SNC Spotlight

Insurance can be complex. Turn to our blog for up-to-date, relevant content to help you make the best decisions for your financial institution. With expert knowledge from seasoned industry professionals, we simplify insurance topics so you can get back to business.
All Posts

Ask the Next Question

By always asking the next question to gain more understanding, we can have a more complete picture and can continue to react, help, and improve.

State National's Learning and Development Team Encourages the Simple Yet Important Practice of Asking More Questions

 

I don’t want to give away a State National success secret, but there is one important action that applies to most companies and may help your organization as well. One cultural element we strive to instill in all of our learning interactions is to “ask the next question.”

 

As we look to make incremental improvements in our lives as individuals and as a company, sometimes we need to dig a little deeper and learn a little more about a person, situation, or process to spark ideas and uncover opportunities for growth.

 

By always asking the next question to gain more understanding, we can have a more complete picture that can help us more effectively react, help, and improve.

 

Ask the Next Question — and Keep Asking

 

When State National employees enter into any new situation, our Learning & Development team encourages them to assess the circumstances and current status, determine the knowledge level of other players, and notice where in the process they are stepping in. This helps in creating good questions existing team members might not think of because they are already so immersed in the project.

 

If a team has been meeting for two months on a project and then invites you to join as a new member, asking that next question that had been overlooked could help you and the team move forward faster.

 

As your knowledge of the team or process grows, your ability to ask stronger questions will emerge. We have found that innovative, customer-focused ideas often come into view more readily when using this technique.

 

Our team encourages all associates to be active participants and to never fear asking the next question. We consider each person to be a contributor to the success of the project or process improvement.

 

This may seem like common sense, but all too often this approach isn’t built into the culture of companies. At State National, “asking the next question” is a critical component in helping to ensure that everyone is a successful contributor in moving our organization forward.

David Holmes
David Holmes
David Holmes joined State National in 2008 as Director of Learning and Development and spent more than a decade building a learning culture and expanding the sense of “customer first” throughout the company. In his current role as Director, Sales & Service Support, he continues to expand employee service and leadership training, now with a specialized focus on development of State National’s sales team and unique dedicated service team.

Related Posts

5 Factors Contributing to Increased Risk for Auto Lenders

Rising Auto Delinquencies, Higher Charge-Off Risk, and What You Can Do to Protect Your Loan Portfolio

One Size Doesn't Fit All

Unique Partners & Customized Solutions Require Specialization   Learning Is an Ongoing Experience In many industries, learning has a core skill set that is needed for a certain position. Take the fast food industry, for example — teaching an employee to cook and build a consistent burger each time is a skill that can be consistently trained across a multi-store operation. Of course, there will always be new processes and changes that will need to be learned as well, but that core learning is pretty much consistent across the board. However, at State National each of our hundreds of clients has a unique business and requires a unique solution customized to meet their specific situation. This creates the need for information to be readily available and for learning to become an ongoing daily experience. We instill this during our employee onboarding process by teaching each new hire not only about the core learning needed to understand a complex product like portfolio protection, but also about the many variations and customizations that can occur.   Constant Improvement at Every Level Employees, both while in training and throughout their time at State National, are also encouraged to ask questions about and discuss new processes and features with each other to facilitate the spread of that new information across the organization. As their knowledge grows, so does their ability to share more and do more both internally and externally with our clients. This community spread of knowledge and skills across the organization results in a strong learning culture and in retention of a high-quality, well-informed workforce. Each employee plays their own part in our one-of-a-kind dedicated service model, offering the best, most personalized service in our industry. The comprehensive, specialized training plus long-term constant growth of our associates is one of State National's biggest market strengths and one of the big reasons so many organizations choose to partner with State National.   State National Site Visit: Be Our Guest  

Embracing Equity on International Women’s Day 2023

Celebrating women’s achievements, forging women’s empowerment, and building workplaces where women thrive.