Hypothetical scenario: Test your ability to ask powerful questions.

As a Director, or Executive, you receive a report from your company's Risk Management Committee. The report has been written by the head of Market Risk in relation to currency trading, and states: "At the time of writing, GMD trading operations continue to manage risk responsibly in changing market conditions. Adherence to risk discipline is good."

A couple of months later, the media seek an interview with you to ask how the trading desk managed to lose over $200 million dollars. Your institutional investors are also seeking some answers.

You go back over the reports that you received for your Board meetings, and you look at the two sentences again. This time, it's all too obvious, but at the time you read it, it seemed OK - competent people had written it, and vetted it before it came to you! But you know (or at least are discovering) that hindsight doesn't get you off the hook when your company is spread over the global media, shareholders are angry, customers are losing confidence, and staff morale and productivity are down.

You are, after all, an experienced Director/Executive, and some people in the media are now saying you ought to know how to spot these problems before they arise. Maybe you are new to the job, and you can't be blamed for the situation! Then again, you've been around long enough to know that investors will require some heads to roll. And yours could be one...

Look again at the two sentences. They are the sentences written in a report* to the NAB's Risk Management Executive Committee in November 2003, not long before the NAB discovered that it's trading desk had lost over $350 million - roughly 10% of the Bank's annual profit.

There are at least 8 elements of those two sentences that, individually (and in combination), might be of interest to a Director or Executive - patterns of language that can very easily and subtly slide your mind away from the key issues that, as a caretaker of the company's assets and brand/business, you must be vigilant in considering.

Did you spot the eight? If you did not identify them on the initial reading without hesitation (at normal reading or speaking speed of 150 + words a minute), then you will benefit from the seminar Powerful Questions That Every Director and Executive Must Ask!

It is critical to be able to identify, at normal speech speed and in the midst of a lengthy conversation, the language cues that flag potential problems. If you have to pause and think about what the 8 elements are, you'll stand little chance during a normal conversation or whilst scanning documents.

Have you spotted the 8 yet? If not, (or even if you have), what now?

Having identified the 8 elements, how, specifically, will you tackle the language and deal with the issues raised by those 8 items. Which of the items will you tackle? How will you do that in a few seconds, and effectively? Which will you tackle first, second or third so that the potential problem is identified and a risk strategy implemented to prevent the problems causing damage? How do you do that in a way that works best?

These are some of the matters that will be addressed in the Powerful Questions Workshop.

The Powerful Questions create responsibility and accountability for outcomes, and enable Directors and Executives to identify potential issues at source. With the current requirements of corporate governance, every Director, CEO, CFO, Company Secretary and Executive must know the Powerful Questions.

*Source APRA’s Report into Irregular Currency Options Trading at National Australia Bank