In all of my years of consulting, there is one question that I ask my clients.
About 20% attempt to answer it. Of that 20%, 20% of that group does a good job of answering it well. The rest do their best and I commend them for trying.
The other 80% either say “because” (which is a non-answer), get frustrated by the question or simply don’t try to answer it at all.
It is a complex question after all, although deceptively simple in appearance.
If you can’t answer this question in regards to your personal and professional life, then little alarm bells should be going off in your mind.
If your organization cannot answer the question, then the organization is in trouble. You may not see it yet but it is coming.
The question is:
Why?
Consider these examples:
1. Why do you believe you are here on this planet?
2. Why are you in business xyz?
3. Why does your organization exist?
4. Why do you believe your product is better than xyz?
5. Why do you believe you offer something that no one else has?
6. Why should this project that is important to you be important to anyone else?
7. Why did you consider this option when so many others were available?
8. Why do you think your teams are motivated?
Seems like a simple question and yet when I put my strategy hat on and guide clients, it seems that this question gives them the most difficulty.
Consider this paraphrased conversation that I experienced about a year ago. My responses are in italics.
______________________________________________
My product is the best product in space xyz.
Why do you believe it is the best product?
Because it is.
Have you performed due diligence against competitive offerings?
No – I didn’t need to.
Why not?
Because I know my product is the best product on the market.
Hmmmm. Ok. Let’s change direction. Why does your company exist? What need does it solve? What is its purpose?
It exists to create and promote product xyz.
Ahh … I see (now I am getting nervous of the obvious circular reference here). Why do you believe that such a need exists – what does your research tell you?
Well, I didn’t do a lot of research. I know this from what I have observed and what I have been told.
Why do you think you can be successful with no market intelligence or competitive analysis?
I just know it.
Ok. Why would a customer buy this product from you?
Because my product does things that the competitor products don’t do as well.
Why do you believe this if you haven’t gathered any competitive intelligence?
Because I just know.
______________________________________________
Usually by now, they are getting agitated.
I never take their agitation personally. I know that when the agitation sets in, the client is discovering that I have brought something to light that they already knew but didn’t want to admit or face up to.
After all, as Gerald Weinberg, author and consultant once said in “The Secrets of Consulting”:
“The Five-Minute Rule:
Clients always know how to solve their problems, and always tell the solution in the first five minutes.”
Can you answer the question of “Why”?
When you find that your personal or professional life or perhaps the life of your organization seems to be stuck in a quagmire, can you honestly answer the question?
Do your answers stand up to close scrutiny?
If they do, good for you – you are on your way to eventually wrestling your challenges to the ground. It may not be easy, but your eye is “on the prize” and this will keep you focused and moving forward.
If your answers do not stand up to scrutiny, take some time to explore this space. Preferably allow someone to objectively guide you through this exploration. This keeps your exploration honest and authentic and has the best hope of producing a better result.
If you can’t answer this question, you are only pretending to be moving closer to your personal, professional or organizational goals.
You will indeed get somewhere – it just may not be what you hoped for.
Why would you want this to happen?
Why would you allow this to happen?
Why indeed?
In service and servanthood.
Harry
For my Musings-in-a-Minute version of “The Most Important Question of All”, please click here.
