Why do I … ?

That is an interesting question I ponder often. Certain things strike my fancy or I wonder why things work a certain way, or why they don’t work a certain way?

So why do I write? Why do I blog specifically?

Much like you, my readers, I suppose there are many differing reasons. Perhaps I like to rattle off opinions, perhaps I use this medium as journal of sorts to record my thoughts, or perhaps I want to spark a small conversation in a small community.

All of these do revolve around the core of why I blog, but perhaps an even better way in which to discover why I write might be to ask what is it that I like most about writing - about blogging?

I think perhaps at the core of my being is an insatiable thirst for knowledge. I think what I have found I most enjoy about writing is that it flips a switch in my mind; it keeps me observant - always prodding me to ask why, even more than I already might otherwise.

As I’m washing dishes, or going to the park with my daughter, or working through a complex issue within my business I’m always tilting my head to the side - challenging myself to try and look at the situation a smidge differently.

It is not without its complications. There are times when asking why has caused me more grief than not knowing. However, I have to remind myself that no one said knowledge would be without pain or insult. I asked for the blinders to be removed. How else can I be prepared for the inevitable, the always onward-marching, change?

So it is, that I sit here before a monitor, with the click, clack, click of the keyboard keeping beat with my thoughts that I challenge myself to another discovery - however small - each day; I enter a contest, of sorts, to see how many times I can discover a new truth, a new reason, a new dance of cause and effect.

What is it that tugs at you to keep you writing?

Image courtesy of  creator of circumstance

In David Allen’s book Getting Things Done, he explains the “Natural Planning Techniques” as having five distinct phases. These phases are both necessary and are part of everyone’s decision making process in some shape or fashion.

These five phases are: purpose, principals, vision/outcome, brainstorming, and organizing. As I have said many times before, I believe one of the keys in the decision process is defining purpose, or asking “why?” David goes on to say:

 

Here are just some of the benefits of asking “why?”:

• It defines success.
• It creates decision-making criteria.
• It aligns resources.
• It motivates.
• It clarifies focus.
• It expands options.

David believes that everyone wants to win. While I believe this to be generally true, I believe there is a much more fundamental reason: I believe everyone wants to know “why?”:

• Why do I need to write this new syllabus?
• Why do I need to spend time doing the dishes?
• Why am I here and why do I exist - what is my purpose?

In other words, we seek validation - validation for many things, be it something simple like, ”Am I doing a good job on a new project I’m working on?”, or something more complex such as, “Am I being the best father I can be?”

While there are many sources we look towards for validation, and each of us focuses in differing levels of consciousness on the “why” question, fundamentally we all want to know why we are doing something or why we should do something - but for some reason it doesn’t always make itself clear to us.

But is “why” good enough?

Sure you are getting data by asking why, but are you gaining actionable intelligence? The information is now in your hands to assimilate and apply. In other words, the application of your gathered information directed towards a desired outcome is required for success - required to win.

That means you not only have to know how to ask “why” questions, but why you need to ask why. You see my friends, “why” questions can help you uncover your purpose, but asking why is academic unless you are willing to trade fanciful philosophy sessions for rubber-meets-the-road execution.

Those who want to know “why” want to win. In defining purpose, we awaken to realize we are standing on a very dangerous precipice - between action and inaction; and there is a choice to be made. Should we falter in not taking action, we will most assuredly fall into the category of the loser. Asking “why” does not dictate successful outcomes but I believe David Allen said it best:

People love to win. If you’re not totally clear about the purpose of what you’re doing, you have no chance of winning.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

Are you the type of person who always asks why? Or do you get annoyed with the person that is always asking why?

All throughout my days in school, and 14 years in business, I have not had the pleasure of meeting nearly enough people interested asking questions.  Understanding reasons behind why or how things work a certain way- and why or how they don’t work another - is really a rare trait, I have found.

So why ask why?

Many people are satisfied with surface reasons why a process is the way it is, how a piece of software works, or why they were passed over for a promotion. Their satisfaction is superficial.

What about those individuals that ask so many questions? Are they seeking knowledge, truth, wisdom? Or are they simply just not getting it? Do you get annoyed with that one person in your office that just can’t seem to get it despite their best intentions? Come on, I know you have one in your office or workplace.

