Reason-Respecting

8. REASON-RESPECTING

"Please would you tell me," said Alice, a little timidly, "why your cat grins like that?" "It's a Cheshire Cat," said the Duchess, "and that's why."

— Lewis Carroll (British mathematician and writer, 1832-1898, from Through the Looking Glass)

Our need for making sense makes us even believe in nonsense.

In one experiment a social psychologist asked people standing in line to use a copying machine if she could go in front of them, "Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?" Nearly all agreed.

When people ask us for a favor we are more likely to comply if they give us a reason - even if we don't understand the reason or it is wrong. Often it isn't the reason itself that is important, but the way the reason is phrased. Sometimes the word "because," without a sensible reason, is all that matters. We want explanations and the word "because" implies an explanation.

Carl Braun, the creator of CF Braun Engineering Company, understood the importance of telling people "why." Charles Munger tells us the story:

His rule for all the Braun Company's communications was called the five W's - you had to tell who was going to do what, where, when and why. And if you wrote a letter or directive in the Braun Company telling somebody to do something, and you didn't tell him why, you could get fired. In fact, you would get fired if you did it twice.

You might ask why that is so important? Well, again that's a rule of psychology. Just as you think better if you array knowledge on a bunch of models that are basically answers to the question, why, why, why, if you always tell people why, they'll understand it better, they'll consider it more important, and they'll be more likely to comply. Even if they don't understand your reason, they'll be more likely to comply.

So there's an iron rule that just as you want to start getting worldly wisdom by asking why, why, why in communicating with other people about everything, you want to include why, why, why.

"Why should we do this? Why should we do it this way?" "Because this is how we always have done it."

We should not only give people reasons for what to do but should also encourage flexibility. Ask them to question procedures and whether what appear to be self evident truths are really good for the business. Ask why, ask why, and ask why again. The third why often gets down to the real issue.

"How can I use what I don't understand?"

Understanding reasons is an important factor in learning. To learn, remember, organize, and use ideas, we must understand the "why" and "how." There's no use memorizing what we don't understand. If we don't understand the meaning of an idea, we don't use it. What we don't use, we forget. We also need to be motivated to learn. And we can't be motivated if we don't understand why we need to learn something. We need to see its practical use.

Understanding is about the ability of seeing patterns - how ideas and things relate and hang together. Knowledge that can be used in a variety of situations.

Our brains favor the concrete and practical over the abstract and theoretical. We are especially good at remembering images and spatial information. We therefore learn better if the use of ideas and patterns are illustrated through pictures and simple, clear and vivid real-life stories. Stories on what works and what doesn't work increase our ability to retain what we've learned.

Aristotle said: "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." This means we need to practice what we have learnt in various situations.

We also need an organizing framework in order to better retrieve and use knowledge. Charles Munger adds: "You can't really know anything if you just remember isolated facts and try and bang 'em back. If the facts don't hang together on a latticework of theory, you don't have them in a usable form."

Keep in mind

• People can't be persuaded by what they don't understand. We underestimate the importance of giving people a reason. It is often easier to get people to change with a well-explained reason backed by solid evidence. Tell them so they understand why a specific action is needed, what the expected objective is, and why you think the action is right.
• Of course, this doesn't work in every case. Sometimes you don't change people's opinions by showering them with logic. In Jonathan Swift's words: "You cannot reason a person out of a position he did not reason himself into in the first place." Aristotle adds: "For argument based on knowledge implies instruction, and there are people whom one cannot instruct." Sometimes it is better to appeal to emotions than to reason since people are more moved by what they feel than by what they understand.