Why is "Why?" such a challenging question to answer?

"Why?" is the most profound question that anyone can ask about anything. Here are two of my favorite answers to the question, "Why?" from the movie, The Matrix Reloaded.

• The Merovingian answers his rhetorical question to Morpheus, "Do you know why you're here?"
• The Achitect answers Neo's question, "Why am I here?"

Oftentimes, the answer to "Why?" may be just as profound, if not more so, than the question itself. Hence, the real challenge about coming up with the answer is to make it succinct and easily comprehensible. I recently provided my answer in the form of a slidedeck to the question, "Why are social computing, social media, and community so fundamentally important to people and businesses?" Please let me know if it makes enough sense to you.

Interestingly, back in July, the Wall Street Journal had an article that attempted to answer the question, "Why do most online communities fail?" Many people, including plenty of technology vendors and consultants, chimed in with their answers in the comments as well as their own blogs, some of which contain relevant insights well worth reading while others would make Captain Obvious very proud. I've also thought quite a bit about this question, but as I finally found some free time to start drafting my answer in a blog entry, I found the post, Why is "Why?" still the most under appreciated question?, by Sean O'Driscoll, a former General Manager at Microsoft, who had been responsible for the MVP program, which I referenced in my previous post.

I have great respect for Sean because he's one of the few independent consultants/strategists, who consistently provides sensible models and clear guidance for success rather than just conjecture intermixed with clichés. The process diagram below shows his model for planning a social media project, and it begins with defining a purpose. Sean reasons, "Until you answer the question of why (and gain organizational agreement to that answer!!) you can’t answer the ROI question with any specifics. I can give you a list of metrics to attach to a social site or community, but I can’t tell you if those metrics matter unless I know what the business objective is."

Although having an agreed upon purpose would significantly increase the chance of success, it's critical that the other facets of Sean's model go through sufficient planning efforts as well. So, simply put, the primary reason why most online communities fail is because they were not well planned. Yes, I sound like Captain Obvious's sidekick by saying that, but how to avoid failure is not at all obvious, which is why I appreciate Sean's model so much, and I think you should, too.