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Marathons
Many years ago a colleague asked for help in preparing for their first half-marathon. I was a competitive endurance athlete in college, completed numerous half and full marathons and a few half Ironmans. I enjoyed coaching as much as competing so of course I agreed to help.
I directed him to a training plan and regularly checked in on his progress. The day of the race I looked up his time and saw he had finished several minutes under his goal time. Success!
The next day at work, I met him with hearty congratulations but I found him a bit subdued.
I asked him why he wasn’t thrilled with his accomplishment. His response:
“With all the training, I thought I would have lost more weight.”
I was taken aback. My response:
“If I had known your goal was to lose weight, I would have suggested you NOT train for a half-marathon.”
I felt terrible because one simple question during our first conversation could have put him on a better track. The question was, “Why?” More specifically, “Why do you want to train for a half marathon?”
Manufacturing
Toyota Motor Company’s history of manufacturing innovation made it one of the world’s most successful car companies. Taiichi Ohno, one of the engineers behind a number of Toyota’s innovations, developed a root cause analysis system known as “Five Whys”.
The basic idea is that most problems are first presented at a surface level. Solving the surface level problem will be at best ineffective and at worst, waste resources by working on the wrong problem.
Iteratively asking, “Why?” to get to the true root cause increases the likelihood your efforts are on point.
The Five Whys approach is as effective for goal setting as problem identification.
Like my colleague who trained for the half marathon, our stated goals are often surface level proxies for our real goals. Unfortunately, him training for a half-marathon was a poor proxy for his real goal.
I see this phenomenon as often in business as in people’s personal lives.
We often get locked in on a solution and lose sight of our original, often unstated, goal.
For example, a founder might state they want to double revenue.
If I asked three founders with this goal, “Why?”, I might get three different answers.
Possible whys for this goal:
I want to sell my company for X in two years.
I want to be able to quit my full-time job.
I need the extra revenue to fund growth.
Those are VERY different why statements.
Yes, doubling revenue could achieve a stated valuation but so could expanding margins.
Would lifestyle changes help you quit your job without doubling revenue?
You could fuel expansion by improving your company’s working capital.
To be clear, doubling revenue might be THE goal.
The point is to test your goals through the framework of the Five Whys to ensure you’re not working on a proxy goal but a real one.
Five Whys
Why 1: Surface Level Objectives
The first why is intended to question surface level objectives. Completing a half marathon is almost exactly like doubling revenue.
They both describe external goals with easily measurable variables. It was very obvious my friend completed the half-marathon and a founder can point to their financial statements as proof of revenue growth.
“Why do you want to complete a half-marathon?” or “Why do you want to double revenue?” will likely be answered in a way that begins to shift the focus internally rather than externally.
Why 2: Internal Reference
The second why should question internal references.
For example, the answer to “Why do you want to complete a half-marathon?” Would have been answered with, “I want to lose weight.”
The answer to “Why do you want to double revenue?” could be something like, “My business is two-years old and if I want to sell it, I need more growth.”
Both responses begin to reference internal variables such as body composition and the current age and stage of the business.
We’re getting somewhere but not quite deep enough.
Internal references need to be questioned to uncover the feelings behind them.
Why 3: Current Feelings
The third why should investigate current feelings that arise from questioning internal references.
“Why do you want to lose weight?” could have been answered with, “I don’t feel good in my own body.”
The entrepreneur’s answer to, “Why does the age of your business factor into the growth you desire?” could have been, “I just feel stuck right now with my business.”
At this level, you begin to understand the feelings behind the situation. Very valuable insights for sure but not yet where we can validate goals.
Goals are about the future and to understand the future we need to question current feelings in the context of desired feelings.
Why 4: Aspirational Feelings
The fourth why questions aspirational feelings uncovered by questioning current feelings.
“Why don’t you feel good in your own body?” might be responded to with, “I want to feel more confident and show up for my family.”
“Why do you feel stuck in your business?” could have been answered with, “I want to feel like the business is progressing. Nothing I do seems to move it forward. It feels like a day job.”
Aspirational feelings are solid ground for setting goals but adding the context of purpose is the ultimate ending point.
Why 5: Purpose
The final why uncovers purpose.
Why did my friend want to be more confident and show up for his family? Being a “good dad” was VERY important to him. The idea of training for a half-marathon was kicked off by a game of pickup basketball with his kids.
A game that he could barely participate in due to his poor fitness level.
Training for a half-marathon however, conflicted with his purpose of being a great dad in multiple ways.
One, training for long endurance events takes considerable time and energy. Training that occurs away from the family.
As mentioned previously, it’s also sub-optimal for general health and fitness compared to cross-training with sports, weight-lifting and other exercises.
Having this context for my friend, it is obvious training for a half-marathon was a poor proxy goal. Pursuing activities that combined well-rounded fitness with family time would have made more sense.
For entrepreneurs, its common to build a business that feels like a prison.
“Why do you want the business to progress?”, might sound like a dumb question. But for most founders starting a business is often about freedom, self expression or solving a problem they are passionate about (aka changing the world).
For the entrepreneur in this example, let’s assume their answer is they want to sell their business to gain more freedom.
Doubling revenue might get them there. Often when businesses feel like a prison it’s due to the founder spending too much time working in the business and not on the business.
Hiring help or outsourcing some of the owner’s responsibilities might free up time immediately AND improve the business.
The point is not the solution per se but ensuring your goals align to the true desires underlying your purpose.
Stories abound of founders calling their therapist in an existential crisis the minute the acquisition proceeds hit their bank account.
The Next Step
Five whys is a framework. It might not take five iterations. You might get there in two or three depending on your starting point. As long as begin to uncover aspirational feelings and purpose you’re in a good place to validate goals.
In the process, watch out for frustration and anger appearing around the fourth why.
This is a feature of the five whys framework, not a bug.
The process can reveal:
Deep insecurities
Unconscious motivations
Gaps in actions vs identity (what I say I am vs what I do)
False narratives
Regret for time wasted
When or if you reach this point, don’t stop. Keep going!
It’s a strong signal you’re close to validating your goals.
My goal with The Leap is to provide you each Saturday with the knowledge, tools and lessons learned to help you get started and keep going toward building your future.
Whether you are making the leap to startups, solo-entrepreneurship, freelancing, side hustles or other creative ventures, the tools and strategies to succeed in each are similar.