The 5 Whys
I blogged last month about my recent thoughts about goal setting. I also talked about a challenging part of diabetes education is helping a patient set meaningful goals. I mentioned an approach used in the corporate world called the 5 Whys and said that I would discuss that in this month’s blog.
The 5 Whys is an approach that allows a general goal to become more specific by getting to the root cause of the problem. You do that by simply asking “why.” Here is an example:
I want to lose weight. Why?
Because I weight too much. Why do you care about that?
I’m afraid that that my excess weight will lead to more health problems. Why do you think that may happen?
It just does. I want to be able to take care of myself as I age. Why is that so important to you?
I want to be able to always live independently. Why have you thought so much about that?
Because my mother was in a nursing home and I don’t want that for myself.
So instead of just allowing the patient to set a goal of weight loss, you have been able to uncover motivation to actually work toward that goal. You don’t always have to say “why,” but you may just say “tell me more,” or “explain that to me.” Sometimes the answer that the patient gives to the first question is obvious. For instance, if someone says, “I don’t want to die young, “you might not say “why!” You may say, “is that something that worries you and is there a reason for that?” Get the idea?
I have found that by using the 5 Whys, patients think more about the reasons behind their goals and hopefully a greater motivation to achieve them.
I’ll end this as I began—with a quote from something sent to me on my Facebook news feed.
A goal should scare you a little and excite you a lot!
Here’s to helping our patients get excited about goals that help them better manage diabetes.
Jan McWilliams, RN, MSN, CDE, BC-ADM