Root-cause analysis is a fancy and concise way to say “figure out the real reason something happened.” When bad or unexpected events occur, we want to know what caused it so that we can fix the mistake and prevent it from occurring again. When good things happen, we want to determine what went right so we can try to replicate it.
When you are ill and visit the doctor, you REALLY don’t want the doctor to make prescriptions for the wrong causes of the illness, right? You want to know the actual cause of the problem so that the proper treatment can be provided and your good health can be restored as quickly as possible.
The simplest tool to use for root-cause analysis is the “five whys” method. It’s very easy to use – determine the problem (or success!) that has occurred, then start working backwards to determine direct causes by continually asking “why.”
After about five iterations of asking why (more or less whys, depending on the situation) you should have determined the root cause of the problem (or success!) so you can act on it as necessary.
Let’s try it! Here’s a problem example.
So the problem of mouse infestation was started off with not making house seals a priority when we first moved in.
As I would imagine, you could branch these individual “whys” off in multiple ways, as there can generally be multiple direct or indirect causes that go into why an activity occurred. Such as:
So I am helping to let the problem of the mouse infestation grow by putting off cleaning chores.
With these two examples, would it be safe to rationalize that by doing an inspection (and series of repairs) of bad seals around the house AND by not putting off floor-cleaning chores I might be able to prevent the mouse problem from getting bigger (or eliminating it)?
(Of course, I’d have to make sure the mice are GONE before sealing, or I’d have to capture the remaining mice that are trapped inside.)