Asking 'why' again and again is harder than you think, but it works

GEORGE STALK

George Stalk Jr. is senior vice-president of Boston Consulting Group of Canada Ltd. and adjunct professor of strategic management for the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

May 5, 2008

Asking "why" is the basic act of probing. Searching for root causes takes strategy formulation away from the unconscious repetition of past patterns and mimicry of competitors. Asking "why" leads to new insights and innovations that sometimes yield important competitive advantages.

Asking "why" repeatedly is a source of continuous self-renewal, but the act of inquiry itself is an art. It can evoke strong reactions from the questioned. It is rarely welcomed. It is sometimes met with defensiveness and hostility, on the one hand, or, on the other, the patronizing patience reserved by the knowledgeable for the uninformed.

To ask "why" - and "why not" - about basics is to violate the social convention that expertise is to be respected, not challenged. Functional organizations in mature industries have a particular problem in this regard. But growing enterprises in new frontiers must eventually confront the reasons for their success or be displaced by competitors who see things differently.

One risks a lot to challenge the "lord" in his fiefdom.

Questioning the basics - the assumptions that "knowledgeable" people don't question - is disruptive. Probing slows things down, but often to good effect. Probing can yield revolutionary new thoughts in quite unexpected places.

Few new thoughts have been as revolutionary as the Japanese Manufacturing Technique. Toyota was the leader in its development, and over more than 40 years slowly learned to turn upside down the most basic assumptions about how manufacturing must be conceived and organized. Central to this rethinking was tireless probing.

In his book on the Toyota Production System, Taiichi Ohno, formally the vice-president of manufacturing of Toyota, cites the practice of "the five why's." He gives an example of how asking "why" five times (or more) led him through all the explanations to find the most important root cause.

It's easy to say, but difficult to practice.

Suppose a machine stops functioning.

1. "Why did the machine stop functioning?"

"There was an overload, and the fuse blew."

2. "Why was there an overload?"

"It was because lubrication of the bearing was not sufficient."

3. "Why was the lubrication not sufficient?"

"Because the lubrication pump was not pumping sufficiently."

4. "Why was it not pumping sufficiently?"

"The shaft of the pump was worn, and it was rattling."

5. "Why was the shaft worn out?"

"There was no strainer attached, and this caused metal scrap to get in."

To have stopped anywhere along the way would have ended the search before the root cause was found. And there is still value in this example of asking even more "whys." To probe to the limits is to simplify the problem to its essentials and solve one problem rather than five.

To pursue such probing takes a special, strongly motivated person, unless one makes such questioning the norm for the organization. Asking "why" five times is easy to say, but hard to do. It challenges people's knowledge and even self-respect. It can call into question their diligence and the basis of their expertise. It requires fresh thinking on all sides. Yet it's so basic to learning, to seeing new things from the familiar.

The superior must be handled with great interpersonal skill. If you face a superior try using the "five whys" by yourself, first. Then invite the superior to share his wisdom and experience to help you refine and extend your initial effort. If possible, re-visit a decision whose outcome the superior is unhappy with and work with him using five "whys" to see if the decision is indeed the correct one.

Good strategy depends critically on knowing the root causes. Finding them is often a task beyond quantitative analysis. One must look to broader frames of reference and bring basic judgment and common sense to bear. Probing - asking why - is the often intuitive search for the logic that heavy data analysis can miss or bury.

Asking "why" is a qualitative act. It is different from quantitative analysis, but the one gains power from the other. It propels analysis forward by raising new questions to be subjected to rigorous analysis. It takes us beyond the numbers to new answers, new solutions, and new opportunities.

Asking "why" five times is easy in concept, but harder in practice. It can be very rewarding. Why not do it?

THE POWER OF WHY

Asking "why" can raise the questions that are fundamental, but not necessarily answerable through rigorous analysis. These are the basic questions of leadership and common sense. They are the search for "the point."

For example:

Why do we continue in this business?

Why should anyone buy this product?

What will prevent competitors from matching us?

What will we do then?

Why are we making so much money?

Why won't it eventually come to an end?

What must we do now to prepare for or moderate that change?

These sorts of probes search for the bedrock reasons for value and advantages to test how enduring they may be. They ask whether the shape and character of the business and its strategy make sense.

My personal experience says that people react very aggressively when you question their basic assumptions. In fact they assume their basic assumptions as their beliefs.
This technique would work a bit better, when you step down a bit in the beginning and explain that you have some questions to ask, that do not mean you don't believe the system, but these questions just help you to understand the topic better. You will not ask them, if they don't want you to.
When you make a candid confession like this, people embrace you a bit more and are not so averse to your questions.

Give the praise in writing

Leonard Lauder

• What's the best advice you ever got?

