You are gonna be asked 'why' often in 2021

Why? Is a question asked often these days.

Asking why is a good thing. Do we have a common context of what is really being asked with "why"? Better yet, do we have a common approach to answering "why"?

Bear with me here...

Asking why as an intellectual activity may have a number of motivations:

• Intellectual curiosity: reflective-critical inquiry motivated by a sense of intellectual “wonder.” Why is it this way, rather than another? Why do I need it?
• Understanding of reasoning: involved in the analysis of concepts, the critique of ideas, the conduct of sound reasoning and argumentation; it is important to emphasize that asking "why" fosters intellectual creativity (developing new concepts, or new approaches to problems, identifying new problems, and so on).

As children we learn casually, over and over. We have come to see and experience things and to expect that everything we encounter in the world is either the cause or the effect of something else. This is known as causality.

Causality is one of the ways we know—to know something has come to mean to know its causes and its effects. Causality, reality, and others are among the 12 categories of thought identified by 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant to correspond to forms of understanding.

The short version of why we need to understand cause and effect: We are programmed to think that way.

Take this example:

Client: I need a desk booking system because we have a new remote work policy. Help me explain why to the executive team.

Consultant: How do you know that? Maybe one thing has nothing to do with the other.

We have a duty to "peel the onion" examining the causality of the question "why". There are at least two downsides to causality remaining unexamined:

1. Ignoring the topic keeps valuable information away from both consumers and professionals. If conversations don’t address the assumption of cause and why we should try to uncover it, then it’s unlikely that the “helpers” and the “helped” will have opportunities to learn about the many available non-causal options. None of us should be limited that way.
2. We lose the chance to look at ourselves and our own assumptions. Examining our assumptions is an important, often eye-opening and transformative experience. In the case of causality, when we do look, we see how obsessed we are with cause in everyday life.

Now then! It's coming up on 2021.

You dear reader are going to be asked (I suspect often) - why?

Have the courage to pause. Explain your position at wanting to better understand the causality of the question. Work to remove assumption, effort the conversation towards exploring the non-casual.

This is how we innovate and grow and ultimately learn and communicate what optimized is.

Putting these concepts to good use, join me for Cognitively CRE - The Workplace Leader’s Guide to Digital Tools - December 9th. Why? Ah, because. *joking of course 

We will be exploring WHY you should be using existing enterprise IT systems to mine near real-time data for meaningful workplace insights that inform optimization. Here is a bit of a teaser:

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Wishing you and yours a very merry, peaceful, and healthful holiday season!

 “If you can’t wrap Christmas presents well, at least make it look like they put up a good fight.” – Author Unknown

Please share this article. If it was useful and informative to you it will likely be useful to your network.

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James Waddell is an author and keynote presenter in workplace optimization, technology systems and program management. He has authored an institutional text “The Business of Division 17”. He was a contributing author to the 10th and 14th Edition BICSI TDMM and a contributing author to the first edition PMBOK Construction Edition. Known as a vibrant and energetic guest lecturer and keynote presenter for such leading industry groups as CoreNet, CSI, TFM, NSCA, BICSI and PMI.