Prologue to Business Transformed

As an executive coach, I witnessed time and time again the powerful transformative shift that would occur when my clients became clear on what they really wanted in their life and work. I also saw the powerful results they could produce when they had the accountability conversations required to put their plans into reality. This drew me to the field of organizational change where I was confronted by the first paradox;

Business cannot be changed.

Companies resist change. Organizational systems and procedures, by their nature, inhibit change. When I first began conducting organizational change programs I was astonished by how little impact they had. No amount of training alone would seem to stick.

Business can only be transformed.

I kept returning to the power of questions. I knew from my own experience that focused questions were the immutable force that powered business transformation. I also saw the power of questions everyday as I worked with highly accomplished business leaders. They seemed to have an almost magical ability to generate relationship and galvanize action in a short conversation. I could see that there were essential elements of this conversation that had to be completed in an exact order. For example, demanding accountability without first creating relationship would disrupt the intended outcome of the conversation.

I continued my quest to refine a simple structure for business transformation and began offering the questions to managers, team leaders and executives to test. We became more structured in refining these essential elements and distilled the 17 QuestionsTM that transform business. As the results came back, it became clear that having powerful breakthrough conversations is a simple skill that anyone can learn quickly and easily. I began to get excited. What would a company look like if everyone had the ability to generate instant relationship, engage in breakthrough conversations and work with the highest level of accountability? What if we could distill these conversations down to their simplest form and put them into a package that anyone could use to produce results instantly? What if we could create a breakthrough virus that could rapidly transmit this capability to everyone in an organization? Business Transformed is the virus. You have already been infected.

Business Transformed is very simple. Read the book and start by asking “How are you?” The rest of the instructions are included. Let the questions do the work. Visit www.BusinessTransformed.com and download the free audio CD and listen to the 17 Questions. A relaxed and natural conversational tone is the key. Play with the questions and you cannot help but master them. Business transformation can only take place inside of powerful questions.

Paul Gossen
The Breakthrough Coach
www.PaulGossen.com