Why Ask Why?
UXD 60001: Principles & Concepts
Reflective Journaling Week 3
There are a lot of reasons to ask the question why. It seems that my professional, personal, and now education worlds are colliding, but the word “why” factors into all of them. The word why and using it to understand is the what stuck with me the most as week three concludes in my UXD Principles and Concepts class.
In Don Norman’s, The Design of Everyday Things he uses Chapter 5 to talk about human error and that in most cases human error boils down to bad design. He also discusses how when something goes wrong whether that is with a process, technology, or operation the investigation stops once it is identified who made the mistake. So the questioning or investigating will stop once blame can be placed on someone. Don Norman points out that if investigating went further more would be uncovered to eliminate the error from happening again because there was probably another reason for the human error in the first place. In a section titled, “The Five Whys”, he talks about root cause analysis and this method of the “Five Whys” that Sakichi Toyota developed for Toyota Motor Company. It was a part of their production processing system and the purpose was even after a reason for the error was found the continued to ask the question “why”.
The reason this was particularly intriguing for me is that I can point to many a times that this has probably happened in my life. Once blame can be placed with someone then the questioning stops. It has happened probably not a only to me, but I am sure that once I have placed blame a time or two, my questioning has stopped. My manager and I have also recently had discussions to increase my “whys” at work. We came up with a list of 10 questions that I can ask in situations where I am wanting to learn more. To find the root cause when in a discussion or in conversations with coworkers. The best thing about this list it is not just one to use at work, it is totally applicable for personal relationships as well. I am sharing it below for anyone else to add to their toolbox.
What else?
What else has brought you to that conclusion?
What’s the question behind the question?
What’s the next best step in your opinion?
What do you feel would be an optimal solution?
What else is important for me to know about this?
Keep asking until there is nothing additional.
Thanks for sharing… is there anything else that I should know?
Say more about that…
How do you feel about all of this?
How might this impact you?
What do you really need or want?
To summarize, the “Five Whys”, any of the whys above, or new ways to ask why—no matter their application are sure to benefit my future learnings as a UXD student, wife, mother, leader, friend, and human in this world we all inhabit.
Photo by Ana Municio on Unsplash