Both managers and co-workers come to me asking me to perform a task. If I don't know why they're asking, then I immediately ask: What is the problem you're try

Both managers and co-workers come to me asking me to perform a task. If I don't know why they're asking, then I immediately ask: What is the problem you're trying to solve? This is just a different way of asking "Why?" More often than not, this changes the entire conversation. Often this leads to us determining that the task is unnecessary. Sometimes it's that a different approach would be better. Sometimes I do the task with a small modification. Rarely, I perform the task exactly as described.