Asking the Naive Question

21 May 2012
business,
technique

Summary #

Paul DePodesta, who is featured in the book Moneyball, explains how he started asking the Naive Question:

If we weren't already doing it this way, is this the way we would start?

Commentary #

Probing the origin of a behavior—especially in a corporation—is one of the keys for improvement. A similar method is "5 Whys" in which you probe for root causes (much like a child asking "Why?").

However, simply understanding the origin of an issue, or even understanding how something might be done differently is rarely sufficient. There are often major political and social pressures against change (status quo bias), and sometimes the issue is that you're doing the wrong thing (ineffective rather than inefficient).

Asking the Naive Question

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