Why, Why, Why?
Leaping to conclusions and jumping to solutions often means that we don’t fix the root cause, which rots away, like rust on metal.
Our human biases give us confidence, too much confidence that we have the right answer and that our solution works. We have a bias for action, which makes us feel good.
Two biases which lead us astray when it comes to problem solving.
Pause for a moment and ask Why?
Why is this not working?
Then ask Why again?
Keep asking Why until you get to a root cause. Fix the root cause and all the knock on effects of the issue go away as well.
It is like a laser guided missile hitting just the part that needs fixing, rather than an elastoplast over the effect.
Let us see this in action
A business is considering a new analytics platform to assess pricing effectiveness. It is a high cost and complex investment.
Why do we need a new analytics platform?
Because we are losing margin in our customers
Why are we losing margin in our customers?
Because our pricing has not risen with inflation or the segment
Why has our price not risen?
Because we always give our customers the same deals
Why do we always give our customers the same deals?
Because otherwise our customers might get upset
Why do we care that our customers might get upset?
Because then they won’t buy from us
So the real cause of margin erosion is that we don’t want to upset our customers by changing the price and/or the deals we have.
The simple root cause solution should look at how we change the conversation in a way that does not upset the customer, or accept that there is a risk that the customer may no longer buy, if they do not believe in the product or value it brings.
Simpler, cheaper and needed before an analytics platform is put in place.
Some practical advice
- Pause
- Ask Why?
- Keep asking Why? Why? Why? until you get to the root cause
- Once you have the root cause. Fix that first, optimise later.
This is part of our Leadership Wizdom series, bite sized leadership advice for leaders who wish to improve their leadership, but don’t have much time. For more indepth articles check out The Change Wizard.
We coach leaders and help their organisations become more adaptable at www.thechangewizard.com