I had to ask myself that question in the recent past… and the answer I came up with was startling. The problem wasn’t with ‘the other guy’ - It was with me.

You see, even though I ask questions, I never annoy people - well not usually, do I? I’m not that guy, am I?

You see I have been on both sides of the fence. So while it is easy for me to cast stones from my pedestal of knowledge, I discovered that I was the one that did not know see the true meaning; I found that my attitude of self-service truly shut my eyes to real meaning in life. In other words, my heart and mind were not geared to help others find answers, it was geared to help me satisfy my thirst.

I found there is a better way… to ask why, and how, and always seek answers not for my personal benefit - but for the betterment of those I serve, those whom in which I place my trust, those whom I love.

You see I am now an instigator of betterment not because I can ask, “why?” Even though this trait is indeed rare, what is even more scare are those with a true sense of wonderment and desire to share.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

Another guest post by a good friend and author, Corey Smith, mastermind behind the business and technology blog, masterthebusiness.com. In his spare time, Corey has also founded several companies to include Resumango and TributeMedia as well as being the Chief Web Architect for Dealer Marketing Systems and Editor-in-Chief at Office Product News. I do hope you enjoy reading this post as much as I did.

I have spent a little time thinking about the questions we ask to uncover problems in our businesses, but “why” seems to be the question we always forget.

I have been talking a bit about identifying and solving business problems. One of my first posts was The two most important questions sales people never ask.

When we are working to understand business problems, it becomes even more important to ask the question why. If we don’t understand why we do something, we may never be able to figure out how to change.

If you identify that an employee walks across the building four times a day to hand deliver a report, you may say, “You know, if you email the report, you don’t need to walk every day.” When you ask why, you might find that the answer is, “The person at the other end doesn’t have a computer because of the nature of that person’s job.” In that case, another solution may be considered.

You never know what the answer to the question ‘why’ might bring. Sure, you run the risk of sounding like a seven year old, but it will help you develop the right solution for the right problem.

 Corey Smith’s business and technology blog provides a common sense approach to running your business. He also maintains a news feed service for the copier, printer and document management industries.

I have just spent the past 3 weeks working with my firewall vendor’s technical support trying to extend our corporate VoIP network to our branch offices.  It was suppose to be a simple thing and only require a few clicks of the mouse…

Let me start by saying a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone system is a wonderful solution to expand the corporate phone system into branch offices and finally connect corporate associates with branch associates. This helps with productivity as call groups can be rerouted without a lot of hassle and phone messaging systems can usually be integrated with e-mail messaging systems, such as Microsoft Exchange. The best thing is technology prices have made a VoIP solution affordable for the SMB.

The challenge is that it does require a higher degree of technical skill to handle a multi-site solution and making some things work can be very tricky. Although many people claim maintaining a VoIP phone system is usually less maintenance, this is not entirely true. The adds, moves, and changes are much easier - in fact just about anyone can be trained to do this. It is the expansions that can get you stuck in the mud. Additionally, several different vendors must often be involved, because a VoIP phone system lives on top of several other layers. This is not a bad thing, but just a simple fact to be aware of.

After spending a little while on the phone with our vendor support for the VoIP phone system, we quickly came to the conclusion there were some configuration issues in our firewall routing - the phones couldn’t talk to each other. The strangest thing was we could place all calls from each branch office back to corporate, but the branch offices could not talk with one another without dialing an outside line.

After working almost 3 weeks with the firewall vendor’s technical support, the engineer stops today and asks us why we didn’t want to configure it another way versus what we were trying to do? I stopped dead in my tracks and put my head in my hand. Why didn’t I think of this 2 weeks ago? More importantly why didn’t he recommend this 2 weeks ago when we were beating our heads against the wall fruitlessly attempting to make a certain configuration work?

Here are the lessons I took away from all of this: Flip the problem on its side and look at it differently, ask other exports for their insight, and don’t be afraid to ask, “What are you trying to accomplish?’ By asking the right questions up front in your problem-solving session or sales call with a customer — you might just save you and your customer a lot of time and be the hero!