Chairman, The Estée Lauder Companies

The best advice I ever got came from my mother, Estée Lauder: She believed that if you had something good to say, you should put it in writing. But if you had something bad to say, you should tell the person to his or her face.

I learned this lesson the hard way. I'm chairman of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and several years ago, I was angry with one of my trustees. I wrote a letter and signed it. But then I decided not to send the letter, and left it on my desk over the weekend. The following Monday I was out of the office, when a temp saw the letter and mailed it. The trustee got very angry and resigned from the board. To this day, writing that letter is something that I regret.


Truly golden words to be remembered.
I've read a beautiful article earlier.
A company owner, while visiting his steel plant, walks around observing things. He notices how a worker has a deep cut on his leg and is still lifting his heavy loads without complaining. He gets touched by the scene. At the end of the month, with his paycheck, he attaches a piece of paper with a simple line of praise for the worker.
He forgets it and things move on. He rises to higher levels and completely forgets about the incident.
Several years later, while inquiring for an address he gets lost and has to stop and ask for directions. He stops at a small old home. After few knocks, an old lady opens the door. Seeing his impeccable attire, she respectfully invites him in and goes inside to fetch some water. The owner wanders around the small room, and sees something on the wall that makes him stop. On the wall he sees his letter in his own handwriting, framed beautifully.
The old woman comes out and explains that it is the single most treasured thing for them in the entire house and very proudly explains how her husband got it.
The owner comes out of the house and almost has tears in his eyes trying to comprehend how a small hand written note of appreciation is the most treasured item for a person and his family. He vows to always write his praises down, so that people remember their moments of appreciation.

Human nature has a craving for appreciation. No one would argue that. An employee works best when he feels important in the organization. When my work is appreciated, I almost feel like I have springs in my shoes. I just have more energy to work than any source could ever give me.

Everytime my boss says, "Raghu I like the way you have done this project, good job" I feel good for the second. But I always wished for having something in writing. My previous boss, with whom I worked as an intern, gave me two performance reviews in writing. Those two sheets have been treasured ever since and I feel so proud looking back at them.

My personal experience also emphasizes the same. My most treasured items are hand written letters from my sisters. We may have shared innumerable gifts over the years, but everything loses its charm, compared to a handwritten letter from her.

In business again, the most valuable thing you could give to someone working under you would be a hand written letter of appreciation. Another rule for me would be: Always have written performance reviews.

I like other important point mentioned by Leonard: If you have a negative thing to say, say it on the face. So that he would forget it soon.

Search for people...who can teach you

Andrea Guerra

• What's the best advice you ever got?

CEO, Luxottica

The piece of good advice came from my first boss, when I was a young man starting out on my career. I was working at Marriott. He told me that in your first years of business life, you shouldn't go chasing after fancy titles, but try to find people who can teach you something.

Business deal

Joanna Shields

• What's the best advice you ever got?

President, Bebo.com

I go back to things my dad said: "Your career is long and the business world is small. Always act with integrity. Never take the last dollar off the table." In my dealings to sell Bebo [to AOL], this advice was critical. You can always do a slightly better deal, but that incremental dollar or windfall is not worth creating an imbalance that affects the relationship. You have to have the intuition to know when to say, "I'm going to make sure that we walk away feeling like we've both done well."



Always try to end up with a win win situation, if you want to be in the business for long.

Golden words in the beginnning of your business

Charlene Begley

• What's the best advice you ever got?

President and CEO, GE Enterprise Solutions

I was about to transition to a new role, heading GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, and Jeff Immelt, before he became CEO, gave me this advice: Spend a ton of time with your customers. Especially when you're new, the first thing you should do is go out to customers and ask them how you compare with competitors, how your service is, what they think of your products. At General Electric, people tend to get enamored with your title, and people want to look good in front of you. Customers will give you the reality. They don't care about your title, they just want value. You'll never get anything straighter than from a customer.


Just looking back, that was a key to Dad's supermarket success also. He was very close with the customers and most treated him as a family member rather than a businessman selling his goods. So he unknowingly always had a pulse for their preferences and priorities.

Be the most humble, and you will be on top

Sam Palmisano

• What's the best advice you ever got?

Chairman and CEO, IBM

Some of the best advice I ever received was unspoken. Over the course of my IBM career I've observed many CEOs, heads of state, and others in positions of great authority. I've noticed that some of the most effective leaders don't make themselves the center of attention. They are respectful. They listen. This is an appealing personal quality, but it's also an effective leadership attribute. Their selflessness makes the people around them comfortable. People open up, speak up, contribute. They give those leaders their very best.


Even when you are speaking to the operator on the floor, give a lot of respect and give them the credit. Be as selfless as possible.

People follow only those leaders willfully, who are most concerned about the growth and well being of their people and his main aim is be the servant of his people.
If there are five friends living together, and its lunch time without any lunch cooked, the person who takes the pain to cook himself, is the one who is most respected.