Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Uncover Solutions, and Spark Change pdfdrive com

CHAPTER 3
THE GENERAL’S CHARGE

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Strategic Questions
B
ILL AND
M
ELINDA
G
ATES
didn’t just wake up one morning and decide, over a bowl of
organic oatmeal, to throw themselves and their money at the fight against malaria.
They knew the terrible toll of the disease—symptoms that usually appear within two
weeks of the mosquito bite: fever, chills, headache, and vomiting. They knew that, if
not treated within twenty-four hours, the illness can become acute and kill. They’d
seen the data: The disease was afflicting up to 300 million people a year. Most were
pregnant women and children. Most were in Africa.
?
With their vast wealth and giant foundation, they were looking for
philanthropic investments that could make the biggest difference for the most
people. At a forum of more than 300 health and political leaders in 2007,
Melinda Gates called for an all-out assault: “Advances in science and medicine,
promising research, and the rising concern of people around the world represent
a historic opportunity not just to treat malaria or to control it, but to chart a long-
term course to eradicate it.”
The call to eradicate malaria led to one of the most ambitious mobilizations
of research and medicine in the world. Researchers and doctors made
tremendous progress—in just a few years deaths came down 50 percent—but if
the campaign actually eradicated the disease, it would save millions more lives
and untold suffering. It would unlock immense potential in places where the
disease is a debilitating curse on families, communities, and entire countries.
Defeating malaria would be an epic human achievement. Like other ambitious
undertakings, it requires huge investment, commitment, strategic alliances,
massive time allotments, and boundless energy. But how did the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation and others determine that an ambitious campaign
against Malaria was feasible and could succeed? What did they ask about
objectives, resources, hurdles and challenges that made them come down on the
side of an all-out assault? They posed big, strategic questions.
What is the extent of the problem?
What will it take to succeed?
Are we up to the challenge?

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In
Chapter 2
, I showed you how diagnostic questions help identify a