When I was a kid, my dad used to say, "The question 'Why?' was born in hell." Why? Well, it was some sort of reference to Lucifer's pride and lack of obedience to God. Here's another question: "What was my dad's objective for saying this?" As an adult, I can posit a few theories as to his motives. Perhaps, he wanted me to ponder the theological implications of the statement and apply any subsequent epiphanies in my life. He may have been trying to instill in me value for obedience to authority. Or, he may have simply been frustrated with my incessant questioning of why to everything he said and wanted to shut me up. The truth is likely a combination of these things. All these years later I am endeavoring to convince you of the value of asking "Why?" to everything. I want it to become a second nature, habitual, and instinctual to you, at least in the context of business. In business, the question "Why?" was born of a desire to improve. Let's define improvement as becoming more efficient, more effective, or any combination thereof, insofar as efficiency does not impede effectiveness (the two can be competing values). Improve your business by asking "Why?" repeatedly.

• Why are you doing that?

• Why do we do this?

• Why are we meeting?

• Why does this process follow that particular flow?

• Why does this policy exist?

• Why is she the best fit for this role?

• Why is that department responsible for this task?

Out of respect for my dad, perhaps I should reframe the questions to "What?" The real root of all of these questions is "What is the objective?" And, this is the most important question of all in guiding all your business strategy and activity. 

As one of his famous seven habits of highly effective people, Dr. Stephen Covey demonstrated the value of beginning with the end in mind. This is analogous to clearly defining a destination before planning the most efficient route. It is critical that you clarify the objective of any process, policy, meeting, communication, or decision to all stakeholders from the outset. Without a clearly defined objective (a destination), you will invariably end up making little progress, spinning your wheels, going in circles - pick your preferred euphemism; it all amounts to wasting your time.

It is not uncommon for me to confuse, shock, or annoy members of my team by interrupting some long-winded harangue by asking them, "Why are you telling me all this? What is your objective?" I usually have to repeat myself several times as they are caught off-guard and unprepared to give a thoughtful answer. Often, instead of explaining their objective, they revert to reexplaining the original point from a different angle. They seem to interpret my question as "I don't understand what you are saying.", as opposed to "I don't understand why you are telling me this." In an effort to coach them, I patiently persist without emotion and reask, "What is your objective for telling me this? What is it you hope will come out of this conversation?" My objective for this practice is to teach them to consider their objectives for everything. It is critical to success. If they are really stuck, I'll give them possible objectives they may have, even if only subconsciously, for sharing the information. Sometimes they are seeking advice on a problem they are having difficulty solving. Other times, they are seeking affirmation or approval. Or, they may be keeping me in the loop. And, they may be merely venting frustration. The key is that we both clearly understand their motives and the objective at hand. If they merely want to vent and I begin suggesting possible solutions to their problem, it can further aggravate the situation. Conversely, if they are hoping for assistance and I assume they are just keeping me in the loop, I am unlikely to offer much valuable advice. 

Furthermore, it is important to consider there are times when we mutually ascertain that their objectives lack merit altogether and the whole topic should be quashed. Many managers pride themselves so much on their problem-solving capabilities that they intuitively come up with suggestions for those who seek advice even when the objective of the original challenge being communicated fails to align with the overall objectives of the business. For example, a member of my team presented me with a problem in which she was struggling to get a software application to precisely record scheduling information and integrate the data with a performance evaluation tool she was using. I instinctively began to consider and suggest possible technical solutions to the problem before stopping to ask what her underlying objective was. It took several iterations of the question to get to the real root of her objective. Only then was I able to ascertain that she thought the particular performance metric in question was important to me. When we discussed how the metric may, in fact, be counterproductive to a more foundational business objective, we decided she need not pursue the specific software challenge whatsoever. In this example, there were multiple members of my team working to solve a problem that wasn't really a problem. How wasteful! This is not insignificant and it is far more common than you probably realize.

Another common characteristic of business operations is to continue to follow particular processes with particular people in perpetuity without questioning why. It may very well be that certain processes are so well-designed and fleshed out that they should not be tampered with. Certain people may be indefinitely qualified and outstanding performers. However, we exist in rapidly changing times in which technology advancements, consumer preferences, and markets behavior is difficult to predict. We need to keep our finger on the pulse through meaningful measurements, analysis, and reevaluation of our processes, people, and resulting value proposition. Consistently take the time to perform evaluations of your processes and people with a critical eye. You guessed it; such evaluations need to begin with clarifying objectives.

