Leadership is inherently about communication. Your ability to communicate well with your team, your boss, your co-workers, and anyone else around you can make or break your career as a leader.

A few months ago, my family received a personal reminder of the importance of quality in the skilled-nursing profession. It was delivered as my elderly father was transitioning from a hospital to a nursing home.

Editor’s note: Read part one here.

Twenty-five years ago, I learned a wonderfully simple model summarizing the four stages of a change process, whether personal or organizational.

Experience teaches us that most quality problems can be preempted, or at least prevented from recurring, if you make it a habit to ask seven simple questions: what, where, who, how much, when, why, and how.