The order of the ten questions is not irrelevant, Intrinsify recommends precisely this order in order to be able to distinguish traditionally thinking companies from 'happy working places':

Question 1: Why do you work here yourself?

Not as what, what about or in which area, but why? In this way, you can quickly find out what moves the other person. This sharpens the "company why". Companies worth recommending - Intrinsify calls them 'happy working places' - often have a clear picture of their vision for the future.

Question 2: Why does XYZ-GmbH exist?

You should never ask this question before question 1, because then the person asked will answer accordingly. So this is a follow-up question. If a company is not clear about what it wants to achieve, it should not be surprised if there are conflicting directions. In order to get everyone up to speed, traditionally managed companies usually introduce individual target systems and destroy any remaining sense of purpose.

Question 3: How do you become successful?

Intrinsify recommends asking this question in order to expose career ladder and hierarchical thinking. The consultants believe that traditionally managed companies are particularly responsive to the associated opportunities.

Question 4: As an employee, what do I need to obtain authorization for?

According to Intrinsify, the answer reveals a lot about the degree of self-determination and self-organization in the company. 'Happy working places' trust their employees and leave many decisions up to them - some, for example, also with regard to the amount and timing of vacation.

Question 5: What are the most important figures?

'Happy working places' will have reflected intensively on this. Accordingly, answers such as the following are typical: "Financial targets, especially absolute financial targets, are not our focus. They are only the result of excellent value creation. We tend to measure relative targets and focus on our processes."

Question 6: What is your salary based on?

According to Intrinsify, traditionally managed companies often have remuneration systems in which bonuses are based on the achievement of individual targets. If this is the case, you should end the conversation right away, unless abolishing them happens to be the topic. According to Intrinsify, such a classic carrot-and-stick approach is a clear indicator of outdated thinking and the corresponding image of humanity.

Question 7: How are you organized?

A traditionally managed company would probably put down or draw up an organizational chart that "is not up to date at the moment." 'Happy working places', on the other hand, have a harder time with this question and describe the agility of the organization and working in self-organized units.

Question 8: What was the last big mistake and how did you deal with it?

'Happy working places' are very open in answering this question and explain how mistakes contribute to improvement.

Question 9: How do we learn here?

According to Intrinsify, 'happy working places' are learning organizations and have intensively dealt with how they want to learn and why. They have a learning infrastructure and can usually respond off the cuff with a few examples (book list or library, knowledge conference, mentors, innovation days, open space, slack time, or similar).

Question 10: When do you get fired here?

The sensitive question should show whether and how the company has thought about this. According to Intrinsify, one of the 'good' answers could be: "If an employee aggressively claims power, refuses to change for a long time or demonstratively rejects any learning."