Have you ever spent a lot of time in the throes of pain and difficulty, dealing with problem after problem only to discover at some point that all those “problems” were really symptoms of one big issue? Sometimes we get so caught up in the pain points that we forget to look for the root cause, the thing really causing the problem, and the result is frustration and irritation that nothing we’re doing is working.
Identifying the true root cause of a problem is a little like a treasure hunt. You have to keep your eye on the prize regardless of what comes across your path. You have to be aware that there will be obstacles, false positives, and trails that look like the right one that end up going nowhere upon further investigation. This is where how we think becomes really important. If we don’t have our thinking on lock, we’ll give into all those negative things and eventually give up altogether.
I touched on the thinking behind Root Cause Analysis (RCA) recently as an intro to this much larger subject. RCA is a discipline that strong businesses spend years perfecting (Toyota is one of them), and there are tenets to this approach that are applicable on many levels.
We talked about how you’re thinking as being the first step in moving into an RCA approach to a problem. RCA focuses on looking for the real cause rather than finding a person to blame, an uncontrollable circumstance, or a fluke event. Why does this matter? It matters because if you can identify the cause of the problem and that cause is within your scope of control, guess what? Game changer.
When we start interacting with RCA, it can be tempting to feel a little disheartened. The days when you could just identify the stupidest or laziest person are gone. You can’t just point the finger at someone else. You have to start thinking things through, and in a society rooted in instant gratification, this can often feel really hard. Teaching people to move past those inner barriers is worth it though. And, moving past them yourself is critical if you are going to see any lasting impact on the space you occupy, whether it’s at work, in your home, or even in relationships.
The problem with symptoms is that they are very easy to see, and it is often very easy to get distracted with symptoms. But symptoms typically only cause more drama the more attention you give them. How then might one go about looking for the actual root cause?
- Make a list of the symptoms you see. Are they related at all? Can you identify common elements?
- Ask why each symptom is occurring. Don’t settle for answers like, “Because Mitch is incompetent and he can’t tell his lefts from his rights.” This is not an answer that will support a meaningful result. A reasonable answer might be, “Because Mitch was alone on the line where there are supposed to be two people.”
- Identify common themes. Is not having enough people on the line something that seems to be contributing to the symptoms you’re seeing?
- Go see. You have a hunch what the root cause might be. Now it’s time to find evidence to prove your hypothesis.
From here, once you have proved or disproved what you think the root cause might be, you can start identifying a course of action to support solving the actual problem.
Activity: Follow the steps outlined above. Where does that leave you? Do you have a better understanding of the actual problem? What might you do to address it?