Introduction

Organizations often rely on one-off or ad-hoc processes to create a strategy or a set of initiatives to work on. Ad-hoc processes are better than nothing but the answers quickly become outdated and irrelevant. An alternative is to create a cyclical process that is described here as the "forever question"—a single, open-ended question that’s asked regularly to keep feedback loops fresh and actionable.

A "forever question" can be as simple as: ""What’s one thing that would improve our organization right now?".

Why It Works

• Consistency Without Extra Work: By keeping the question the same, you track shifts in what matters most without reinventing the process every time. This cuts down on the noise and gives you steady cycles of valuable data you can plan around.
• Staying Adaptable: The feedback stays current. As the organization changes, so do the responses, helping leadership stay connected to real-time challenges and opportunities.
• Building Buy-In: Regularly asking for input—and acting on it—signals to your team that their voice matters. It fosters a culture of inclusion and transparency, which keeps people engaged and invested in the organization’s success.
• Reducing negativity: having a predictable cycle gives people a time and a place to share tensions, instead of letting negativity fester.

How It Works

1. Repeat the Question Regularly: Set a consistent frequency, like every quarter, semester, or annually. The key is regularity and predictability.
2. Aggregate and Analyze: Use tools (SimScore) to quickly summarize responses, identify trends, and prioritize actions. This step is crucial for turning feedback into usable insights.
3. Act on It: Make sure the feedback drives changes, whether small operational adjustments or larger strategic shifts.

Blank Board Example

At my company, we asked a version of the forever question every year: "What would make your life, or our customer’s life, better?" We collected five responses from every employee, then held an annual offsite called a "blank board meeting"—because it started with no agenda. Just the responses from the team. Over two days, we used traditional facilitation, randomized small group processing and voting to sift through the responses and prioritize the most important ideas. This process drove our company’s priorities for the following year.

The result? That simple, recurring question helped shape our strategy year after year, guiding the business through constant change and growth. In 11 years, our valuation grew 100x. The catch? This manual process took time and resources—two days offsite and nearly $200k annually.

With SimScore, we’ve reduced this cost by over 99.9%, automating the facilitation and letting teams reach decisions quickly without the overhead.

Conclusion