Five Whys as a Self-Psychoanalytical Tool
Of late, my depression … it hasn’t been good. I think it’s a lot of things, but mainly that I haven’t dealt well with the stress of my position at work. It’s to the point that it’s affecting me physically [vicious headaches], and all in all, it’s not good. Randomly this morning [but are subconscious questions ever really random?], I asked myself, “Hmmm … could the five whys help me figure out what’s stressing me out here?” And I decided that yes, they could.
I’m depressed.
Why are you depressed?
Because I’m stressed out.
Why are you stressed out?
Because of my job.
Why is your job stressful?
Because of the schedule pressures we’re under and my lack of control over things, even though I’m the public face of my company to the customer.
Why is the lack of control a problem?
Because I’m held accountable for our actions but feel powerless to resolve them.
And see, that’s it right there. Now, you don’t always get there in five whys; sometimes, it takes more. Honestly, this is not the conversation I had in my head this morning; it was far more specific, and started with “I’m stressed out because of work.” I went another couple questions deep—and actually, there were two branches to this problem, because there were two whys to ask myself:
- Why do you feel powerless?
Because as a manager, I have to delegate, and I’m used to being held accountable only for my actions and not the actions of others.
Why is this a problem?
Because I a) am still learning to delegate and b) still learning how to hold folks accountable while not being an asshole.
- Why do you feel accountable?
Because at the end of the day, it’s my job to be.
Why do you not pass that accountability forward as appropriate?
Because I’m still learning how to hold folks accountable.
See, my problem is that I learned to be a project lead in the context of being a good cop to my boss’s bad cop. The problem with that is that I don’t have anyone under me to be either a bad cop to my good cop [which I like to be], or for me to switch roles with. I sorta have that with my colleague Jaime, but not really.
So now that I’ve come down to the actual problem here—accountability—I’m a whole lot more settled. I have come to the root of the problem, and now I can act on it accordingly. I won’t just be going, “O woe is me, my job is stressful, waaaaah!” It will be more, “I need to hold my people accountable for the mistakes they make that end up making me look bad to the customer.” After all, my instinct is to always jump on the grenade, but after a while, you’re not alive when that happens.
That is simply amazing and very easy to apply. I look forward to applying the 5 Whys to my next head-scratcher (or head-banger!)
March 15th, 2009 at 20:50The issue is that it requires good uses of why, becoming ever more specific. It’s really easy to let it just be like your favorite toddler asking why, and you get exasperated and respond, “Because I said so!” [And really, that's best followed with, "Why should that matter?" and "Because I'm the adult who's been put here to guide your care." Whys past that are pretty useless.]
I just found it interesting that I’d never applied it to solving my own problems. [Somewhere in Tennessee, Dad is saying, "Damn, the lightbulb finally went off over the boy's head."]
March 15th, 2009 at 20:53Ha, that’s funny – not because of what it is, but its innate simplicity. We apply the same basic questioning (though probably more like 3 questions) to our kids (Why are you angry? Why did Tommy hit you? Why did you hit him back?… so on) – basic problem solving, but somewhere down the line we stop (and never apply to ourselves). Very wise. I shall apply this.
March 15th, 2009 at 21:16Paul:
Every once in a while, I think of The Dude asking the whys. That gets … really funny.
March 15th, 2009 at 21:18I’m gonna hold you accountable to holding some of your coworkers accountable.
March 15th, 2009 at 22:43PLEASE DO, Misty.
March 15th, 2009 at 22:43