Why we need to ask "Why"

Why? 1 word that is an entire question. 2 year olds are infamous for asking why all the time:

• Why is the sky blue?
• Why do you have to work?
• Why can't we have ice cream for dinner every night?

The question of WHY seeks out the root, the purpose, the motivation, the heart of something. It goes deeper than "what". What is fact driven, why is emotional.

Personal/Organizational Why

I have spent a great deal of time listening to Simon Sinek speak and reading his books. If you don't know Simon Sinek, he his known for his "Start with Why" concept. This is the deep emotional inspriation we have to do something. We all have a personal why and he argues that all organizations should have an organtional why. For both individuals and organizations, it is important we understand and are able to articulate our why, our purpose, what inspires us.

As I state in my summary, my personal why is to "help people be at their most effective state". I did not really understand this is what drove me until a boss said that this was our team motto and I realized it perfectly captured what inspires me every day.

Our WHY should drive our HOW and our WHAT.

WHAT I do is write code to extend the NetSuite platform for businesses as a NetSuite Solutions Architect at Blue Banyan Solutions.

Our HOW is what makes us unique. In business, we may call it the "differentiating factor" or "business proposition". It is the same idea personally. What is my HOW? I am helping people realize their most effective states through training their people, improving their processes, enhancing their systems, and refining their success measurements. I sum this up as either people/process/systems/measurement, or, as the great book The Phoenix Project calls it "Man, Method, Machine, Measure".

In other words, I go beyond technology. I am not defined by being a developer or architect, but by something much more. My why - to help people be at their most effective state - drives my how and my what professionally and many other aspects of my life.

Why in tasks

Now asking why is not just important as this philosophical driving force, but it is also critical in understanding tasks we are doing at work or at home.

How often does someone just tell you what they need or want:

• I need all the revenue numbers broken down by region by Friday
• I need a button that automatically sends my purchase order to our vendor.
• I need a website with a blue background, 3 columns, a header image, and a unicorn that dances across the screen.

No matter the ask, we are often told WHAT someone wants, sometimes told the exact HOW it should be done, but so often we are not told why.

In the Agile SCRUM process, we create new stories for features we are asked to build. The format for stories always contains 3 elements - why, what, and who. The format I like the most starts with why: In order to <accomplish some goal, the why>, I need < some feature, the what>, as a <certain role, the who>.

Often times, building only the what (which some people want to include the how it should be done), gives people what they asked for but not what they need. When we understand WHY someone needs something, we can look beyond the "what" and design and build something that truly meets the underline purpose that could be beyond what they imagined.

Conclusion

So why do you do what you do? What inspires you to get up each day?

Does your organization have a clear why? This would be more than just describing what they sell and how it is different from a competitor. It is something deeper. It is also not "to make money". Money is a means, not the end (also a topic for a whole other post).

Finally, do you ask why you are doing a given task? If you don't, why not? If you do, how does that go?

*As with every post I write, these questions are not intended to be rhetorical. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!