My youngest learning to tell jokes…
Lachlan: “Why did the chicken cross the road, dad?”
Me: “I don’t know, why?”
Lachlan: “Why, why, why?” Shrugging his shoulder with his palms turned up.
Haha! He doesn’t get punchlines yet, but he understands something more important and that is the power of asking why.
Sakichi Toyoda, industrialist, inventor, and founder of Toyota Motors Industries, is one of the fathers of the Japanese industrial revolution and developed the 5Y technique in the 1930s.
The 5Y technique is simple and powerful. You can use it to solve problems or to find the root reason you want a thing.
Step 1: Write down the problem or the thing you want.
“I want to lose weight.”
Step 2: Ask why.
“Why do I want to lose weight?”
Step 3+: Continue asking why to the previous answer until you have hit a nerve and know the root cause of the problem or the root reason why you want/must do the thing.
Try it once today and see for yourself how powerful it is.
My son’s jokes to this day, even though they make no sense, are still my favorites.