In this episode, Nicole and Ben discuss the importance of asking why and the value that comes with the answers.
Transcript Mayhem and MISfits – Episode 10
Why ask Why
Nicole Grimm
Hello, my name is Nicole Grimm.
Ben Rockey
And I'm Ben Rockey.
Nicole Grimm
And this is mayhem and misfits where we take a fun look at business gamerai and the systems that save them. Today we're going to talk about why it's important to ask why.
Ben Rockey
Why are we asking why?
Nicole Grimm
We're asking why we will get support calls. Requests for help if you will. And we always. Try to bring it back to strategy.
Ben Rockey
Yeah, because a lot of the why questions always lead to kind of fundamental question of. Why are you? Asking this question in the first place.
Nicole Grimm
And you know why, Ben?
Ben Rockey
Yeah, I guess I do. Is that my job to answer that one. OK.
Nicole Grimm
Why ask?
Ben Rockey
Why, why ask? Why it asking why is is fundamentally IS so when you're in an IS department asking why is. Is it the essential nature of anyone working in in IT, and IS? There's a pretty common process we call it. You know, root cause analysis and you see it in a lot of business thinking, system thinking scenarios. We'll, we'll probably talk about lean later, and if you've had any experience with like lean thinking or the Toyota model you've heard of the five whys.
Nicole Grimm
Why, why, why, why, why?
Ben Rockey
And there's some goods and bads to it, but for the most part asking why. Enough times listening to the response and then asking another why question will tend to lead you to a better solution. And then, in the context of strategy like we've talked about before the strategy process of your of your business, understanding what your goals are and the why questions about why call. Came in and. What problem they're having you will find often a line or one answers the other.
Nicole Grimm
Or they don't align, and that's inherently where this issue has come from.
Speaker 3
Right?
Nicole Grimm
So asking why is with this curiosity of a toddler, many people have encountered toddlers, right? They keep asking why, why? We try not. To do it in that annoying tone.
Ben Rockey
Every now and then just be funny, but yeah.
Nicole Grimm
All right, so the typical cycle of getting started here and I guess surprising people with our questions of why would be. When we do get. A request for some help or some sort of problem has triggered that response to. Call somebody else. And that's when we start to ask why, and we don't necessarily jump directly to what's strategy. That wouldn't make any sense, right? Because who's going to follow that bouncing ball?
Ben Rockey
Right?
Nicole Grimm
Or why is it related? To what I'm asking you to help me with, so it's more of a subtle journey, right? Yeah, So what happens when you do? Ask why we've seen that happen before, so not everybody uses this as a foundation.
Ben Rockey
Yeah there are. There are processes. There are things you do in your business that you've always done. And you you came into a business, some untrained, you to do it this way. A lot of times it's something that's. A lot of steps and has problems. But it's the process that was put in. Place it was the thing that you. Knew to do and no one ever just asked the question. Why are we doing it this way?
Nicole Grimm
Larger concept of the why right? Why are we doing it this way? What's the actual purpose? But you may also encounter. Support personnel or someone? Who is is there to assist you with your issue? Whatever the issue. Was that came up is a fix. They need to fix something, they'll just fix it. And move on. Not asking why at all.
Ben Rockey
And that again in IT super common you walk into a problem. To fix something in the IT person in the IT person will just ask why and you'll start to unravel something larger. So an example of that company we work with that deals with a lot of tractor trailers and that those tractor trailers. Have to be maintained and there's a daily schedule to those tractor trailers that come in or I should say, trailers. Not the tractors themselves, but the trailers you know they're coming in and out every day and they have to be prepped and cleaned every day. And there's a a process to clean to get them ready for the next day, and the way that it would work is the dispatch team would call over to the team that that manages it and says hey trailer, 37. 100 and. Three and six we need for a job. At 3:00 o'clock so have them ready, and a manager would write them down on a sheet of paper, and then hand that sheet of paper to a person who would who would go and. Pull the trailers up to the to the clean, the clean stations and do the work and it was all from a paper driven process. Now when they were done. They had a place where they go in and issue a certificate to say this trailer is ready to go to be cleaned so they they would walk up to a a computer and and and type it in to issue a clean tag and then they would e-mail that tag. Back over to the to the Dispatch team so they could have a record of it. The phone call. That brought us into this process was. Hey, we're having a problem. We can't send our emails. From the clean station.
Nicole Grimm
Oh, just from the Clean station Mm-hmm.
Ben Rockey
Just from the clean station so. We walked into a problem where the request was. Hey we have this problem with this process. We need we need to send these PDF files off as an e-mail over. Dispatch and the e-mail is not working. OK well. Let me take a. Look well, I can make the e-mail work so you make the e-mail, e-mail, emails, e-mail. So what's not working? Uh, the Internet connection is bad. Of all the things it's Google.
