What They Actually Need to Hear

You're drafting an email to your team about a new process change. You start with "This will improve efficiency and streamline workflows." True. Logical. Completely forgettable.

But what if you dug deeper? What if instead of leading with the rational benefit, you started with the frustration it solves? "No more chasing down three people just to get approval for a simple request."

That's the difference between explaining what something does and connecting with why someone actually cares. The "Got Milk?" campaign discovered this when they stopped talking about nutrition and started talking about that moment of wanting milk you don't have. They kept asking why until they hit the emotional truth.

The same technique works for workplace communication. Your colleague's first answer about what they need is rarely the real answer. It's the professional justification they've prepared. The real motivation—the thing that will make them actually read your email, support your idea, or change their behavior—lives several layers down.

The first reason someone gives you is rarely what will motivate them. It's the safe, rational answer they think you want to hear. The real driver lives deeper—where professional justification gives way to personal frustration, fear, or desire. Ask why five times, and you'll find the message that actually lands.

People support ideas emotionally and justify them logically. By the time they're in a meeting or reading your email, they've already built their professional reasoning. The Five Whys bypasses that rehearsed response and gets to the human truth that actually motivates action—the frustration they feel, the recognition they want, the problem that's making their job harder. When you speak to that layer, your message stops being ignorable.