Why and What

by | Jan 27, 2022 | Change, ICT4D, Ideas, Questions |

why

Why? It is such a good question. As is what. Simon Sinek wrote a book encouraging us to ‘Start with Why‘. Sakichi Toyod, creator of the Toyota Company, also created the ‘5 whys’ root cause analysis technique, which most big consulting firms helped popularise. And many children under 10 terrorise their parents with never stopping asking why.

It is a powerful question. We all know this. And yet, it appears to be rarely asked. Perhaps we feel embarrassed to ask as we assume the answer is obvious. Or we assume everyone else knows the answer and therefore we are fearful of looking silly. And so we don’t ask.

This is evident with technology all the time. We create, invent, include technology in projects, but we don’t know why. We talk about needing or wanting to share data because we think it is the right thing to do or what is expected. But we don’t know why we are doing it. And sometimes we don’t even know what data we are even talking about sharing. We talk about or include in projects elaborate processes, but we haven’t answered why and what.

If you are confused about a project, perhaps answering these questions is a good place to start.

Photo by Jonas Stolle

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