Ask Why Five Times: the Five Whys, start to finish.
From a live TESS leadership session with trainer Jamie Chambers · captions included
“People stop at why number two or three, and they're still taking paracetamol for a broken arm.”
A complete, usable problem-solving tool: keep asking why until you reach the real cause, then make the change that actually fixes it. These clips come from live sessions that feed into the CMI Managing Change unit our learners complete.
Transcript
So, the five whys technique. The first thing I would say is that there's nothing magical about five; that's just on average. The idea, though, is that you keep going until you've got to the root cause, and you don't stop too early. When I see people using this, they stop at number two or three, and they're still taking paracetamol for a broken arm. The idea is that you're looking for the root cause, so you can implement the right change.
So, an example. The battery is dead. Now, you could say the solution's easy: the change is to replace the battery. But what if that's not the root cause? So, why is the battery dead? The alternator is not functioning. Why is the alternator not functioning? The alternator belt is broken. Why is the alternator belt broken? The alternator belt was well beyond its useful service life and was not replaced. Why was that? The vehicle was not maintained according to the recommended service schedule.
That's the root cause. By understanding the root cause, we know what the change is: to maintain it according to the service schedule more accurately, moving forward.
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