“Who did what, when, where, how, why?” This classic question of all questions also helps as an efficient technique when we want to analyze and explore challenges.
When these classic questions are dealt with very deliberately and sequentially, as within this method, you have an even greater potential for efficiency.
The method becomes particularly productive when you appeal to your very own childlike curiosity. The spirit of this method is also evident in the refrain from the cult song from the universally known Sesame Street: “Why, why, why – if you don’t ask, you stay stupid!” Especially in individual work this method can help a lot.
With the six W-questions “Who? What? When? Where? How? Why?” you can break down your challenges, your ideas and information well into their parts, recognize their essential components, draw connections and understand relationships, process new knowledge and also learn and remember better.
The name or designation of the 6-W method refers to 6 W-questions, which are frequently asked – professionally as well as privately – in a Context used, namely: “Who has the cookie (here: what?) when, how, where, and why from the can?” This makes it possible to reduce specific facts, situations and questions in digital transformation projects to the fundamental questions and to create a uniform understanding in the team.
Based on the clear Ws, the situation, idea and or information to be analyzed can be divided into its individual components and then set in relation to the other Ws . Depending on the characteristics, the question can already lead to the desired result in 15 minutes, namely to generate a common understanding and a better assessment through the use of the method.
Especially today in the digital age, in which situations are often be underpinned/supported by a wide variety of information it is purposeful to concentrate on the essential information (the underlying, actual problem) and to highlight this by this method by consistently evaluating the information and assigning it to the questions. If information cannot be assigned, it is not taken into account in the 6-W method or is hidden. Methods do not always have to be complex. As the 6 W-questions show, even simple questions can provide significant benefit as a guide in selecting a topic and the associated question. They help to understand, structure and solve the task. Projects in the transformation process always raise many questions, but there are often blind spots. Minimizing these through different impulses is one of the advantages of the 6 W method.
