Ask Why 5 Times

Recent events in New York and Washington griped our nation and the world. Through the marvels of television, we have a front row seat to world events, and especially those here atnhome. Our emotions range from shock to anger to grief and then hopefully to nrecognizing that life goes on, must go on!

Afterwards we may begin to ask how, and why, and it’s easy to get your head filled with facts from the media, political leaders, government workers and foreign sources. Sometimes we don’t know fact from hypothesis or even fiction.

I’m not going to offer my own set of beliefs and theories at this time, but these events have reminded me that we have a powerful tool at our disposal. We can flesh out our own answers to any tough question. If you want to get to the heart of a problem, any problem, follow this nsimple root-cause analysis process.

Ask WHY or HOW, up to five times!

With your problem, or question, in front of you, ask the first Why or How. I’ll use the following as an example …

Question to customer: Why are you firing us?

Answer 1: We found a better vendor.

Q-2: What about them is better than us?

A-2: Their service is much better.

Q-3: What about our service didn’t you like?

A-3: We have a hard time communicating with you.

Q-4: Who specifically are you speaking of?

A-4: Your customer service people.

Q-5: What specifically about them turned you off?

A-5: They were never available when we needed them.

Deep questioning is the best way to fully understand people and situations. Knee jerk reactions usually backfire, and cause more problems. Like peeling an onion, each layer takes you deeper, until you get to the root cause. Whether you like the answers or not, it’s always better to deal in facts, not fiction.nn