Why do we do the things we do?

“Why do you want to?” I incredulously asked the security officer at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston yesterday, in response to her request to feel my hair. Granted, I do have a lot of hair, enough to ensconce a pound or two of drugs, is what she was probably thinking. Opening her eyes wide, shoulders bracing with all the power invested in her uniform and position, she responded “So you are not allowing me to feel your hair?” I replied quickly, seeing that this could get ugly, and that I was in HER space, not mine, that I did not have any such problem.

The next line was Immigration. I stood behind a lady who was being asked by an Immigration officer to turn off her cell phone. Energised by my encounter with the hair-hounding security detail, I asked him why. He looked at me aghast, smiled and said “Because this is a sterile zone”. So, I asked him what that meant. He repeated his statement. I proceeded to the Immigration counter, to another officer and asked “Why can’t we use cell phones here?” “Because it is a sterile zone”. I pressed on, and got a series of responses with the ultimate declaration that this is the way it is in here as in all Immigration zones throughout the world and well, just … because.

This got me pondering – why do we do the things we do in our organizations? Why do we have the systems, processes and procedures? Why do we have certain regulations, systems, procedures and processes in our government? Presumably, they were put in place for a very good reason, and they served a useful purpose when they were instituted. But do we ever stop to question why we still have them and whether they are still useful?

Further, do our organizational team members know why they do the things they do? The security officer should have been able to respond to my question, for it was a reasonable one – she wanted to put her hand on my person, my body, my space. I wanted to know why she would want to do such a thing, which frankly, I consider an invasion of my privacy, and maybe even fraught with health issues (like, how clean are her hands?) And surely Immigration officers, highly trained and educated, should be able to tell me in one sentence or less why cell phones are not allowed in their space. “Because that’s the way it’s done all over the world” is not an appropriate answer to my question.

There was a time when all of us used to ask “Why” constantly – the time was called “childhood”. Unfortunately, the adults in our lives quickly beat this out of us (figuratively, and some even literally) and we soon learned that asking “Why” was not a good thing to do, since the only response it elicited was “Because I say so”.

As organizational leaders, we need to constantly be asking “Why”. This is how we create organizations that are efficient, effective and profitable. This is how we create organizations that truly serve the needs of our customers and create unassailable competitive advantage. We also need to encourage our team members to ask “Why”. They are the ones actually carrying out the processes and procedures, and who receive direct feedback from those on the receiving end i.e. your customers. When they ask “why”, it is important to be open to the feedback and give them straight, honest responses. If “because I say so” is the only response you can muster, then you need to get back to the drawing board and redesign (or eliminate) your systems, processes or procedures.