What has Rudyard Kipling’s 1902 poem, ‘I keep six honest serving men’ got to do with solving problems your customers face today?
The easiest way to understand a problem is to start by structuring it and the simplest tool I know of, is the one based on Rudyard Kipling’s poem: ‘I Keep Six Honest Serving Men.’
Within the poem is a useful formula that you can use to gain a complete understanding of a problem.
Here’s how it works:
● WHAT is the problem?
● WHY is it a problem?
● WHEN is it a problem?
● HOW is it a problem?
● WHERE is it a problem?
● WHO is it a problem for?
By applying this structure to a problem, you can get greater insight into the problem itself, and opportunities are often gained by asking as many questions around the problem as possible.
Give it a go because now is the time for you to understand the problems that not only your customers face, but also your staff and greater community, and from that understanding, opportunities will arise.
Here’s the poem:
“I keep six honest serving men,
They taught me all I knew,
Their names are What and Why and When
and How and Where and Who,
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west,
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.
I let them rest from nine ‘till five,
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast lunch and tea,
For they are hungry men.
But different folk have different views,
I know a person small,
She keeps 10 million serving men,
Who get no rest at all,
She sends them abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes,
One million ‘Hows’, two million ‘Wheres’ And seven million ‘Whys’!”
