P3 Questions™ are Purposeful, Powerful, Practical Questions. Here’s a little more about them in an excerpt from Cracking The Rich Code Vol. 7:
To implement and utilize P3 Questions™ effectively, it helps to know how to form them. These are not rules; they are just guidelines to help ensure your questions are purposeful, powerful, and practical. First an example: rather than ask, “How can we improve the automobile seatbelt?”, ask “What can we add to the automobile seatbelt that will dramatically improve safety AND comfort for the wearer?” It may also help to look at each of the three p-words separately.
A purpose is the “why”. Although sometimes the “why” is implied in a question, when it comes to everyday situations, clearly stating the “why” in the question can be extremely valuable. In the seatbelt example, the phrase, “…that will dramatically improve safety AND comfort for the wearer,” effectively addresses the “why” component and gives the question purpose.
There are many ways to make a question powerful. Specificity can help transform an ordinary question to a P3 Question™. More specific questions help engage the creative engine in your mind. We tend to think that greater possibility allows our minds to be freer and more innovative, but the opposite is true. Wide-open, empty space can be difficult to fill. Without prior inspiration (something that sparked an idea), trying to paint on a blank canvas or write on a blank screen is often daunting. However, when given parameters, limitations, or boundaries, our minds are free to focus and generate ideas. Simply using the word “add” instead of “improve” in the example makes the question more specific. That in turn adds power to the question.
Practicality is all about movement. A P3 Question™ should propel us forward. Especially in business, ensuring our questions are practical will contribute to the energy surrounding them. They should involve real problems or anticipated situations. They should lead to better products/services, higher profitability, or simply solutions. Addressing the safety and comfort of drivers and passengers in our example is very practical.
With a better understanding of P3 Questions™, now you might be wondering how questions relate back to love. When you combine love and questions, you get a new body of “saltwater”. God’s Sea™ becomes a medium where our motives and motion are aligned. Love is the antithesis to fear. Questions are the antithesis to apathy. Fear and apathy are two of the most significant and damaging blights on our 21st century culture. Love + Questions—amidst the people we encounter on our voyage—creates hope, and hope is what enables humanity to thrive.
Practically speaking though, how do we live this out? In business, we need to put God first. We are stewards of everything he has given us (which encompasses everything we have). None of it really belongs to us. So, we need to ask things like:
“What would the Owner (God) want me to do with this business?”
“How could I honor God with this decision?”
We also need to remember that God loves us, so P3 Questions™ might be:
“With what has God blessed me that I can enjoy right now?”
“What are the opportunities behind this challenge?”
As for loving other people, consider asking yourself:
“How can I employ my business to help others (in a more meaningful way)?”
When you see someone struggling, instead of asking how you can help, try offering something specific.
“I saw you were struggling with ________. Would it be helpful if I ________?”
From the perspective of people who are loved by other people, pose questions such as:
“Did they mean to be hurtful, or am I creating a false story about that experience?”
“Would this action make [loved one] proud of me or disappointed in me?”
Finally, we need to look inward.
“I am a Child of God. Is this (action/course/decision) what a Child of God would do?”
“What action can I take today to become more like the person God designed me to be?”
Of course, these are only a few examples. The list of possible P3 Questions™ you can ask yourself and others (and God) is virtually limitless. Use questions like these to align your motives and motion so that you can have a purposeful, powerful, practical, and loving impact on the world.
– Eric Beschinski, Cracking the Rich Code Vol. 7, pgs. 152-155