5 whys to get to the root cau
Another interesting technique is the 5 why’s. Many know this techniques from their children.
- Child: why does so and so happen?
- You: oh because of this and that…
- Child: Yes, but why then this?
- You again: well, because …
- and so on and so on
Though sometimes it can be frustrating to have to keep on finding answers to the incessant stream of whys it is a surprisingly simple way of getting to the bottom of an issue rapidly…
The technique was developed by Sakichi Toyoda and was used within the Toyota Motor Corporation.
Why 5 whys? Because it generally gets you to the bottom of things, and if at times it doesn’t get you there feel free to continue asking why until you do 😉
[…] diagram, aka the Fishbone diagram because of its shape. It is a more structured way than just asking yourself why 5 times. You can use this in team to flesh out the reasons behind a problem in front of a whiteboard or you […]