Coming out of the Christmas period, you probably had your fill of the three wise men. My favorite crack I heard was “A virgin birth I can believe, but finding three wise men?” {Click to Tweet} As readers of this blog will know, there is a reason why Mindset is spelt with a Y. I enjoy making sure that we put the WHY back into business. {Click to Tweet!} At the base, it’s all about having the right attitude, the right mindset!
Different forms of Why
But, it’s not just any WHY? I rummaged around and consider that there are broadly three types of why!
Curious Why? This is the why of he/she who is curious. As in I wonder why that is? I wish I undertood why such and such happens. It’s an open why, more or less unbridled by bias or presuppositions. When you dealing with the first {curious} why, it is all about discovery. In many cases, it is the why of investigation, of critical thought. The trick is converting from the thought to the action.- Why not? This is a passive why. Something has come up and you react to the opportunity. It is on balance a positive why, but is not active. It is the “why not?” that enables serendipity, that allows to go with the flow. The issue is not to allow the wind to take you too far astray.
- Why me? This is not only a passive why, but it is also the victim’s why. The quintessential whynner. At best, this is the why that may know to say “no!” More often than not, though, it’s the shoulder-shrugging, begruding order follower. Obviously, not the kind of player I select on my A team.
So, as you look at the type of WHY you encourage or seek out, what’s your mix? Are there other why’s that I have missed out?
When interviewing people for a position — for the vast majority of jobs — the most valued asset that a person can come with is the right attitude. {Click to Tweet this out if you agree!} The difficulty can be in detecting the right de facto attitude through the polished interview technique stylized answers. Try asking the candidate to qualify these three whys and what’s good and bad about each. It could be rather revealing. Your thoughts?
I like the attitude of the curious why. It denotes an inquisitive nature; the backbone of a potential innovator. The natural fascination could lead us to discover much better ways of doing things.
I like the attitude of the curious why. It denotes an inquisitive nature; the backbone of a potential innovator. The natural fascination could lead us to discover much better ways of doing things.