Using The 5 Whys To Diagnose Anything

Getting to the root cause of any problem

In the agile world, the five whys is an exercise that expedites the process of getting to the root cause of an issue. It can be formally done as part of a retrospective, as a 1:1 with a team member, or on the back of a napkin. Whatever the situation, this technique can help get to the ugly, vulnerable cause of a problem, but only if you’re ready to honest with yourself and others.

Why root cause analysis?

Think of a root cause as an infection. When you have an infection you may sneeze, have a fever, and feel achy. You can treat symptoms with over-the-counter medications but at the end of the day, you’re only doing just that — treating symptoms. In order to make a recovery, you need to treat the infection with antibiotics. You can treat symptoms forever without fixing the underlying cause. When you stop to take a look at what’s underneath, disequilibrium happens and as a result, we adapt. And adapting is scary and uncertain.

Recently, I set out on a mission to uncover why two teams had a difficult time talking to each other. Both felt they were adequately expressing themselves and communicating essential information clearly. Though there was a little bit of analytical data available to help us understand the situation, a solution required us to turn a mirror inward and look at the real cause of the issue and garner a deeper understanding. To do this, we used the five whys.

Use this exercise whenever you’re scratching your head, bereft of enough data to diagnose a sticky issue.

How do I use the 5 Whys?

If you’re facilitating this exercise for a group, I highly recommend creating a safe meeting space by setting some ground rules. If you’re unfamiliar with setting ground rules, here’s a concise place to start.

If you’re doing this exercise yourself, dive right in, although I won’t stop you from setting ground rules for yourself, either.

The five whys starts with a simple problem statement and short brainstorm. We’ll use an example of a band that practices together regularly, but doesn’t play many shows and wants to know why.

1 | Why can’t we get a gig?

Possible causes:

• Promoters don’t think we’re good enough
• Promoters don’t like the style of music
• The band can’t agree on what kind of gigs we want to play
• We don’t know other bands that can play with us
• We haven’t had any good gig opportunities

In a group, you’ll have an opportunity to create cohorts. In the above example, you may want to break into groups and explore two options. For this post, let’s focus on just that last one by turning it into another why statement and repeating this step again.

2 | Why haven’t we had any good gig opportunities?

Possible causes:

• We don’t have a good social media page or website
• No one reaches out to promoters or venues
• We don’t network with a lot of other bands
• We haven’t practiced enough

…then do it again….

3 | Why hasn’t anyone reached out to promoters or venues?

Possible causes:

• Everyone is busy with their lives outside of the band
• We don’t how to or who to contact
• We don’t have any supporting materials
• We don’t know what kind of gigs we want
• We like practicing more than playing shows
• It’s hard work

At about this point in the exercise, it should be harder to identify the causes underneath. You’ll start getting into the more intangible, potentially emotional discussion. Remember that it’s a brainstorm. Since you’ve created a safe space for participants, encourage them to try some things, even if they may not be entirely accurate.

If you’re doing this on your own, challenge yourself to dig deeper, or ask for a trusted outside perspective. If you’re getting a cyclical answer pattern, it’s probably time to ask for some help.

Here are the last two…

4 | Why don’t we know what kind of gigs we want?

Possible causes:

• We’ve just never talked about it
• I’m afraid we’ll have differing opinions about this and I don’t want to upset the balance
• We have other priorities in our lives than the band
• Gigs complicate our routine
• We just don’t feel like getting into it

5 | Why we talking about what types of gigs we want to play?

Possible causes:

• I’m afraid we might disagree and argue
• It’s a lot of work to coordinate
• I don’t want to be the one that talks business
• I want to make sure I still have band-life balance
• Gigs make me nervous — like really nervous.

When you’ve reached a point where you’re satisfied, identify what you think is most likely the root cause and which items you can easily mitigate.

So what now?

Now that you have your root cause, create an action plan that takes steps to mitigate, neutralize, or eliminate it.

In our example, the band may decide to have a band get together in an informal setting to discuss their results and actions for each.

• I’m afraid we might disagree and argue — Have a band meeting in an informal space and agree (you guessed it) some ground rules.
• It’s a lot of work to coordinate — Identify who does what and a plan to split work evenly. Discuss what people are interested in doing to begin with. I don’t want to be the one that talks business
• I want to make sure I still have band-life balance — Discuss how many gigs are doable in a given timeframe based on everyone’s schedules and agree as a group.
• I don’t want to be the one that talks business — …and rotate responsibilities each month.
• Gigs make me nervous — like really nervous. — See if there’s a compromise on gig frequency or ways the band can support this member.

By getting on the same page you’ve not only diagnosed your problem, but bought in steps to mitigate them!

By using these simple why statements, we can generate information where we thought we had none. Use a why statement as many times as needed; there’s no real limit to that. Keep asking until you’re satisfied. Seems simple enough, right?

Just remember: be painfully honest with yourself and others.

Get at me

How might you use the five whys? Are you prepared to be vulnerable and honest enough to tackle underlying challenges that need to be addressed? How many whys do you think you’ll have to use to get to the real root cause?