As a parent, grand-parent, carer or teacher, being asked ‘why?’ by a five-year-old is a regular occurrence. It can also be a long haul, because each response you give can prompt another ‘why?’ until you feel yourself backed into corner with no answers left to give. That’s when the common fall back is ‘because it just is’.
No one expects a toddler to be satisfied with it, but at least you’ve ended the conversation. For now.
It is all very different in business, where one of the most empowering questions that anyone can ask is ‘Why?’ Whether you are the employer or the employee it represents the first big step on a journey of collaborative enlightenment. Executive decisions and employees’ actions can both be very fruitfully subjected to this simple question, which investigates, within its three letters, a whole volume of assumptions, hopes, expectations, plans and disappointments.
When the employee asks ‘why?’
This is a situation for employers to think about very carefully. A business is not a military unit where orders are to be followed blindly. Company strategies are best served when every member of the team is working harmoniously towards the same goal. If an employee feels compelled to ask ‘why?’ this is not the time to plough on regardless. It is a moment to pause and remember the importance of empowering your workforce. If an employee is asking you ‘why?’ then at the very least it means they need more information in order to perform their function to the full. It may also indicate that their understanding of the strategy on which you have embarked is imperfect. Either way, you are not going to get the best from them until you can answer that question comprehensively.
Don’t expect your first answer to be sufficient. The employee’s response may be to challenge your reasoning. You shouldn’t feel affronted by this. Instead, have the patience to listen and address their concerns. It’s essential to get every team member in line. It’s entirely possible that their questioning might even cause you to rethink some aspects of the approach. That kind of dialectical engagement could bear fruit as a revised, improved plan.
Never forget that your employees need to feel they have a stake in the success of your business. Their work needs to offer purpose, meaning and fulfilment. If they are prompted to ask ‘why?’ then it’s because they are seeking confirmation of precisely these things. ‘Why are we doing it this way?’ could lead to ‘why are we doing this at all?’ and, most damagingly, to ‘why am I here?’
When the employer asks ‘why?’
Usually this will be part of a post mortem on a target that has been missed or an unsatisfactory outcome. ‘How did we fail?’ is a question focussed on circumstances and may be a legitimate one to ask if you’re concerned to apportion responsibility. But it is regressive by its very nature: focussing on what went wrong not on what could be done better. ‘Why did we fail?’ is a much more searching question because it seeks to address the underlying causes, which may be anything from inadequate training or preparation to a fundamental failure to grasp company policy and vision. It can also be far less accusatory in tone if it asked with the clear intention of identifying how things can be improved in future. In that sense it is a progressive, inclusive question, where ‘how’ can be regressive and confrontational.
Employers are often thought to have all the answers, so they may be uncomfortable asking a question that makes it clear this is not the case. But that in itself is a co-operative gesture, inviting employees to engage in a collective process of development and improvement. ‘Why’ reaches out.
In his powerful book, “Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action”, Simon Sinek examines how leaders from Martin Luther King to Steve Jobs understood the importance of going beyond how you do it and understanding why. This is the heart of true inspiration in business.
Don’t let the fear of ‘why?’ deter you from embracing what can be one of the most productive questions you as an employer can face.
