The Mindful Sprint 4: Use Five Whys for Lasting Breakthroughs
Rash action can lead to a temporary fix. Use Five Whys to find root causes.
As Aesop said, "Appearances often are deceiving."
Technique
Start with what happened. Say someone didn’t deliver on a promise. In Five Whys, our first question is why the promise was not fulfilled. Perhaps they didn’t have enough time to fulfill the promise. Our second question then is why didn’t they have enough time? Did they get the request too late? Did they have too many other things to do? One cause might have multiple direct whys. But keep asking why until you have at least five in a chain and see what it tells you.
Then review them to find where you can eliminate causes inexpensively and permanently.
Case Study
One of Toyota's welding robots stopped working, disrupting the production line. The first why was that the robot’s circuit board failed. The second "why" was that the board wasn’t properly maintained. The third "why" was that the maintenance staff did not follow the prescribed maintenance schedule. The fourth why lack of training. The fifth why, and a root cause worth fixing was inadequate training programs.
Resources
Dan Greening, “Root Cause Mapping Party,” https://senexrex.com/cause-mapping/
EPM, The 5 Whys Explained - Root Cause Analysis, Youtube link
Try it yourself
Look around for something that isn’t right. Apply the Five Whys technique and see how many causes you can find. Which causes might be easiest to fix? What fixes would lead to lasting improvement?
Listen up
The corresponding Mindful Agility podcast episode is 13 minutes, and the hosts are rumored to be friendly. Check it out at https://sr.link/map-5whys.
So much of my own reactivity is due to stopping at the first why. It leads me to blaming others and holding them responsible for my emotions. I’ve learned so much about myself and improved my relationships by using this technique. Thank you for sharing.