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The Power of Asking ‘How?’ - by Rene Almeling - Behavioral Scientist

behavioralscientist.org · 1,180 words · saved by 1 readers

Lately, when reading news, you might find yourself letting out a series of exasperated “why” questions. Why are politicians enacting policies they know will produce human suffering and environmental harm? Why isn’t more being done to stop mass shootings? Why can’t old enemies figure it out without resorting to bombs? The cascade of Why? Why? Why? It starts in toddlerhood, as young humans learn about the world around them. In school, teachers (ideally) continue to foster our curiosity, encouraging us to develop more thorough accounts of why things happen the way they do. At work, we ask why a project failed or succeeded to figure out how we can improve. The creator of the Toyota Production System, Taiichi Ohno, famously elevated the asking of why to an engineering staple, arguing that posing the question five times sequentially would lead to the root of a problem. But when it comes to human behavior, it can often be more productive and compelling to ask questions that begin with how rat

Lately, when reading news, you might find yourself letting out a series of exasperated “why” questions. Why are politicians enacting policies they know will produce human suffering and environmental harm? Why isn’t more being done to stop mass shootings? Why can’t old enemies figure it out without resorting to bombs? The cascade of Why? Why? Why? It starts in toddlerhood, as young humans learn about the world around them. In school, teachers (ideally) continue to foster our curiosity, encouraging us to develop more thorough accounts of why things happen the way they do. At work, we ask why a p

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