One of the tools we use when trying to drill into a problem is "the ladder of abstraction" - its a very simple and effective tool.
Very simply, you take a challenge and repeatedly ask yourself two questions; "whats stopping you achieving this?" (the responses can help identify root causes and more concrete problems to tackle). The second question is "Why do you want to achieve this?" (and the responses can give you a higher meaning to your challenge and sometimes a new perspective on the issue, which can be useful when you are a little foggy on purpose)
When i came to teach this tool today, I made the decision to teach only half of it. We kept all our questioning to "whats stopping you from achieving this?" When working on issues like suppling clean drinking water during drought season, it kinda seems a bit of a silly question to ask "why?"
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2 comments:
Hey, I know you'll have had many conversations around this in the run up, and not had chance to report on all of those. But... Does everyone really know and agree on 'Why'? Suppose there was a good supply of clean water during the drought. Would you all just pack up and come home?
I suppose I'm just wondering if there is really ever a time not to ask why...
Apparently you can survive for only 2 days without water. I dont think you need to ask why you might need it (regardless of drought)
When its in such scarce supply, people will fight for it.... But what if there was a plentiful supply of water - people could survive and people wouldnt fight for it..... but would plentiful supply of water alone eradicate poverty? Wouldnt it be great for everyone if we could pack up and come home!
That said, i think asking why is never a bad thing to do - it might reveal some new perspective on the issue - but it might be a bit insensitive, for example, to ask why a starving person would want something to eat.
I am very conscious of the fact that the people in our workshop have been working so hard for so long for so little on this selfless worthy cause, that i could easy alienate myself from them by unintentionally being a little too glib. Yes, sometimes i think there is "a time not to ask why"
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