Why Chick-fil-A Loves the 7 Primal Questions
And how you can use it as a speaker to lead valuable workshops.
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Three weeks ago, I flew to Dallas to lead a Primal Question workshop for 60 Chick-fil-A operators.
I’ve been facilitating workshops and doing some 1-on-1 coaching with Chick-fil-A leaders for several years now. And they keep inviting me back for one reason: they love the Primal Question.
Today, I’m going to unpack why leaders love this model and how you can start using it as a coach or speaker to maximize results from your engagements.
My 2 Greatest Fears as a Speaker
Every time I step in front of a room full of people, two fears show up.
Fear #1: Boring the room. Nobody wants to be the presenter who has everyone in the room wondering, “How long until lunch?”
Fear #2: Wasting their time by giving them something they can’t use. You can give an interesting talk, but if nobody does anything different on Monday morning, what’s the point?
These fears show up stronger when I’m in a room full of high-level leaders, and if you’re a speaker or trainer, I’m sure you can relate. People running multi-million dollar operations don’t have patience for fluff, so you have to be sharp. The irony is, when the pressure gets cranked up, the temptation is to make the biggest speaking mistake there is:
You overpresent.
I’ve made this mistake more times than I can count, and I see other coaches and speakers making it too.
You get nervous that your idea won’t land on its own, so you overexplain it. You add more stories. More slides. More nuance. You think, “If I don’t explain the whole framework in detail, they won’t get it, and my talk will flop.”
The problem is, when you overpresent, you’re focused on yourself.
It’s all about your story. Your framework. Your ideas.
You’re so focused on your content that you miss the reality in front of you: Leaders are exhausted.
I mean, truly tired. The Chick-fil-A operators I work with are working 60+ hour weeks, managing mostly hourly-wage staff (many of whom are teenagers) to build multi-million dollar franchises. They are not sitting there hoping I’ll go deeper into slide 47.
They’re hoping I’ll either wrap it up soon or give them something they can actually apply to make a difference in their business.
That’s why leaders love it when I talk about the Primal Question model, and it’s why they keep inviting me back.
3 Reasons Leaders Love the Primal Question
It’s Strategic. It goes after the most expensive inefficiency on any team — the Scramble.
It’s Simple. There’s no big system to install. You only need to know one thing about a person.
It’s Applicable. You can put it to work and see results in your very next conversation.
If you want to become a speaker that leaders love to listen to, these are the three things you must deliver in every workshop or talk.
Make sure you’re giving them something high-leverage. Make sure it’s simple enough to remember and explain to their team. And make sure it’s something practical they can start using to get results right away.
Here’s how the Primal Question model accomplishes all three for leaders.
Let’s imagine you’re a Chick-fil-A operator.
You have a lead team member, named Alex, whose Primal Question is Q2: Am I secure?
This means Alex’s most important need in life is financial security. If you don’t know this about him, you risk answering his question with a “no” and sending him straight into a Scramble that costs him and the company.
Watch how easily this happens…
It’s a Monday, and you’re in a rush.
You need to get a meeting on the calendar, so you tell Alex, “I need to have an important conversation with you. Let’s meet on Friday.” To you, it’s nothing. But the moment you walk away, the worst-case scenarios come rushing into his mind.
Is my job at risk?
Are layoffs coming?
How long would my savings even last?
Just like that, he’s in his Scramble.
All week, he works to secure his financial position.
He starts grabbing extra shifts to pad his paycheck. He works extra hard to prove he’s a great team member who should keep his job. Just in case, he dusts off his resume, and one night, he stays up until 2 AM doomscrolling job listings.
The next day, he shows up exhausted, and he keeps making little mistakes that put the entire team behind schedule.
The craziest thing is, the conversation you want to have on Friday is to offer him a promotion!
But since you didn’t know how to speak to his Primal Question, he burned hours of the week, lost sleep, and showed up as a worse version of himself. Here’s the harsh reality for leaders reading this: someone on your team is in their Scramble right now, and it’s costing you precious time, energy, and resources.
This is why learning the Primal Question is so strategic—it eliminates the unnecessary cost of the Scramble.
The good news is, solving it is simple.
All you have to do is learn how to clearly answer one question for each member of your team.
Here’s how that Monday could have gone instead: “Hey Alex, your role on this team is indispensable. You’ve been doing a great job, and we can’t afford to lose you. That’s why I want to sit down on Friday to talk about how we can make sure you’re being rewarded properly for your hard work.”
That’s all it takes. A few extra sentences aimed at their need for security, and you’ve eliminated a week-long, inefficient Scramble before it starts. Instead of spinning, Alex spends the week being an A-player on your team.
Perhaps the best part about the Primal Question model is that it’s immediately applicable.
A leader can pick this up in a couple of hours in a workshop and use it to lead every person on their team better — for the rest of their career. That’s why Chick-fil-A keeps inviting me back to train more of their leaders on this simple, effective model.
And here’s the good news for speakers, trainers, and workshop facilitators:
The power is in the Primal Question model itself!
That means you can learn the model and bring it into your own presentations to transform the way leaders lead.
I’m on a mission to get this model into as many hands as possible, and I can’t do that on my own. I want to train thousands of coaches and speakers in the Primal Question, so they can carry it into their own spaces and use it to impact people I’ll never meet.
I’ve already certified 250+ coaches, including Ben Lundquist, who leads Primal Question workshops for companies like Nike and Kaiser Healthcare.
If you want to get certified, consider joining a future cohort of Primal Question PRO.
Here’s the truth I’ll leave you with if you’re a speaker.
Leaders don’t need more information. They’re drowning in it. They need a tool. Something strategic, simple, and usable, delivered by someone who respects their time.
Give them that, and you’ll always be invited back ✌️
To your impact,
Mike Foster
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