The Fundamentals of Asking Why

What is the elevator pitch of this concept?

The first one is understanding and ensuring buy-in before we take an action. People have an inherent need to understand why we are asking them to do something. The second one, and probably the most common one, is within problem solving. Everybody has heard of 5xWhy. But it really is around removing preconceived ideas, so we start to talk with facts and truly understand what the situation is as opposed to just jumping into a solution mode. The third and the final one is around continual and continuous improvement. In some respects it is very similar to problem solving, but it is much more about challenging the status quo and stretching people, understanding where they are at and where they need to be.

Put in a nutshell:

• We should explain the why when we are deploying any task
• We should ask why to understand the root cause of problems
• We should explain the why when we train our people
• We give the why so we are talking with facts
• We give the why so we can keep the continuous improvement wheel running
• We give the why to avoid conflict and confusion

Why do we ask why?

If we don’t ask, or are not told, why a decision was made, why a strategy was deemed to be the best, why a plan was changed, a product was held back, a campaign was cut short, a bonus wasn’t awarded – then we don’t know. When we don’t know, three things happen.

1.????? We make up the story ourselves

2.????? We make decisions based on assumptions not facts

3.????? We create potential conflicts with our peers

What role does psychological safety play in fostering the Ask Why mindset?

There needs to be a certain element of psychological safety and trust. That is the basis for everything. If you, as an employee, don't feel like you can challenge the status quo in your team, you will never do that. But if your leader and your entire team is constantly asking why and almost happy to find something that can be improved, that's a whole different mindset.

If I enter an area that's been working with "Ask Why" as a daily practice, what can we tangibly see?

We can see engagement in our people. Activities become active rather than being driven. Continuous improvement is happening, and you can see it. Targets are challenged. We have challenged targets on our performance boards, and people are coming up with solutions and ideas all day, every day. If we relate that to problem solving, engagement means that problem solving has become a behaviour, not a piece of paper that people have to fill in. And if we can make that change, if we can get that engagement, then the question why and the understanding of why is clear, and that's what I would be looking for in any area. How are my people engaged in what we are asking them to do?

And hopefully we will hear less, "This is how we have always done things."

How can I make this concept become a habit that sticks?

Here is one inspiration for you. Write Ask Why ?? on a sticky note and stick it on your computer screen for example or next to your performance board or next to wherever you work, just to have that as a constant reminder for some time. If you've practiced that every single day looking at that sticky note, you should be able to after one month or so throw the sticky note away and have it engraved in your brain.

What is the importance of Asking Why as a leader?

John Dawber , CVP in Novo Nordisk reflects on the topic.

When working as a leader in Japan for almost 5 years I became fascinated by context, and how the Japanese colleagues could understand things precisely, even without words. The “why” of a situation, the place, the time, the person, the role, the background, the precedent, were all understood implicitly by my colleagues, but much less so by me! But this did teach me to think more deeply about facts, situations, or decisions that are placed in front of me as a leader. Many times since, when faced with the opportunity to connect the dots quickly, intuitively, conclude and move on, I remind myself that I could be wrong, and maybe, just maybe there is something that I’m not seeing, which will lead me to a different conclusion and perhaps a better decision or outcome.

In my next role in Asia, I was faced with an organization with 20% employee attrition and an organization that was hemorrhaging talent. Superficially, it was easy to conclude that we did not pay high enough salaries. After several levels of investigating “why”, we found that the issue was onboarding, and communication, and trust. Two years later, after fixing the “why’s”, attrition was down to <5% and we were rehiring top talents for salary decreases.

Of course, this takes time, and sometimes we convince ourselves that we don’t have that time. But even in a crisis, we may have time to think, ask a few questions, and shape a more considered decision.

Now working in GBS, I can sometimes still forget to ask “why”, I can jump to conclusions, and when I do the outcome is almost never positive. Sometimes asking why can frustrate people, because they just seek a yes/no/stop/go, but in my experience the “why” is important. It makes for fewer mistakes, improved trust, and for me at least, better decisions!

For further inspiration, check out this Ted Talk from Simon Sinek – How great leaders inspire action.

Stine Christensen Klinger has kindly made the below visual one-pager summarising the key points of Asking Why.

Do you have any questions around the Asking Why concept? How do you practice it, what are your challenges, what are your examples? Let us know in the comments section. We would love to hear from you.

Next in line is the third and final fundamental Lean behaviour of Showing Respect, which is planned for release around the holidays ??

Best,

Kev Shapcott and Ani Movsisyan