To Become a Better Ally, Keep Asking ‘Why’
One of the best pieces of business advice I received when I was starting out as a consultant was to “keep pulling on the thread.” In other words: Don’t fall for the first answer, or the second answer. To get to the root cause of a challenge, you need to keep asking “why” to cut through the excuses and red herrings. It’s only after asking a long series of questions that you’re able to get from “Why is this company’s stock price in the toilet?” all the way to, “Oh, this company’s growth is stalled because no one wants to work with the executive in charge of innovation, who is an arrogant jerk,” for one totally hypothetical example.
Breaking through each layer of “why” takes hard work. It often means pushing through long-held myths. It doesn’t happen in one conversation with one person. It takes looking at the numbers, listening to the stories, doing your own math, listening to more stories, and bringing in outside comparisons until a leading hypothesis emerges and the other hunches fall away.
I’ve realized that training ourselves to ask “why” can also help us become better allies to women and BIPOC leaders. It allows us to move beyond our unexamined biases to create a stronger bridge of understanding and empathy.
