STR.1:4.1 - Begin with the consequential change

Ask what has become difficult, newly possible or no longer credible. Connect the concern to a result for somebody: continuing reliable inspection, entering a new customer relationship, sustaining access to a public service or protecting a person’s livelihood while developing a new practice.

Separate the observation from its interpretation. “Our inspection price has fallen” can be a supplied fact. “Therefore we should sell an integrated service” is already a proposed response. Preserve the fact while keeping more than one response available.

Identify the kind of concern. An actual loss of the ability to serve a customer differs from a forecast of that loss or an opportunity to serve a different customer. An unresolved choice is not itself proof of a present failure. This distinction determines whether the next answer should address an existing difficulty, a possible future or a newly available contribution.

Then ask what happens if the decision is not made now. A real deadline may arise from a contract, an expiring option or an impending allocation of scarce people. An annual planning date can be useful coordination, but it does not itself prove that every strategic assumption needs revision.