So much waste, which is the antithesis to efficiency and intrinsically diminishes value, is inherent within business due solely to a lack of clarity regarding worthy objectives. For this reason, you need to create a culture in which your team habitually defines objectives at the beginning of all meetings, documents, processes, and decisions. Begin creating this culture by stopping to ask "Why?" whenever anything is initiated in the absence of clarity regarding its objective. If someone launches a meeting without stating the objective, stop and ask "Why are we meeting? What is the objective of this meeting?" Then, throughout and once again at the end of the meeting, determine whether the objective is being met. People will catch on. Design templates for use with meetings and documents that have a spot for entering the objectives, as well as a box to check confirming the accomplishment of objectives at the conclusion.

Instilling an objective-focused culture throughout your company will pay immeasurable dividends. Though the habits will take awhile to form, the results will become apparent almost immediately each time to pause to ask, "Why are we doing this?" If you choose to proceed in business without forming this new habit, it begs the question "Why are you doing that!?" Just give it a try. Why the hell not?

Are you afraid to ask questions? Or are you the type who asks a lot of questions? Share your experiences and thoughts in the comments sections below!

The following table displays some common resources and ways in which they can be leveraged. Note that creating and applying technology universally leverages any resource. Therefore, management should be perpetually attempting to create and apply technology to all its resources.

As is evident from the table, most resources can be leveraged in multiple ways. And, leverage strategies can be combined to have synergistic effects, powerfully compounding the return on investment.

Who Says That There's Only 24 Hours in a Day?

Let's look at an example of how to use multiple strategies to leverage a resource which we are told is finite: time. Management of Acme Widgets clearly understands the value of training its people. And, it wants to maximize the return on its investment of time spent on training.

Cooperation: Various members of the management team agree to cover for one another and share the responsibility for training depending on the demands on their individual schedules.

Decentralize: In due course, management can delegate some of the training to other team members who have mastered the material and are eager to assist in team development, in effect indefinitely multiplying its number of trainers and affording management the periodic freedom to work on other improvement initiatives.

Learning: Each manager took some additional time to learn the most effective means of training in order to ensure little time was wasted during training session.

Organizing: Management organizes subject material into a structured and highly-repeatable slide deck.

Practicing: Over time, management has been able to reduce unproductive interruptions, humming and hawing, and less relevant exercises from its training. Training sessions and delivery of the material is becoming very efficient with practice.

Prayer: Whether attributed to the Holy Spirit3 or the associated calming, meditative mental state, managers notice they are more effective when they take a moment of silence before beginning training sessions.

Sharing: By doubling the number of pupils in a training session, management may double the return on its investment of time spent training.

Sleep: As believers in the latest research on the importance of quality sleep, management has prioritized it and, consequently, has become much more effective in its communication and training.

Technology Application: Management records and archives its training sessions in the cloud to be used with incoming team members and as reference materials that everyone can use when necessary. Soon, it will use a comprehensive training app to track participation, generate transcripts, suggest necessary remediation, and provide valuable analytics that correlate training with job performance. Eventually, management may create fully digital, self-paced training modules and take advantage of workflow automation to assist in the entire training management strategy.

What's the Catch?

Just as mechanical levers have limitations, it is wise to consider the extent to which other forms of leverage can be beneficial. The law of diminishing returns seems to apply to leveraging any resource for increased return on investment. Using the previous example, it may be noted that training effectiveness can have an inverse relationship with an increase in the number of pupils. When unsure of the specific conditions that diminish the returns on leverage, simply track the returns on investment of leveraged resources and react to unfavorable results. It may be necessary to experiment and analyse changing specific, isolated variables while attempting to ascertain the best leverage formula and dose. This is only practical when the upside potential is substantial. In the big picture and over the long haul, most leverage opportunities are likely to be worth the effort.

Lastly, bear in mind that the conditions that created the original leverage opportunity are subject to change. For example, leveraging financial capital only increases the return on investment when the returns earned exceed the interest paid on borrowed capital or the cost of opportunity for the capital to be otherwise invested. This will necessitate changing leverage strategies and resource allocation along with market fluctuations and opportunities.

A scarcity-mentality is antithetical for business success. Eschew any propoganda that suggests a limited or fixed size to the proverbial pie. The world is teeming with opportunities and all resources exist in abundance. This is only universally possible through value-added leverage, the fundamental concept that it is possible to generate wealth for all through the investment and exchange of resources in a free market. In business, as in life, you should strive to get back more than you put in.  Anything else is not good enough!