Confronting the brutal questions (and facts) is an approach developed by Jim Collins (2001, 2009) from The Stockdale Paradox, which highlights the challenge of holding unwavering hope at the same time as confronting the brutal facts. Having listened to the news today it feels like this is an approach we all need to develop.

Admiral Jim Stockdale, was a United States military officer who was held captive for eight years during the Vietnam War. As Stockdale told Collins, he never lost faith during his ordeal: “I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”

The paradox is rooted in the fact that, while Stockdale had remarkable faith in the unknowable, he noted that it was the most optimistic of his fellow captives who did not survive the ordeal. They could not contemplate the brutal reality of the situation they found themselves in.

Sometimes asking the brutal questions and confronting brutal facts is vital. If this set of questions is not brutal enough for you, feel free to amend or add!

• Are you happy?
• So, you’re in charge. So what?
• Do you or others put personal interests above your business interests?
• What is working best in your business today? What do you do to contribute to it?
• What is not working in your business? What do you do to contribute to it?
• When was the last time you really talked to your customers/audiences/users about what they really, really want from you?
• Are you prepared to give them what they want?
• What are your most treasured assumptions about your people, customers, markets, products, services and yourself? What if one of them weren’t true? What would you do then?
• Are you out of your depth?

Now, having looked at your brutal questions, what are your brutal facts? What are you going to do about about them?