Why write books?
For some tenure-track faculty in the social sciences and humanities, the why of writing a first book is glaringly obvious. To keep our jobs. Publishing a single-authored peer-reviewed book with a university press is still the standard in many departments.
Not surprisingly, some people find it hard to sustain creative work under such publish-or-perish conditions. Publishers, after all, are leery of producing dissertations readily available online.
If the why of writing a first book is to receive tenure, then why do mid-career academics continue to write books?
More to the point, how can we get clear on why we write books?
Why do you want to publish a book? Is it for a promotion? Address a problem that arose that was hinted at or brushed aside in the first book? Move your scholarship in a new direction?
One method for developing self-awareness is to imagine yourself to the end. A book is published. What are the whys that accompanied you to that place? By explore those whys, we can identify those reasons that sustain our attention and motivation. And we may also find that the compelling reason is not served by writing a book published by a university press but a project for a different public. A blog. An exhibit. A self-published pamphlet. A curated website. A series of videos. The possibilities are rapidly proliferating, in no small part because of how the conditions of pandemic have altered how we create, disseminate, and consume information.
Getting clear on your why is a method of discovery. It can also be a powerful antidote to countering thoughts that would otherwise deter you from finishing. Thoughts like “I don’t have time.” Or “I don’t have anything to say.” Or even “I don’t know where to begin.”
So, let’s begin.
Five Whys on the production floor
The five whys is a management technique associated with Taiichi Ohno and the Toyota Production System and lean production. In his book, he describes the method: “ask why five times whenever we find a problem. In the Toyota production system, ‘5W’ means five why’s. By repeating why five times, the nature of the problem as well as its solution becomes clear” (Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production 1988: 123).
The technique was intended to eliminate unnecessary effort and waste as a means of increasing profit as well as enhance a teamwork mentality. By unfolding the causes that disrupted production by asking five whys, the team would arrive at a root cause. This method enhanced quality control.
By the 1930s, Toyota was known for making spinning and weaving machines known as looms. The automated loom was the basis for Toyota’s entry into the automotive market in the mid-1930s. Even in the 1930s, the company emphasized inquisitiveness and the pursuit of improvement, or what some management professionals have referred to as kaizen.
After World War II, the company faced with a financial crisis and forced to lay off more than 2,000 employees. In response, the company embarked on a five-year plan to improve its manufacturing equipment and facilities. It drew in part on a form of training implemented in the United States as companies ramped up wartime production efforts. At Toyota, a machine shop manager, Taiichi Ohno, set out to improve the production system of the company by making incremental changes in the daily work routines on the shop floor.
How useful though is the techniques designed to eliminate waste and streamline production to an author?
Five Whys in the Self-Help Sphere
In recent years, the five whys technique gained traction in the self-help sphere as a method of awareness. Each why we answer uncovers another motivational logic that exposes our thinking to ourselves. Why are we doing this?
On the surface, the method of asking why over and over elicits a brainstorm. You pose a “why” to each answer, much like an inquisitive toddler who plays the game until the adult throws up their hands in frustration. “I don’t know why,” and the game ends.
In this case, though, the objective is not to end up frustrated but rather to expose our thoughts. Why do we want to write a single-authored book?
The answers to why may not be what we expect.
Example:
1. Why do I want to write a second book?
I need a book to be promoted.
2. Why do I want to be promoted?
I want to have the status/salary.
3. Why do I want a higher salary?
Why do you want a higher salary? What do you think that salary will allow you to feel or experience? More vacations? A new car?
What if the why of writing a book ends up at a promotion? Again, it is worth following this strategy to ask again, why do you want the promotion?
The five whys technique cultivates awareness by unfolding the layered reasons of why we act, or not. It is useful l in exposing our reasons that may not be sustainable, or even palatable. Is the root cause of writing a book our desire for status or salary enough to sustain us? Will seeing our name in print be enough?
By bringing these reasons to light—including those that are unpalatable—we develop awareness. We can then ask if we want to manage our mind around these reasons. The answer may be yes.
When I tried out the five whys, I discovered the why of a promotion or the status was unsatisfactory. Instead, I needed to till more fertile ground. Why was I writing the book? What did I want my reader to understand? Why did I want to convey the hopes and aspirations of the people I had interviewed? Why did I want to tell this story? These whys directed my attention outward.
By asking yourself the why of a why, you develop heightened awareness of your motivational schema. And you may uncover reasons for not writing a second book. Perhaps it makes more sense to engage in another activity that may be more lucrative. After all, the salary step may not be worth the effort. Or the route to what we imagine the status of promotion will bring may be achieved another way.
Why, Oh Why Write a Second Book?
For some academics in the tenure-track, writing the first book or landing the big grant is a requirement for keeping their job. This external motivation is likely unrepeatable. Or undesirable. While I hesitate to suggest that this method gets to the bottom of your reasons, I do recommend it for exposing your motivational logic. You may find that the promotion or salary is simply not the reason that will sustain writing a book. And that recognition is liberating because you then should ask, why do I want a higher salary?
Let’s begin at the end. Why do you want to publish a second book? This technique starts at the end, and the technique is a process of repetition by asking why five times.
You may also begin to ask yourself different questions. Is writing a book the only way to secure promotion or an increase in salary? Why do you want a promotion? If the why is for status, then it is worth getting curious about what you imagine you will be or have with that rank.
By digging into the whys, we expose our motivations to ourselves. If the why is for a higher salary, you can then ask yourself if writing a book, the route to do so.
The five whys method is also called a root-cause analysis that is a team-oriented exercise to address quality-control issues. But it may be equally useful for enhance our awareness, fold by fold, of what is contained within our desires or reasons.
Sometimes, the five whys method resembles the cliche of “drilling down” to the bedrock of our purpose. Bedrock presumes our motivations have layers—the visible layer covering the fertile topsoil that holds the roots of plants to the harder clay and less organic material and finally, the regolith or slightly unbroken rock. So, we drill down then get to the rocks? Why not just stay in the fertile topsoil where plants take root?
Perhaps we should think of our whys as a process of unfolding, exposing what is covered to our awareness. We ask the why of our why, and then asking why again and again. In other words, there is no bedrock of our motivation, that regolith of purpose.
Instead, the value of the five whys may be in generating a plurality of purposes and goals. And this plurality of reasons, not the bedrock, is what fortifies us.
A single compelling reason or root cause is unlikely to sustain us. We need multiple reasons. Some reasons are outward, reaching towards our imagined readers. Some may be institutional. Other are personal. We ask why and why again, not to create the perfect workshop floor but to generate rich fertile soil by turning it over, and then over again.
What are your whys?
