Remember To Ask “Why”

In 2012, there was a television commercial for Hyundai Sonata featuring a little boy following a man doing yard work and asking him “why?” about various questions.  At the end of the commercial, the man looks at his neighbor and then to the boy where he says, “Why don’t you go ask your Dad?”

It seems somewhere between childhood and management, leaders stop asking “why”.

The 5 Whys is a formal iterative question-asking technique used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem. The primary goal of the technique is to determine the root cause of a defect or problem. The “5” in the name derives from an empirical observation on the number of iterations typically required to resolve the problem.

Great leaders are always trying to understand what’s going on.

Leaders who empower their team to ask “why” have more success.

Explore posts in the same categories: Leadership, Performance Acceleration

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