Speaker 3
So e-mail so emails e-mail.
Nicole Grimm
Google is asking why.
Speaker 3
Yeah so so emails, e-mail and you know.
Ben Rockey
You know, usually when e-mail doesn't work, it's a. It's an Internet problem. So OK, we'll fix the Internet problem. And so you you get to that. Moment you go. So real quick. Why do you guys send? These PDF files over to them. To them to have Oh well. We have to have a record in case anybody asked. Did the did the trailers get cleaned before they're used for the next for? The next job. OK well. Why aren't they being saved somewhere with the file name or something at the? Very least for them to access themselves. Why are you having to e-mail it? Oh well, that's just how. We how we do it. OK well what system are you using to like? Track the work like how to to create the PDF?
Nicole Grimm
To create the PDF.
Ben Rockey
Oh well you know and they go on and explain the process of well dispatch will call. Over and say they need these. These three trailers and I'll write down on a piece of paper and handing them off and then someone will go pull. Those trailers up and they'll go into. The do all the. Cleaning they need to do and then put them into the system and. And then make the PDF and e-mail it. Well, why? Why do you do it this way?
Speaker 3
Well, it's just.
Ben Rockey
Easy right? They call over and they give it to me. I go what? What happens when you're not here? Oh well, on the days that I'm not here, which. Really isn't often don't take. A lot of vacation, but if on the rare occasion, not here, if they've called over and no one picks. Up the phone. They'll just walk over from the other building. And find whoever's whoever is doing the job. Give them the sheet of paper to pull. So we get the straight. This whole thing is dependent upon you being here to get the call. Yeah, or or. Sometimes the e-mail too. Oh, so requests can come in through e-mail or or through a phone call.
Nicole Grimm
Right, so now we can see this line going into process and diving deeper into what is it they're trying to do and how simpler could it be?
Ben Rockey
So much simpler.
Nicole Grimm
Versus obviously fix the immediate problem, sure, but it does elicit a lot of more conversation around.
Ben Rockey
And you and.
Nicole Grimm
Should you be doing it.
Ben Rockey
And as we've said before, or what has been said before, you might have heard before a bad process is still a process. So fix the bad process because. Whatever caused the work stoppage you have. To get working. Again, so not in that moment.
Nicole Grimm
Right not to negate that.
Ben Rockey
You're not going to stop and solve the the master problem. Solve the immediate problem and now the immediate problem is solved. Start to ask questions about why are we doing this way.
Nicole Grimm
Right? Because if we're looking at this situation, we're seeing tons of opportunities to streamline, create efficiency, automate, eliminate redundancy, eliminate. Kinks in the armor if you will, or weak links in the system, there's a lot of opportunities to streamline there just by sharing the story by being invited into viewing the process through solving this one issue.
Ben Rockey
Yeah, now if we you know, dig deeper into a little bit more. Of it, and bringing kind of the strategy conversation. Well, the businesses job was making sure that they could be dispatched to go use these trailers to haul things right. So that's the business. But that whole business hinged on having clean. Trailers available to do that.
Nicole Grimm
Right, which all hinged on this one person never taking a vacation or having a sick day.
Ben Rockey
Never taking a vacations and and ensuring that they could and compile the work between a phone call, a text message and an e-mail. So if you were to start to ask the why questions and then ask the strategy question. Well, if if the goal of the business is the pride to provide the best transportation service we can to our customer. And to do that we need to have clean trailer trailers available at as needed, just in time. Wouldn't having a process where we can track what's going on with the trailers and manage what's happening with the trailers? Align with strategy and improve the process. Of that team.
Nicole Grimm
Right, it's it's a link in the entire chain of delivering that quality, and this is the end result the customer is expecting. So maybe sometimes those links in the proverbial chain will think they're not as important because they're not literally delivering it to the customer, the trailer, the tractor, the equipment, if you will. However, all the. Pieces and parts that are building up to that portion do have. An important factor in that. Process and if they were all equally efficient. Then we could just speed up the delivery and increase the quality and reliability of the entire delivery process. And the result at the customer's hands in the end.
Ben Rockey
Right and. Kind of the first point we. Have here as to the. Misfits is making real. Wins from asking that why conversation?
Nicole Grimm
So the real wins are an example of what all the opportunities we see. And just being curious with that toddler like view of the world is why? Why do you do it this way? Isn't there a better way to do it? Is the underlying? Question we're always asking ourselves. In this industry, or if someone is in this mindset, they're constantly looking for improvements in areas to make. A win out of the ASK or a win out of the interaction. So in this case they. Moved from emails and phone calls.
