In The Answer to How is Yes: Acting on What Matters, Peter Block pushes us to think about the importance of pursuing the why question before answering the how question. Think about it: in your learning environment, what is the ratio of why questions to how questions? I don’t have any research on this, but from my own experience, I would say in education, we tend to focus far more on those how questions.
How do I release more agency in learners? How do I get more buy-in to the vision? How can I get [insert department] to be more innovative? How do I use that technology in a math class?
Leadership (and you may recall we are all leaders, regardless of formal title), asks questions in an effort to challenge underlying assumptions––to get to that why?
So before you insert that technology tool into math class, think about why you want to do that? Is it because learners will have new opportunities to learn in new ways never before possible? Is it because the administration expects the technology to be used? After all, public funding was expended on it. Is it because a teacher went to a workshop and the presenter was promoting its use? You’ll have a stronger how when you can answer the why.
Starting with the how oversells the practical and avoids important conversations around the why and purpose. What is the purpose? Are we asking the right questions? Starting with the how locks us from the possibility of interrogating and reframing the problem. When we do this, we are making certain we are focused effectively when we do get to the how.
How we answer the why will lead to the better how. When we focus directly on the how, we may be doing the wrong work, just righter and more efficiently. Always return to the why. How is safer than why; but why is always wiser.
The next time you are focused on a how question, catch yourself, and ask the why question to better interrogate the purpose.
What are some how questions you’ve been working on in your learning environment? What happens when you take a step back and ask the why question? What assumptions do you uncover?
Connect with Randy on Twitter, the TLTalkRadio podcast, and the Shift Your Paradigm podcast!
Get new content delivered to your inbox and the ebook 3 Key Principles of Digital Transformation. The ebook contains valuable information from my experience leading a digital transformation and working with a variety of stakeholders over the past decade.
- A silver lining - January 22, 2022
- Is our use of tech working against us? 🤔 - September 8, 2021
- What’s NOT going to change in the next 10 years? 🤔 - September 7, 2021