# How is it Going By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2023-08-07 I once worked for a person who would ask, “How is it going?” followed by “How do you know?”. It was the second question that tended to trip people up. How do we know what we claim to know? That is an excellent question. Asking it prompts people to think more deeply about things than they typically do. People frequently had shallow answers to the question, at least at first. Over time, people started to anticipate this question and would have more fully developed responses. They knew it was coming, and they prepared. People did not like this person at first. They felt that they had been put on the spot and that the answer they provided was lacking. They were embarrassed and resented the person asking the question for their embarrassment. This assessment changed over time. People came to see that they should be able to answer both questions and that there should be “something” behind their assessment of how things are going. There is a great deal of chatter about how difficult it is to change culture. It isn’t that difficult. I witnessed how culture changed simply by asking a question. Now it should be noted the culture reverted to the status quo when the person left. But for a brief period, the culture changed, and people developed more thoughtful answers with a convincing rationale. Changing culture requires holding people to account. Doing so can be uncomfortable. It isn’t that changing organizational culture is really all that hard. It is simply most people don’t have the stomach for it. #### Related Items [[Change]] [[Culture]] [[Questions]] [[Accountability]] [[Comfort]] [[Organization]]