Critical Strategic Questions for Riya

As many of you know by now, Munjal Shah is the CEO of Riya.  Riya's been an interesting illustration of the use of transparency to enhance visibility.  Munjal continues his series on the metamorphosis of the business.  He got a little "ink love" on the topic from the Wall Street Journal last week by Becky Buckman in her article about the Web advertising market.  Here he talks about the Board meeting we had a few months ago in which we basically said "Yeah, you're right. Go for it."   

What Munjal doesn't mention in this write-up is that he didn't just announce this proposed change at the Board meeting.  The Board meeting was an in-depth review of the thoughts he had shared in conversations he had with each of us the two weeks preceding the meeting.  By the time of the meeting we were all (1) aware of the issues and (2) aware of his proposal.  Consequently, we came prepared with a few focused questions, not off-the-cuff reactions.   More importantly, we came prepared to make a decision.   

Three hours later we emerged, united in our go forward plan.

This is the back story about how to lead a process of change -- board level or any other team.  Bring everyone  with you along  the way. Don't think you have to have the "complete answer" before you engage others who are critical to your success.  Leadership isn't about having all the right answers.  It more about having all the  right questions.