Ask why five times

I’ve known about “The 5 Whys” for a while (I mentioned the 5 Whys in my last book, Glimmer), but I was reminded of them recently by AMBQ collaborative team member Bill Welter. He wrote:

Toyota shifted the Japanese car market in the 1980s with an emphasis on quality. Factory workers were encouraged to ask ‘Why?’ at least 5 times. The ‘5 Whys’ technique is still the foundation of quality programs around the world. (Too bad about the recent quality issues at Toyota—maybe they forgot to ask the questions that made them famous.)”

This process of asking 5 whys is not just applicable to making cars—it can be used in almost any type of creative endeavor. It can even be used to make sense of your own life. The design firm IDEO, which is a big practitioner of the 5 Whys methodology, offers this as an example of how asking 5 whys can help you dig down to a deeper truth.

The Five Whys, via IDEO

One might ask, Why stop at five? Why not just keep asking why endlessly? The answer is that you will drive the people around you insane. The comedian Louis C.K. captures this nicely in this bit.

I cover the 5 Whys to much greater extent in my book A More Beautiful Question. For more on The 5 Whys on this site, read my interview with the founder of the Lean Startup Methodology Eric Ries and my interview with actor Stephen Tobolowsky, both of whom practice the simple, almost child-like technique of asking a series of questions to get to a good resolution.

Laura-Linney

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About the Author

Innovation expert and questionologist Warren Berger has studied hundreds of the world’s foremost innovators, entrepreneurs, and creative thinkers to learn how they ask questions, generate original ideas, and solve problems. He is the author or co-author of 12 books, including his three books on questioning: A MORE BEAUTIFUL QUESTION: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas; its follow-up THE BOOK OF BEAUTIFUL QUESTIONS: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead; and BEAUTIFUL QUESTIONS IN THE CLASSROOM: Transforming Classrooms Into Cultures of Curiosity and Inquiry. Warren’s writing has appeared in Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, and The New York Times, and he writes the “Questionologist” blog for Psychology Today. He lives in Mount Kisco, New York. Follow him on Twitter at @GlimmerGuy and subscribe to his blog posts

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  1. Teaching Students to Ask Good Questions | Continental | November 13, 2017
  1. I was unaware that the five whys came from Japan. I have always been interested in their use of Kaizen to improve efficiency.

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