to achieve and why?

Engaging the Team: The leader asks the team to share what they want to achieve and why to bring a shared purpose and goal for the project.

W2: Where are we now?

• Assessment: The team assesses their current resources, skills, and knowledge relevant to the project. The leader encourages open discussion about any gaps in skills or resources and promotes an environment where team members feel safe to express concerns and challenges.
• Feedback: Each team member shares recent insights or past experiences that could impact the project’s execution, fostering a collaborative atmosphere and shared understanding.

W3: What next?

• Action Steps: Based on the discussion, the leader and team develop a shared approach to project implementation, identifying key milestones and assigning responsibilities.
• Commitment: The meeting concludes with a discussion on how they will work together including what regular check-ins they want to have and how they plan to monitor progress, address emerging challenges, and adjust plans as necessary.

Example Two: One-on-One to Solve a Team Member’s Challenge

Setting the Stage: In this context, The leader opens the meeting by focusing on the team members needs in the meeting. This gives the team member and the leader equal opportunity to have a positive experience. In this context the 3ws focus on what each party wants to achieve from the meeting.

W1: What do we want to achieve and why?

Personal Goals: The leader discusses with the team member their meeting objectives. This could include things like getting feedback on the progress of a project, overcoming a challenge with another team in the company and gaining support and coaching on a sticking point.

W2: Where are we now?

• Current Challenges: The team member shares specific obstacles they are facing in their current work. The leader ensures a trusting environment so the team member can be open and honest without fear of judgment.
• Evaluation: Together, they review the any additional feedback they might need to gather or information that will help the team member gain more context.

W3: What next?

• Action Plan: The leader and team member collaborate to create a plan to address the challenges discussed. This might include training, mentoring, or adjustments in approach, or seeking stakeholder feedback.
• Support: The leader commits to providing ongoing support and resources to help the team member overcome their challenges and achieve their goals.

Example 3: Collaborating with a Customer to Define Their Needs

W1: What do we want to achieve and why?

• Customer Goals: The team member opens with this question to understand the customer’s business goals and the challenges they are facing.
• Alignment: Discussing the ‘why’ helps both the team member and the customer ensure their objectives are aligned, setting a foundation for a productive partnership.

W2: Where are we now?

• Customer Assessment: The customer shares their current situation, including what has and hasn’t worked in the past.
• Open Dialogue: The team member fosters a respectful and empathetic dialogue, ensuring the customer feels heard and understood.

W3: What next?

• Solution Planning: Based on the insights gained, the team member proposes customised solutions that directly address the customer’s needs.
• Confirmation: They outline the next steps, including timelines and expectations, ensuring the customer is comfortable and agrees with the proposed approach.

These scenarios showcase how the 3Ws model can be adapted to different contexts, providing a structured yet flexible approach for leaders and team members to drive clarity, engagement, and action in various professional interactions.

Example 4: A team retro using the 3Ws

A retro gives you the chance to take a balanced look at the year, month or week and explore what went well, what didn’t go so well, and what you’d do differently. That’s your baseline: a useful conversation and way to bring your team together. A great retro though is a genuine opportunity to reflect and learn together. It’s a space where you can celebrate the wins and the losses, where people leave feeling energised and clear on what needs to happen next.

It’s the quality of the conversation that counts

In many ways retros are a conversation, but before you dive in, ask yourself how well practiced you are in having honest, and sometimes if we’re being honest here, tricky conversation?

‘Oh, my goodness! I just realised it’s not what we’re talking about, it’s how we’re talking about it!’

Team member on a team development programme

Whose perspective?

It’s too easy to walk into a retro, or any conversation for that matter with only your agenda and world view in mind.  But the real value comes from having an open mind, by inviting others to participate and share their perspectives, insights and observations, and by encouraging everyone to use their voice.

‘Talk to people from the centre of their world, not yours.’

