WHAT
The Central Intelligence Agency developed the Phoenix checklist questions to encourage agents to look at challenges from many different viewpoints.[1] Exploring the first set of questions—the problem set—can help to identify, clarify, and prioritize problems.[2] The second set of questions—the plan set—guide solution planning.
The questions are carefully ordered to allow the current question to be answered without depending on answers to later questions. Nonetheless, it is natural and useful to iterate through the list several times because addressing later questions often provides insights useful for addressing earlier questions.
To use the checklist, begin with a tentative problem statement or challenge statement. Start with the first question on the list, and consider, explore, deliberate, and answer that question. Continue addressing each question in the order they are listed. Write down the answers; revise them as new insights emerge. Iterate to integrate new insights. Continue until a firm problem definition emerges. With a firm problem definition in hand, begin addressing the planning questions to develop a firm action plan.
WHY
Every Social Entrepreneur is faced with identifying the problem they intend to tackle and the solution they intend to develop to deliver a positive impact on their targeted problem.
The Phoenix Checklist is one of the most useful tools to utilize along with other tools to tackle these two critical tasks.
HOW
The Checklist directs you to organize your research, and planning to answer critical questions related to your problem and potential solution. (Below)
Suggestion, review the Toolbox along with Module7 and Appendix 1 in the Practitioner Guide for additional assistance.
The Problem | The Plan |
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"The curse of modernity is that we are increasingly populated by a class of people who are better at explaining than understanding, or better at explaining than doing.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
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