Ben Rockey
Yeah, to creating a tracking process. To creating a workload process, we can now tell how much we're actually asking of of our team at any given time and how much they're actually getting through this system, because we can check in, check out when it's happening. And we also for the first time can create a database of the work. We can now go back and see. These requests over time are there busier times of the year. There are there times it's not as busy. Maybe we could do more maintenance activities during that time of year there. There's other kinds of work that come up.
Nicole Grimm
If you even went the whole other next generation into this kind of content, if you just took that original ask and this manual process turned it into a database process or a systemized process, then. Add AI to the top of it and even. Perhaps you could see patterns in the material that that trailer hauled. Let's say it was tomatoes and home tomatoes, and that acidic nature or the cleanliness requirements of hauling that kind of material required an hour or more. Cleaning the trailer. Something like that, right? Then you could even make some. Decisions different about the work that your customers are commanding of you. For example, trailers one through 10 will always be 4 tomatoes. They're just the tomato trailers now because the cleaning process is so much more involved or. Or if we can contain those trailers to only tomatoes, we can adjust the cleaning process and make it shorter, because the same product is in it. We don't have to cross. Many kinds of products that would be an example that just came to mind and in only automating this process and able to see those quick wins and have those winds start building upon each other and continuously improving that viewpoint and the operations of the business.
Ben Rockey
And I I think that's a you you brought up something that I think we should. Put a little like. To do and that's. One more level of the difference between. I know how this works and I can see how this works. I think for the most part in a business has been around for for a while. Using your example, they they know well. Clearing out a tomato truck does take another hour like. That's just that's just. What it takes, we know that. But when you can track it. And really see ohh well we. Did know, but actually it takes. Another 30 minutes longer than we actually think, because there's another step that we forget about or. We're just not processing that many tomato trailers on the average that we think we are, so we're setting up too much time or bringing in too much personnel to do this. Or vice, you know, vice versa. We need more to get these things out on schedule. You may perceive that you may have an idea of it, but when you actually have the data to track it, it makes it makes it a big difference. And in this scenario I want to highlight this wasn't some piece of software we went and bought. It didn't require having a programmer make some database tool to. To use this. The customer is using Microsoft Office that includes SharePoint and all this work was done through a SharePoint list. With a few flagged fields and they would attach their PDF to that to that item in SharePoint. And it was all done.
Nicole Grimm
Through SharePoint, but hopefully they they caught the contagious bug of asking why. They could continuously update.
Ben Rockey
The the IS person there absolutely has for sure.
Nicole Grimm
Right? The other thing I think it does is definitely adds or should add to the IT value that the organization is realizing. So if you you turn from the just fix it mindset into this. Why curiosity mindset? Then you can for Sure Start to. Pull the wins together collectively and really start driving value to get more out of the technology that you're already using. In this example, they went from. Just fix this one e-mail thing into a whole systemized process where they can. Ask all these. Other questions and start to make. Make all that investment really work for them.
Ben Rockey
Yeah, one of the other things that goes to IT investments is a lot of businesses will have these tools that they buy for a specific purpose. And in fact, can do so much more so you know when we talk about Office 365 you get things like automation tools that are included in your system and the SharePoint tool that's included in your system and teams just those basic office tools can make significant improvements to your business if you just. Try to figure out how to use them to fix a why problem.
Nicole Grimm
Not even realizing the power of them right? Because you have to come in with this curiosity and then play with it.
Speaker 3
Right?
Ben Rockey
Another example is you, you know, let's say the same same kind of company you're in trucking, and you have a tool to how that handles you're dispatching and and you're assigning drivers, and that's what you primarily bought the product for. But the tool also handles things like financials and sales and customer relationship tools that you may not be taking an advantage of. And handling in different ways like well for customer management and we have. We have two sales people who deal with it and and they take good notes and they're in their, you know e-mail and for the financials. You know we.
Speaker 3
We do scale.
Ben Rockey
Spreadsheets it's fine. That might be the right answer. You may even have a different financial systems for for your accounting team, but are you asking why you're using it differently? Will you get better return or a better view of what's going on with your business? If your tools are integrated? If you have these sales? We were. Making commitments to the customer but no one else can can jump in when needed or can see the commitment that was made on your behalf. There's a lot of opportunity. That you can take out. Of the tools you already have and it. Usually starts with. The why aren't we using this to? Our full potential.
Nicole Grimm
Right, so the the point there would be expanding that wide conversation throughout the organization, right? Creating a culture of asking. By creating a culture of seeking to understand better opportunities, using systems to their full potential, what kind of power are we leaving on the table? If you will, that's baked in.
Ben Rockey
Yeah, you've you've paid for it. What else can you? Be doing with it.
