The WHY domain is an every shifting interaction of worldviews, relatively timeless ideals, time limited values, and time specific goals.
WHY benefits from regular discussion to realign goals with values with ideals with worldviews. Hopefully each of these can adapt to new experience and yield wisdom.
The question Why? is nested.
I like the "5 Whys" method in A3 Problem Solving. BUT I want to reverse the direction of this recursive questioning.
Ask "Why?" then ask how this first answer to "Why?"is embedded a larger context, a larger "Why?". Do this again and again. Go the opposite direction from the A3 whys, until you reach the enclosing paradigm and then ask "Why this paradigm?" and "Why do I/we have so much trouble seeing the paradigm?" and even more troubling, "Why do I/we have so much trouble changing our world views?"
Toyota A3 is looking for the needle in the hay stacks of cause and effect. I am suggesting going in the other direction to find the most profound and meaningful purposes for being in business.
World views do change, but at rate too slow for the human species to survive.
Our "paradigm in use" needs to catch up with the dynamic world being viewed and the dynamics viewers of worlds.
So, let's use "10 Whys" instead of 5.
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Paradigm, purpose, passion, motivation--these are often a good place to start exploring social systems.
The meaning of our being.
Then define/discover contexts of time, place, and complexity.
Next identify the actors/stakeholders.
Next bring in the engineers, now that there is enough context for building something without accidentally breaking things.
After all of this, or more likely during all of this change the situation on the ground will have changed. Yep, we have to build the plane while flying it or live in a rapidly changing world.