One of the most important questions business leaders must regularly ask is:

<aside> ⚠️ “Are we limited by the team we have not being the team we should have?”

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In order to address this challenge, imagine six months from now you have the most amazing team you ever assembled and you're saying to yourself “Wow, those guys are awesome! I can't believe what they are accomplishing” (we say six months from now because that's about as far ahead as anyone can imagine in any business these days).

First write down what the team will be accomplishing six months from now that it's not accomplishing now.

• Use all the figures you want.

Now, more important, think about how things are being done differently from the way they are currently done. Are people having more meetings or fewer? Are they having big, loud debates? Are they making decisions faster? Who is making the decisions? Who's not? Are more people working quietly, heads down, or are they scribbling away like mad in group calls all around? Are they working more cross-functionally? Doing more collaborative problem solving?

If you prefer, you can close your eyes while giving it a thought.