Andy Chevis, Head of design & research

Retros are a judgment free zone: use them to review, reflect and learn

In retros, discussing the failures and ‘what could have gone betters’ are as important as celebrating the wins. Because in a judgment free zone, there’s just acknowledgment that life doesn’t always go to plan; it’s the learning that matters. Because a retro isn’t about giving feedback, it’s a conversation. And as uncomfortable as it might feel, it’s easier to grow and improve from our failures, so we should (weirdly) look forward to stuffing up once in a while. In fact, we’d go as far to say that the hallmark of a great team is its ability to hold open, non-judgemental conversations underpinned by a desire to learn. The flipside is teams who are unable to share bad news and/or reply on platitudes of ‘well done, thanks for your hard work’ without being able to articulate what exactly went well or badly. Teams that don’t practice conversations and retros might struggle to reach their potential.

Learn to practice, practice to learn

The key word here is practice. If you ‘practice’ having conversations regularly and that includes the easy ones, the prickly ones and the ones no one wants to have; it makes it easier to approach the retro as another conversation. Otherwise, all you’re doing is going through the motions and asking the retro questions, but the conversation never lifts off and there’s zero learning or insight. If your team isn’t used to having good conversations, when a team member says ‘XYZ didn’t go so well’ the response might be a bland and non-committal ‘Ok, we’ll add it to the list’, and then you all move onto the next person who says something that they don’t think worked well and so on around the (virtual) room. But if you’ve been having regular retros and conversations, when someone says ‘XYZ didn’t go well’, another team member might respond by asking them a question about XYZ, or they might share their experience which might lead to someone else chipping in with their observations, and a rich team conversation develops. A quality conversation makes the retro experience valuable for everyone. And keeping the concept of ‘practice’ in mind automatically reduces the need for everyone to be perfect and get it right first time, removing many of the blockers to learning we often come across.

If we’re truly present when we ‘practice’, and we build our capability to reflect while we practise, our speed of learning will increase. And taking it to the next level, if we give each other permission to practice together, our speed of learning increases and is amplified across everyone involved. And beyond that, if we get multiple teams doing this, we have the platform for a learning culture in the organisation.

Andy Chevis, Head of design & research

How to retro?

The guiding questions for a retro might look simple, but the real gold lies in the quality of the conversation they prompt. The 3ws provide the perfect jumping off point for your retro. For example, let’s revisit W1 (what do we want to achieve and why?) and check we’re all on the same page before we move onto how we did. And if you’re feeling really bold, you could also layer on the 3Cs: clarity, climate and competence.

The 3Ws framework for goal setting

• What do you want to achieve and why?
• Where are we now?
• Where next?

By approaching the retro using these frameworks you’ll move the conversation from simple wins, losses and could do better to ‘so what?’ and ‘what next?’.

Final thoughts: the first rule of psychological safety is we don’t talk about psychological safety

We’ve talked about how important it is for retros to be a judgment-free zone, where people can speak freely about what went well, and what didn’t, and naturally psychological safety springs to mind. But we believe the best way to create a culture of psychological safety is to not talk about it, but to put it into action. Regular, judgement free retros where learning is the priority is the best way to practice and embed psychological safety.

What’s the upside for your team?

There’s always an upside when you involve people in decisions that affect them. These three questions will help everyone to feel engaged, especially giving them the chance to speak up and share their opinions. Leaders should also feel the pressure of being the single point of success or failure lift.

More importantly leaders gain a wide range of opportunities to practice using these questions. This continuous practice can help leaders to change their behaviour and become more collaborative and open to their teams feedback, building engagement and creating the conditions for your team’s success.

Contact  

LIW develop leadership programs based on this simple framework. We could start working together by simply doing a half day session on introducing and practicing this model at your next offsite. Or we could introduce you to our other equally simple frameworks and then discuss your broader leadership programs. Either way we invite you to work with us.

If you want to know more about our frameworks and how we help leaders and teams stay on track, contact us to discuss how we might work together.

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