Why A 3 Yr Old Is Smarter Than You - The Power Of Asking Why
{This is a partial transcript of the audio, I've left various portions out}
I'm going to try something new today. I recently wrote a piece on context, how much it matters, and how rarely we strive to fully understand the context in which something is originally presented before jumping to conclusions about its meaning. To that end I figured I'd do this in audio, perhaps it's a better medium when it comes to truly understanding the way in which the author (that's me) intended for it to be received. We'll see, I'm not wholly convinced, mainly because I found I don't particularly like sitting in a room alone talking to a microphone, but let me know your thoughts.
While writing that piece regarding context, which is over at brasstackthinking.com if you care to give it a read, I mentioned how important it is to question information. What was the source of it? Is that source biased? Was that source talking about it in a narrow context? etc. There are a lot of "what's" in there, but very little "why". That post was already too long as it was, so I left it alone, but seeing as how the topic of "why" is one of the first things I discuss with my clients, and in my opinion one of the most important, I thought this might be a good opportunity to throw a few of my thoughts out there.
Think about this scenario for a second. It's the old cliche' we say about children constantly asking "why", you know, "why is the sky blue". We make fun of these questions because they are those seemingly obvious questions, that somehow over time we stopped asking. Somehow we stopped searching for these answers because it was hard, either to come up with the answer, or to simplify into easy to understand terms. This is why your 3 yr old is smarter than you, they are still asking 'why'.
"Why" is THE most important question you can ask. Whether you are a business owner (why am I doing THIS business), a consultant (why is hopefully already in your vocabulary), a department head (why are my goals the ones they are), or low employee on the totem pole (why does my employer want that). If "What" and "how" are portions of the strategic and tactical chain, then "Why" is what the chain is connected to. How many times have you seen a company going down a path without really knowing why? How many times have you worked on great projects, but didn't really know why that project was the one chosen when there were others that were not?
At all levels it is this question of 'why' that can add insight, provide clarity, and guide everyone along the same path. But just as important, asking why allows you to back out from the ultimate objective vs. being constrained by someone elses definition of 'what' the solution is.
So don't let that 3 yr old remain smarter than you. Start asking why.
On a side note, yes, I realize that I mixed in some "what's" in place of "why's", etc. when I listened back to it. Sorry about that, hopefully the point still comes across.
(By the way, the sky is not blue you just perceive it to be due to a process where certain lightwaves are scattered as they pass through our atmosphere.)
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