Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Key Takeaways
- Business problems often reoccur because symptoms are addressed, but the underlying causes remain.
- The Five Whys technique helps identify root causes by asking 'why' repeatedly until you find the core issue.
- Don't always blame individuals; investigate processes since mistakes can indicate fragile systems.
- Support root cause analysis for business with data, observing frequencies and conditions surrounding issues.
- Implement targeted improvements, then monitor results to confirm that you fixed a meaningful problem.
Some business problems never really disappear.
A report is late, so someone reminds the employee responsible.
A customer inquiry is missed, so the team is told to pay closer attention.
An invoice contains incorrect information, so accounting fixes it.
The immediate problem gets resolved, but a few weeks later it happens again.
That usually means the symptom was corrected while the underlying cause remained.
Symptoms Are Easier to See
Suppose customer inquiries occasionally go unanswered.
The obvious conclusion might be that employees need to check email more frequently.
But that may not be the actual problem.
Perhaps inquiries are delivered to a shared mailbox nobody owns. Maybe there is no standard definition of who should respond. Perhaps website inquiries go to a single employee who is occasionally unavailable.
Until you understand the cause, it is difficult to create a reliable solution.
Use the Five Whys
The Five Whys is a simple root cause analysis technique frequently associated with Lean problem solving.
The idea is to repeatedly ask why something happened until you move beyond the obvious symptom.
For example:
Problem: A prospect did not receive a follow-up.
Why? The salesperson did not see the inquiry.
Why? The inquiry was sent to a general email address.
Why? Website inquiries are not automatically assigned.
Why? The website is not connected to the CRM.
Why? No formal lead intake process was established when the CRM was implemented.
The original problem appeared to be an employee forgetting something.
The deeper problem was a process design issue.
You Do Not Always Need Five Whys
The number five is not a requirement.
Sometimes two questions reveal the cause. Sometimes seven are necessary.
The objective is simply to continue asking until you identify something that can reasonably explain and prevent the problem.
Be Careful About Blaming People
When the answer to a process problem is "someone needs to be more careful," keep investigating.
People make mistakes. Good processes are designed with that reality in mind.
If a critical activity depends entirely on one employee remembering to perform it at exactly the right time, the process itself may be fragile.
Use Data When Possible
Root cause analysis is stronger when supported by evidence.
Look at when the problem occurs, how often it happens, which customers are affected, and whether certain conditions are consistently present.
This reflects the Analyze stage of Six Sigma's DMAIC approach: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.
The goal is not to make problem solving complicated. It is to avoid spending time fixing the wrong thing.
Fix the Cause, Then Watch the Result
Once you identify a likely root cause, make a targeted improvement and monitor the process.
If the problem disappears or declines substantially, you have evidence that you addressed something meaningful.
If it continues, return to the process and investigate again.
Repeated problems deserve better than repeated reminders.
