The Power of “Why?”

A few minutes ago I was having a conversation with one of our team members that I am building into and they said something that made my day.

They asked their boss, “why?”  

Why do we do that? Have we ever thought about doing it this way? What would happen if we eliminated that process? 

Questions like these are music to my ears. They are the symphony of improvement. 

This exchange reminded me that we need to hire more “five-year-olds” for our team. Or, the kinds of people that ask “why” about seven hundred times per day. It also reminded me that I don’t want to rupture the curiosity inside the three kids I go home to every night. 

“Because I said so,” is the home version of “because this is the way we have always done things” is at work. 

Both sap curiosity. Both end the symphony. 

Curiosity leads to more questions. Questions lead to more insights. Insights lead to more improvements. Improvements lead back to the symphony. 

The sound of a living organization getting better…