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 Ad-hoc processes are better than nothing but the answers quickly become outdated and irrelevant.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?".
The classic example of this is the use of Retrospectives, using 3 “forever questions” :
- Continue: What is working well?
- Stop: What is not working well?
- Start: What should we try?
Every month or quarter, a team runs a new retrospective and the questions remains the same.
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
- Repeat the Question Regularly: Set a consistent frequency, like every quarter, semester, or annually. The key is regularity and predictability.
- 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.