The Power of Why

By Chris A. Stathakis,

Most of us will fit primarily into one of three categories: WHAT-ers, HOW-ers or WHY-ers. The idea is that different people need different questions answered to move forward on any particular task. For instance, WHAT-ers needs to know what you want them to do. They're not particularly concerned about why and they'll figure out how, they just need to know what. The HOW-ers are less interested with the why or the what, but they need to know how you expect them to do something.

Then there are the WHY-ers. They need to know the basics of what  and they feel pretty confident they can come up with the how on their own but what they really want to know is why.  

• Why do you want me to do that?
• Why do we do this that way? 
• And even, why don't we do it this other way?

Recently a team member came to me with the complaint that they were asked to do something that they thought was ridiculous.  My response was "did you ask them why?" If you have children, you have probably been asked "why" a million times and you've probably used the "because I said so, that's why." The "because I said so" does not work so effectively on the job(and I'm not sure it works all that well with kids either). 

WHY is a powerful word! It makes us think and drives real change and innovation. The question why can remind us that perhaps there is a different or better way to do something. Why, though it can be the beginning of great new ideas can also be off-putting sometimes. Maybe we hear it and see it as a criticism of how we are doing something rather than genuine curiosity. Some people can stiffen at the idea of why because they find a great deal of security in long standing practices and policies.

So to use why effectively, use it mindfully. Don't ask why in the heat of a battle or an important job with a tight deadline. Ask afterwards and pick your battles. Every company system and policy has room for improvement but we have to prioritize and fix things as we go. Ask your questions but also try to think in terms of solutions and be open when someone asks you why.  Like UBUNTU shows us, communication must go both ways to build real understanding.