Thoughtful post today on LinkedIn Answers: Seeing Life thru the eyes of a 4 1/2 year old
What I really found most interesting were the responses. Some cited “no time” while quite a few mentioned “going along to get along” as the reason why as adults we don’t ask Why questions. I know I’m guilty but quite frankly, at least in my recent work situations, those who ask Why aren’t necessarily thought of as rational but instead as trouble makers. Why is typically answered with “That’s the directive/decision/strategy”. That is an acceptable answer but if you expect employees to rally behind something and give it their all then you need to answer their Why questions. Remember you hired these people, so give them the benefit of the doubt and answer their questions. I’m guessing as adults we don’t ask Why to often because it may also be seen as a sign of weakness. You don’t know the Why but others do, what would my boss say if I don’t know Why.
Asking Why is natural. When we stifle it we lose all around. We lose innovation and discoveries. We should all strive to ask at least one Why question a day and try to answer it. Nothing too mind-blowing. Think of what your child, nephew/niece, younger sibling. etc… would ask and then come up with an answer. One of the LinkedIn responses pretty much sums it all up:
A child asks questions and expects that they all have answers. As we grow older, we grow used to the idea that some questions can’t be answered, or that they require such an enormous investment in time and energy that we can’t realistically hope to get (or understand) the answer. Enough of that, and we begin to ask fewer questions. Most people probably retain their curiosity (I think I do), just not the initiative to ask the questions when they realize that the answers aren’t readily available.
This is, of course, a grievous error, because some answers aren’t as difficult to come by as we assume. And by making the poor assumption, we fail to ask, and consequently fail to get an answer that might be helpful/surprising/interesting/etc.
- mclaus
