FREE SAMPLE / MODULE ONE OF RUN YOUR OWN RESET, UNEDITED
The Reality Check Interview Guide
The first tool in the course, exactly as it appears inside. Ten questions for finding out where your business stands, from the people who run it with you. Every question asks for the last time something happened, never for a general view, because memory of a specific event is much harder to spin than an opinion.
USE IT FREELY. IT WORKS ON ITS OWN. THE COURSE IS WHAT YOU DO WITH THE ANSWERS.
BEFORE THE FIRST QUESTION / THE PROMISE
When an outsider asks these questions, people answer. When the owner asks, people manage the owner: they soften the example, skip the part where your decision caused the delay, and give you the version that keeps the room comfortable. Nobody is lying. They are being sensible with the person who signs their payslip. So before your first question, in every interview, say this and then keep it:
SAY THIS, WORD FOR WORD
"I am collecting facts about how work flows through the business, not opinions about people. Nothing you tell me will be attributed to you, nothing will be punished, and nothing gets repeated with your name attached. I would rather hear it rough than polished, because I am about to make decisions based on what I learn in these two weeks."
THE TEN QUESTIONS / ASKED WORD FOR WORD
- 01
"Walk me through the last time a job went out late. What happened, step by step?"
Listen for the stage where it stalled and who was waiting on whom.
- 02
"What did you do last week that you suspect nobody will ever look at or use?"
Listen for reports and admin that exist out of habit; these feed the Stop List later.
- 03
"Where does work pile up waiting for someone? Can you show me the queue?"
Listen for the name that keeps coming up, and go and count the pile rather than take the word for it.
- 04
"What is the last thing you had to redo because it reached you wrong, or half done?"
Listen for where the rework starts, which is usually one step earlier than they say.
- 05
"The last time you needed a decision to keep working, who did you go to and how long did it take?"
Listen for how often the answer is you, and what stood still while they waited.
- 06
"What do you keep in a spreadsheet, on paper or in your head because the system cannot do it?"
Listen for workarounds people are proud of; each one is a patch over a broken step.
- 07
"Walk me through the last time a customer chased us. What had happened before they called?"
Listen for the silent gap between finishing the work and telling anyone about it.
- 08
"If you ran this place for a week, what is the first thing you would change?"
Listen for the fix they have clearly rehearsed; people close to the work usually have one ready.
- 09
"What have I asked for in the last month that made your job harder?"
Listen without defending yourself. Write it down and say thank you.
- 10
"Is there anything I should have asked about that I have not?"
Listen through the pause; the best material in the interview often arrives after it.
One rule of technique: ask the question, then stop talking. The question does the work if you let it. When someone drifts into generalities, pull them back with "give me the most recent time that happened." And if the truthful answer to any question might be you, hand that interview to someone you trust; the course covers exactly how.
This is one tool of twelve.
The course takes the answers these questions produce and turns them into a 90-day reset: a one-page baseline your leadership team signs as true, two or three locked outcomes, a stop list, the first system moves, one owner per outcome, and a weekly rhythm that holds it together without you chairing everything. Nine modules, every template, a working spreadsheet workbook. £195, or £495 with video walkthroughs, and thirty days to prove itself or your money back.
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