The first question is not Why, How or What but Who

Think of all the questions we ask when things go wrong.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨?

𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯?

𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯?

The one question that we are afraid of asking is Who. I don’t mean, who did it. That comes very naturally to us.

By Who I mean ‘Who needs to learn?’

We write books and publications on learning, culture and culture change but we never ask the question, who needs to learn and who needs to change. It is implied that learning and change is not for me, it is for someone else.

And so nothing really changes.

The question ‘Who needs to learn?’ is confronting, unsettling but it is also inescapable if we really want change.

In Social Psychology of Risk (SPoR), this is the first question that we address. Who needs to learn.

We spend considerable time helping the investigators, auditors, supervisors and managers realise their cognitive biases and social influences. You can collect all the information in the world to produce a report but you cannot run away from your own biases. You can be as objective as you like to be but the entire investigation is contingent upon the question that you ask. So we end up in a place where the learning outcome is nothing but a point of view. And we call it an objective report. Is it really so?

In SPoR, we use the SEEK model and the metaphor of a Doughnut. The hollowness at the centre of the doughnut represents the focus of the entire programme. The hollowness also represent an important message – where do we begin. We begin with the Who.

Unless the question of Who is addressed, there is little hope that we will experience learning and change.