Think of yourself as first a detective, and secondly a diplomat. There is some background information you would prefer to find out without asking anyone directly, in order to establish your credibility as a skillful investigator. For information not readily available through preliminary research, you will ask people questions, as courteously and non-disruptively as possible. Assume you will be dealing with both cooperative and uncooperative witnesses. With that mindset, find the answers to the following questions:
• What is the critical business issue?
• What are the internal parts of the organization, and how do they relate to each other?
• What is going on in the organization’s business environment, and how is leadership tracking ...