Why Asking "Why?" Doesn't Work...

By Mark Paradies edited by Enrique Mora

Lately I've seen articles about the best way to find root causes. They tell people to ask "Why?" 5 times or to use a slightly more structured method: ask why and then draw a Cause & Effect Diagram (not to be confused with an E&CF Chart). They say that these methods are superior.  I can't stand to see such nonsense in print! Let me explain just 3 (of many) reasons why these techniques can lead investigators astray.

Reason 1: You should never ask "Why?" in an interview with your operators or maintenance technicians. Why? Because asking "Why?" causes people to become defensive. They justify their actions rather than communicating what they observed (the main point of an interview). If your main analysis technique is asking "Why?", you are doomed to bad interviews. Bad interviews lead to bad investigations.

Reason 2: Cause & Effect Analysis can't get you past what you already know. Cause & Effect Analysis (a self made causal tree) was invented by Socrates. He used it as a basic reasoning tool. He knew its limitations. To define a cause and effect relationship one must have already observed the cause produce the effect. If one has never observed the cause produce the effect, one can't develop a Cause and Effect Diagram. Also, if there are many potential causes and the investigator has only experienced (or only has knowledge of) a few, then the investigator is likely to pick the cause that he/she is familiar with even if it isn't the proper cause. I call this the "Favorite Cause Syndrome."

In order to have a wider view it is necessary to create a diagram where not only our "personal" causes have a place. Operators are typically left out of the investigation process and that is wrong. They are the closest to the problem and its causes. Even if not technically savvy they might be the best source of this new "wide open" catalog of possible causes.

Reason 3: You need structure to trend. Asking "Why?" has no structure. So forget about measuring your progress (i.e. no trending).

By having a larger array we can start searching for "The cause of the cause" and later "The cause of the cause of the cause" and so on... until we really reach the bottom.

So what should you do? Don't be led astray! Use a more thorough approach. TapRooT® as well as other RCA programs have the structure, the embedded knowledge, and the questions to go beyond other techniques. We strongly recommend that you follow this new approach if you really want to get to the

Click here for a series of articles on Root Cause Analysis Quality of Process

We appreciate that you visit our
sponsors and advertisers.
They make it possible for 
us to keep this service 
up to date for you.