I'm sure that all of you have seen the Nike ad that came out almost 25 years ago – the familiar Swoosh or the tick mark next to the words 'Just Do It'. Looking at some of the statistics surrounding this ad, I realized how it had transformed Nike, especially as it was trying to give its campaign a boost, trying to pull ahead of Reebok, both of them trying to get the market share. This ad just catapulted it out into a new category, not just for athletic shoes, but for everybody to use it as a symbol. Statistics say that in the 10 years from 1988 to 1998, they went from $877 million sales to $9.2 billion worldwide.
'Just Do It' was the catch phrase that the advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy coined in 1988. Dan Wieden attributes it to Gary Gilmore's last words. (I didn't go to check what his last words were). Facetiously I thought that the words 'Just do it' must have come from some frustrated parent, who, in dealing with maybe a two year old who incessantly asks, "Why? Why? But why?" and finally the parent says, "Just do it." All of us who have been parents recognize that at some point, we reach the end and say, "Just do it." "Why?" "Because I say so."
This made me think about children and their inherent curiosity to ask the 'Why' questions. I was reminded as I looked at Science News, that when preschoolers ask questions, they really want explanations. A study was done by researchers at the University of Michigan in 2009, on child development; found that children always seek explanations. They are just not asking for the sake of asking. They use these specific conversation strategies to obtain the information and when they ask why, they're not merely trying to prolong the conversation. They are really trying to get to the bottom of things. Yet, very often, we lose our patience by the second or third 'why' and say, "C'mon kid, just do it."
I came across an article some time back written by Joel Spolsky, kind of brought this to the fore. It was entitled 'When and How to Micromanage'. He says that he had to work with somebody called Ryan Carson to produce a series of technical conferences for software developers. When they got to the city where they were to have the conference, they realized that they were going to have problems. Why? The conference hall was tucked into the back corner of a strip mall. The list of audio-visual requirements that they had sent to these people had got to them only the previous day and the staff was quite defensive about it. They didn't have anything ready.
So Spolsky and Ryan Carson went hunting around for the gear they needed and finally got it. They had just about got everything ready, he stood up to give his talk, was really worried about the video that wasn't so good and the audio that was making funny sounds, stage monitors that were buzzing, the fan noise from the amplifiers that were placed right next to the stage – all of these things made for a very crazy experience.
At the end of it, he says, "We sat down and thought, 'what do we do about it? What do we learn from all this? How did this happen?" So they went through the Five Whys exercise with the staff. You've probably heard of the Five Whys that Toyota Motor Corporation brought out probably in the 70s or 80s, developed by Sakichi Toyoda. It was described as a wonderful methodology as a scientific approach to problem-solving. That's how Taiichi Ohno described the Five Whys. It was the basis of Toyota's scientific approach and has now gone beyond Toyota, and is used within Kaizen, lean manufacturing, and Six Sigma.
Here's an example: The vehicle will not start. That's the problem.
1. Why? – The battery is dead.
2. Why? – The alternator is not functioning.
3. Why? – The alternator belt has broken.
4. Why? – The alternator belt was well beyond its useful service life and not replaced.
5. Why? – The vehicle was not maintained according to the recommended service schedule.
Now you come to the root cause. It could be taken to sixth and seventh, or even higher levels, but five iterations of asking why is generally sufficient to get to a root cause. The key is to encourage the trouble-shooter to avoid assumptions and logic traps, and instead get to the root cause of the problem. Once you get to the root cause of the problem, then you've found the place where the process has failed. They always invite you to keep in mind that "People do not fail; processes do."
So, that's what Carson and Spolsky did. They started asking the question – Why did this happen? Why did we have so many issues that came up? At the end of it, they realized that it came right down to the fact that the list that they were supposed to submit a month back, reached the venue only the day before. So, they realized that they next time they had to be more careful about getting all these things out to the organizers.
Well, we ask this question – why? – and get to the bottom of it. But I also think that we need to understand that, as we look at the why question, the answers can come even from different people to us. Just as we looked at the child asking 'why? Why?' - wisdom can come from different sources as well, as we ask the why question. We also need to listen to people around us. The Bible says, "Out of the mouths of babes, He has ordained praise." They have the capacity to even praise the Almighty God.
This reminds me that we should never take anything lightly, even the youngest person around. I love the fact that, as our children grew up, I could begin to relate to them, not as parent-child, but as an adult-adult. I am continuing to enjoy this phase where I ask them things and I learn wise counsel from them. That's one of the beautiful things of parenting. But even beyond that, look at the immediate circle that we have, of friends, even our spouse. I remember Dave Ray, who had been very instrumental for Apple Computers breaking through in Canada, says that he had a very complex financial problem in his office. He called meetings after meetings, but couldn't come to a solution. He got home and his wife, seeing that he was worried, asked him what the problem was. When he said, "Office problems," she asked him to tell her. In a very condescending tone, he told her. At the end of it, she said, "Why don't you try this?" His very first impulse was to say, "It's not that simple," but he stopped, listened to her and said, "You know what? That might just work." He brought it to the team the next day and it did.
Sometimes we forget that wise counsel is all around us. But even beyond that, there's a verse in our Scriptures that says, "If anybody lacks wisdom, they only need to ask God and He will give wisdom." So freely! I wonder today, as we look at problems and problem-solving methods and we come up with the Five Whys and so on, how wonderful it would be if we just opened ourselves up to all avenues that God has placed around us. Even out of the mouth of babes, young people, I might be able to get a wise word from people around me, or my spouse. And above all, to have wisdom that comes from the Almighty God.
I don't know where you are. Maybe today, you are facing a crisis and you're not sure how to go forward. It's a good thing to take these processes and ask the why. But also remember to look around you and to look above you. God is on your side, willing to give you wisdom for the situation. That's my prayer for us, that in every that we face, we will find a solution through the day.
Can I pray with you? Almighty God, give to each person on this call, the wisdom they need to be able to discern what they need to do and how they need to do it. Give to them the ability to see the solutions to problems, to hear what's going on around them from people you have placed there to give wisdom. Help them Master, in all that they are doing today, that they will find that You have blessed them abundantly. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
• Nike, SWOOSH, "Just Do It," statistics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Do_It
• Joel Spolsky, "When and How to Micromanage," http://www.inc.com/magazine/20091201/when-and-how-to-micromanage.html
• Bible quotes: Psalm 8:2; James 1:5
No comments:
Post a Comment