As anyone on my team will tell you, I never outwardly answer their questions with the exact answer they seek. I learned that by doing so, I am merely creating a funnel that prevents them from having a problem-solving structure. Instead, I respond with a series of questions that guide them toward where the solution will reveal itself on its own. They end up bringing me their solution and 95% of the time, we are both on the same wavelength. I strive to foster free thinkers, who question how we do things, and even more importantly, why we do them. I do this myself as much as possible when I’m on the shop floor, during a Gemba walk or even at industry events amongst my peers. Most of the time, I find it takes me on a philosophical journey and excavating deeper into the “whys.” Unfortunately, the answer is, “We’ve always done it that way.”
When did asking “why” go out of style?
In my opinion, the current state of the collision industry is largely due to the pervasiveness of this answer. When did asking “why” go out of style? Was this driven by fear? Obedience to shop owners or managers? I think the answer goes deeper. One of the best books I’ve read that covers this subject is “A More Beautiful Question” by Warren Berger. Berger cites many reasons why this has disappeared, but I believe this quote captures it quite perfectly: “Is it not curious, then, that the most significant intellectual skill available to human beings is not taught in schools?” We are taught to regurgitate facts taught by teachers to pass tests, to earn good grades, to hopefully land us in college, and eventually a well-paying job. The education system does not think asking “why” needs to be taught, and subsequently it’s not something they are competent at teaching. The byproduct of this is complacency and acquiescence to what is presented to us.
Are you – or do you have – a “point-and-click" estimator?
Repair planners have an enormous responsibility to research — and more importantly, understand what was researched — and then apply this knowledge to orchestrate the repair. That takes time, diligence, and patience. With so many other tasks vying for the repair planner’s attention, this becomes marginalized not by choice, but by design — a system designed off legacy methods and structure. The industry’s response was to leverage AI to scrub estimates, finding labor operations, parts, and materials in a matter of seconds, and adding them to an estimate. They deliver convenience and efficiency, not comprehension of the information. So many of these software developers complain of poor utilization, and shops still struggle to get fairly reimbursed for the work being done. Subsequently, I hear the term “point-and-click estimators” with more frequency than ever. When will I hear, “Why is the overhaul time for that bumper 4.2 hours and not 5.0 hours?”
Information is available to us at any time of day, anywhere. It’s overflowing and endless. With no guiderails, overload is omnipresent. The idea of “why” is not on the radar for most of us. How do we expect our people to filter this out? I remember having to go to the public library spending hours writing papers for school, checking out books or digging through encyclopedias. In contrast, now social media, YouTube, and questionable information are influencing decisions made on repairs in all your shops, by all levels of employees. Shockingly, this includes insurance adjusters for as guess what? This is now considered “industry behavior in a market,” regardless of whether it is an acceptable repair method or not.
Set the foundation for a colossal shift in thinking
Fostering curiosity, enabling your teams to question you, and why we are doing what we are doing is healthy. The journey to creating this culture is not lined with puppy dogs and candy canes. But nothing worth doing in life is, anyway; real growth is when you are out of your comfort zone. And it starts with us as leaders. Unrestricted access to accurate, reliable information in all corners of the shop is a must. Teaching your team the healthy way to ask “why” will start to set the foundation of a colossal shift in thinking. The answers to all these “whys” are in the hundreds of training classes that exist in our industry. Your repair planner doesn’t know why we tint color to achieve a blendable match? No problem, the manufacturer of your paint line would love to teach them. Why do we restrict sending repair planners to the same classes as painters and body techs? How can they defend a repair plan without knowing what the steps are to perform those operations? AI is not going to have that conversation for you with an adjuster in your shop or behind a computer doing a desk review.
My five-year-old daughter, Ava, has the gift of asking why. I will do everything in my power to protect it for as long as I’m around on this Earth. As Berger says, “What if it turned out that the tool had been right there in our back pocket, ever since childhood?”
