{"id":1787,"date":"2018-04-01T21:23:13","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T04:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b-spoke.net\/?p=1787"},"modified":"2026-06-29T22:00:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T22:00:29","slug":"why-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/2018\/04\/01\/why-today\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Why?&#8217; What Is It Good For (Absolutely Nuthin&#8217;?)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>A Two-Minute Read<\/h6>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/category\/managing-problems\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-214\" src=\"https:\/\/b-spoke.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/problems.png?w=150\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"105\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nAncient wisdom tells us that a great problem-solving process is to the \u201cFive Whys\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Ignore for a moment the fact that it\u2019s not even a process. It\u2019s simply not effective \u2013 for two reasons.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For one thing, asking \u201cWhy\u201d five times \u2013 for anyone over the age of, say, seven \u2013 is a recipe for a knuckle sandwich.<\/li>\n<li>For another, it actually doesn\u2019t solve any problems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The whole idea behind the technique (only tools call it a \u201ctool\u201d) is to get to the point where you say, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d I hate to be presumptuous, but this scenario doesn\u2019t ring true:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1789\" src=\"https:\/\/b-spoke.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/first-why.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"422\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Spoiler alert! In the next scene, the character\u2019s name is \u201cYour Former Boss\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Is \u201cFive Why\u2019s\u201d absolutely useless? How are we supposed to resolve anything if we don\u2019t ask big, open-ended questions?<\/p>\n<h4>Apply As Directed<\/h4>\n<p>The fundamental purpose of problem-solving is to answer \u201cI Don\u2019t Know Why\u201d something happened.<\/p>\n<p>Asking \u201cWhy?\u201d five times \u2013 or a dozen, or a hundred \u2013 won\u2019t <u>solve<\/u> your problem, but it will <u>frame<\/u> it and indicate you\u2019re working on the right thing:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1785\" src=\"https:\/\/b-spoke.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/fifth-why.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"569\" height=\"708\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Problem solved? Hardly!<\/p>\n<p>BUT \u2013 now you know that you have to solve for \u201cNeedles double-punching fabric\u201d, which narrows your focus and expedites getting the <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1788\" src=\"https:\/\/b-spoke.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/its-fun-to-play.png?w=150\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"119\" \/>right problem-solving team in place.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>No Shortcuts<\/h4>\n<p>There are no shortcuts to effective problem-solving. There are, though, longer paths than others.<\/p>\n<p>Asking the famous \u201cFive Why\u2019s\u201d won\u2019t get the job done on its own \u2013 but it will make sure you start your journey at the most appropriate spot.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1784\" src=\"https:\/\/b-spoke.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/shortcut.jpg?w=720\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a style=\"background-color:black;color:white;text-decoration:none;padding:4px 6px;font-family:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Ubuntu, Roboto, Noto, 'Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:bold;line-height:1.2;display:inline-block;border-radius:3px;\" title=\"Download from Evan Dennis\" href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@evan__bray?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=photographer-credit&amp;utm_content=creditBadge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"display:inline-block;padding:2px 3px;\">Banner Photo by Evan Dennis<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a style=\"background-color:black;color:white;text-decoration:none;padding:4px 6px;font-family:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Ubuntu, Roboto, Noto, 'Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:bold;line-height:1.2;display:inline-block;border-radius:3px;\" title=\"Dan Gold\" href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@danielcgold?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=photographer-credit&amp;utm_content=creditBadge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"display:inline-block;padding:2px 3px;\">Train Platform Photo by Dan Gold<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Asking &#8220;Why?&#8221; five times is a great way to get punched in the nose.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s *not* a great &#8220;problem-solving&#8221; methodology. <a href=\"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/2018\/04\/01\/why-today\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8216;Why?&#8217; What Is It Good For (Absolutely Nuthin&#8217;?)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2332,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-1787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-managing-problems","tag-root-cause-analysis"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/why-featured.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2354,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions\/2354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdactmedia.com\/b-spoke\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}