Nicole Grimm
Right and what has changed in the business that may offer the opportunity of a idea already passed by. For example, if you had already kind of assessed. An application and it wouldn't quite fit for you. What has changed since then? Either for the business or the application. Have they more merged together and have offered a better opportunity now? These kinds of things can come up when maybe you're not asking about the Internet going out, but you are asking about a report not showing what you want it to, or we're not getting the information you need to when you need it. So these why questions can come from many different levels of the organization and many different circumstances of issues that have come up. So we would only say that this activity of of asking why and being curious. As we've outlined with. Should be alive and well in your organization. Should be part of your culture. Should be baked into. The whole philosophy so that. Who can constantly look for these opportunities?
Ben Rockey
Yeah, it's a the term continuous improvement comes up. Right? So asking why and becoming a, you know, we we've had previous conversations where we? Talked about strategy. And building intent for your team, letting them know what you're driving for the next iteration of that is empower them to say why are we doing it this way.
Nicole Grimm
Right?
Ben Rockey
What is this supposed to the the real question of why inherently is? Why are we doing this, is it? Actually helping.
Nicole Grimm
Right, if you kind of play with this concept and and are open minded to it. If you will, then it might even change the relationships that you have with your vendors where you're constantly looking for this opportunity to ask why. Maybe of a a why day once a year where you just bring in. These vendors or people that don't quite understand just so they can ask this question with this silly curiosity like the toddler that we've outlined, is just silly curiosity asking, and it might actually trigger some good ideas and concepts from the outside looking in, but you can't quite explain. And those would be the opportunities that you can probably improve. So that would. Change the relationship and what you might be looking for in your help desk and your assistance and your vendors and people that do help you solve problems. Change that relationship and offer that added value. To that interaction. To look for different reasons to ask why? Then you can start building things together, as in your example. A lot of times the customers will come in saying I know that you know systems and you're smart and you can fix things right, but we'll always come in with this curiosity as to why. And then it builds that longer term relationship and tries to get it intertwined. Into the business so that they can start asking those questions themselves and then bring their own tools to the table. Because the best place to have this interaction is right at the hands of who's doing the work. If they are that open minded and ask that why question, then they are the ones who know how they can make incremental change and incremental improvements to that process the whole time instead of just doing what they've always done.
Ben Rockey
Yeah, to that point that you've made. What we're what we're elaborating towards is you have to make space for it, so it's it. There's an element of empowering people to ask why. And also making sure there's room for them to ask why, right? It's not always appropriate to ask why and then take the time to figure out the why in that moment, right? Coming back to earlier fix the pain point fix deal with whatever the problem is in the moment, right?
Nicole Grimm
Internet needs to. Be on.
Ben Rockey
Like this is great. We're going to write a SharePoint. This, but could we maybe just get back to google.com so we can start sending emailing, yeah sure.
Nicole Grimm
Right?
Ben Rockey
So why does have a place? But make sure you're making a placeholder for it when when someone puts that why? Bookmark into your business. Make sure you're coming back to it and saying, OK, we have these meetings set aside or there's these time set aside or there's someone to hand it to. That continuous improvement process has to be given attention and time and energy.
Nicole Grimm
It has to be given its creative space if you will, to blossom and and produce more. So I think that for. The most part are the summary of our takeaways here would be to. Find a technology partner. In our case, it's we're recommending it. That does ask why and is curious as to what you do. This may be challenging at first because it'll be hard to see if if you can find that kind of curiosity or allow for that space and even invite it into the scenario if. You're doing it. From within it, it probably could get momentum faster than if we come in and we are surprising them. With asking them why all the time it does take a little bit more effort to get that ball rolling. Then, as the organization and creating this space for the why and curiosity to live. Then you need. To be open to sharing and exploring that curiosity with them. Not only for the fact that the sharing it will give that space for it to breathe, but also coming back to it later. So you can solve the immediate problem, but then you have to give that space to actually fulfill the. Questions of why and then what would be better in its place and build that out and start experimenting and playing with it and using it. To make that impact. Then making that space for checking in continuously, improving it, adding more opportunities, and solve our bigger, bigger problems. Or actually creating that space for momentum and then keeping that space made and saved there to make sure that it's always got a place to live. Those would be our three top takeaways. I think for today. Anything else to add Ben?
Ben Rockey
You've landed the plane nicely perfect. I already know why you're asking me.
Nicole Grimm
Why alright everyone? I think we've asked why enough today we've hit at least five of them for sure.
Ben Rockey
Five wives
Nicole Grimm
50
Ben Rockey
My gosh yeah.
Nicole Grimm
We thank you for listening and we hope you found some value in this conversation. Please join us again next time for more mayhem and Misfits.