Suppose you’re a factory worker and a machine you’re responsible for stops working. When pressed for a reason, you answer there was an overload, and the fuse blew.
You’re right in your assertion. The machine did overload, and the fuse was the reason. But after some self-interrogation, you realize that the root cause of the problem was not due to a blown fuse, but rather, a worn-out shaft. [1]
A misdiagnosis like this is not limited to manufacturing. So, too, in life and work, do we assume problems are at the immediate effect of one, isolated cause.
We might fail to work out or miss a project deadline due to what we assume to be tiredness and miscommunication respectively when in truth, the root cause (or causes) is one we hadn’t considered.
The Five Whys is a technique to help determine the root cause of a problem by asking the question “Why” five times. [2]
An example of a problem might be: I didn’t work out when I woke up.
- Why? – I was tired. (First why)
- Why? – I went to bed late. (Second why)
- Why? – I was on my phone. (Third why)
- Why? – I was browsing Facebook. (Fourth why)
- Why? – I was bored. (Fifth why, a root cause)
The root cause was not tiredness, as first assumed, but rather, boredom, which could be solved by (1) meeting an unmet need in a better way (e.g., reading a book) or (2) making the behavior harder to do, as James Clear espouses in his book, Atomic Habits.
Seldom is a problem’s “real” cause its root cause. Only by asking “Why,” once, twice, five times, if need be, can we determine the hidden reason for a problem, and with perseverance, uncover its solution as well.
Footnotes
[1] Eric Ries introduced me to The Five Whys in his book, The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses.
[2] In addition to The Five Whys, Toyota also developed the idea of Just In Case vs. Just In Time manufacturing, which I wrote about in Word Into Works 15.
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