Small change: question everything

As any parent will tell you, children go through a phase of wanting to understand how the world works. In practice, this means having to fend off a relentless, irritating stream of two-word questions: “But why?”

As adults, we tend to fall out of the habit of questioning the fundamentals. Instead, we become conditioned that whatever we face is just ‘how things are’; that the world around us cannot be explained or challenged in a more fundamental way.

But the kids have got it right. Ask “why” five times and you will get the root cause of why anything is as it is. This can be helpful in change, where it is the fundamentals that often require illumination and reinvention.

Something to consider: where can I do a better job of questioning why things are as they are?

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