Asking Why Helps Team Get To Root Cause

The 5 Whys Technique

This is a simple, yet powerful tool for helping your team find the root cause of an issue. This method digs deep to ensure the team identifies the “real” problem, not just symptoms. It can be used in conjunction with other methods.

The process is simple. The team will ask several consecutive “why” statements to get to the root cause. (Note: Although this is called the “5 Whys,” it sometimes takes more than five.)

How To Use This Tool
For each statement that is made about the cause of the problem, the team will ask, “Why does this occur?”

Example
If the problem statement is “The storage area is cluttered instead of neat,” ask a series of Whys, such as:

Why? Because there are too many supplies
Why? Because we order too many items that never get used.
Why? Because we overestimated our needs.
Why? Because employees don’t know how to estimate what is needed.
Why? Because they aren’t trained in estimating.

Once your team has reached the last possible why, assess that item by identifying a solution.

Denise O’Berry (aka ‘Team Doc’) provides tools, tips and advice to help organizations build better teams. Find out more at http://www.teambuildingtips.com

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