Awaken your inner child
For those of you with children under five or can remember that period aside from the sleep deprivation, you’ll doubtless remember a fairly constant stream of “but why”. And doubtless you either said or came close to saying “because it is what it is”. And of course that is the point where learn that someone has already decided what is the correct answer, our role is to learn what is, not question what is.
And often as we progress through school, the systems deployed to ensure we leave with a certain quantity of knowledge allow us to ask questions in order to understand but also accepting what is established wisdom.
So maybe it’s not such a great surprise that as we enter into the workplace, others in authority around us may say that they are open to questions but it’s a qualified open-ness to questions. An open-ness to questions about what is, but not necessarily why it is. Junior entrants into organisations suffer huge setbacks in their learning and appreciation of organisational systems when this culture pervades as it forces them to learn through an elongated game of 20 questions. They learn quickly that “what” and “how” are greeted with a certain tolerance but “why” comes with a potential loading of challenge to authority or someone else’s invention.
Yet three simple questions can lead organisations to the breakthroughs we all need and we have ourselves to blame if we’ve drummed the courage to ask these out of those who work for us. Get ready, drum-roll please for the most sophisticated of questions that release creativity:
Why?
What if?
Why not?
I’ve only given you five words here so it’s not very hard to remember. But as you reflect on the last working day, count on your fingers how many times you were asked these questions and write it down on the left hand side of a sheet of paper. I bet it isn’t a big number, I’m fairly confident you were able to count on your fingers. Now on the right hand side do the same but for the number of times you used these questions. Counterintuitively if you’re a leader, the number of the right hand side is likely to be lower yet it should actually be higher.
How come these questions are so simple and powerful. Well aside from being easy to remember and I’m a big fan of systems I don’t need to go back to a book to learn afterwards, here you go.
Why? Why can tell us a whole host of things. It can tell us the history of a system or an idea, whether it was crafted collectively or came from the brain of a particular individual. It can tell us something of the culture of an organisation. It can tell us what was expected or hoped for as an outcome of something and it gives you an opening to challenge either whether that outcome is still something the organisation wants, and if it does, it there a better way to achieve it.
In my experience just doing the toddler thing and asking but why is something adults find just a little abrupt and challenging. Often this is because our fight / flight response misinterprets why as a potential attack on our own judgement. The cortisol and adrenaline flow flooding the thinking part of our brain can sometime produce an odd reaction because the brain sees the question as questioning the integrity / honesty / capability of the person.
So as a leader, especially if you’re someone just arrived in an organisation, you may need to give people a little preambular set of words to put them at their ease, after all creativity stems from challenging and improving ideas, we’re not about challenging the person. My favourite in coaching is a variant of I’ve been wondering why. It appears less aggressive, challenging to authority and signals it’s a topic we’re talking about not a person.
From there you can play the game of five whys, questions in succession to get to the heart of an issue that you can then unwind with greater insight. Or mix it up with what if or a why not.
Why are there always long lines to collect a rental car? Because there are a lot of documents that we need to check before handing over an expensive piece of equipment.
Why do we have so many documents to check? Good point, we collect passport and driving licence, could we dispense with a passport if a driving licence is already considered valid as ID and to prove ability to drive? It takes time for our agents to check all these.
Why do we check the documents at the rental counter if the customer already has them when they make the booking, why not collect and check documents in advance of the rental when the customer is less stressed and more organised? Good point, maybe we can collect some information before the trip so this part is done away from the rental lines. That would cut down some of the time but we still then have to spend time looking to match the customer with cars in stock.
Why do we spend time trying to find a car for someone who has booked in advance and when we know they are coming? Sometimes customers return their cars late or extend the rental so we can’t always be sure a specific car will be available always. But this doesn’t happen often.
What if we create a computer system that can check cars in and out, holding capacity in reserve where there are gaps or calculate a free upgrade from more expensive cars that are rarely rented for our best customers.
What if we set out to ensure our most loyal customers who we already know get rewarded for their loyalty skipping the line? Good point, maybe we can create a loyalty programme so that customers help us by providing information in advance which makes things faster and cheaper for us and in return they get to jump the queue. And maybe knowing they only jump the queue by staying loyal to us will help us retain customers and make our offer more than just price based.
When we’re five years old we exist without any foibles at asking these questions, there is no thought of looking stupid, where people expect that we should already know these things. We ask what we want to ask without too much thought. We exist outside the system and we want to know how the system works and the only way we’re going to understand is to ask questions.
When we enter the workplace, move teams or move companies, we’re no longer clearly five years old. We’re probably happy that someone has had confidence in our ability and capability and we want to make a good impression as soon as we join. Sometimes this holds us back from asking the questions we know should really be asked. We are absolutely still outsiders, but we’re not using the advantage being an outsider should bring in our effort to be accepted by those inside the organisation.
Even if you’ve been in your organisation for a while, it’s likely that you have team members you’re hiring or who are moving into your area. Here you have a choice. To let them find their own pathway however long that takes, or you can encourage faster growth by making it very clear that you see why, what if and why not questions as the way the team will grow. In other words, to create the permission space for creativity to happen, not just for them but also for you. You can also tap into their relative ignorance of the way things are by proactively setting up an environment to connect with what they observe as strange, odd, clever, different to their last company. You can consider asking each new team member to write a page at the end of their first 30 days with the things they found puzzling, strange, inefficient, clever, innovative, different, advantageous, threatening. You can use the fact they see detail not just wallpaper in the room to be able to gain insight as your customers see your company, without the loyalty that comes from having been part of how it is.
We often think of creativity as complex. We often think of creativity as having the bright spark of genius ideas that no one has ever though of before. But 80% of creativity comes from having or building an awareness of difference and holding the curiosity to question why. Other experts can help craft solutions but creativity starts just as it did when we were younger and unencumbered by our ego and sense of self-preservation to just wonder why.
