Professor Sweet talked about a problem-finding technique called the 5 Whys today, and I hadn’t heard of this subject before. I was waiting for him to say “the first why question is ‘why do…’ or ‘why is…'” but there was none of that. He just kept on going and I didn’t hear any elaboration on what any of the why questions were. But then I realized, the question is “why?” and there is no elaboration needed.
The 5 Whys approach is a problem-finding and problem-solving method that involves asking the question “why?” a series of times (traditionally five) to drill down into the root cause of a problem. First, you identify the prospect’s proposed problem. This ideally helps to focus the problem analysis. Then, you ask the first why. Why is the problem occurring? This first why should lead to an initial answer that identifies a cause of the problem. This is usually a surface-level answer that hints at underlying issues. After that, you ask “why?” four more times. For each answer you get, you ask “why?” again to delve deeper into the previous cause. Each subsequent question aims to peel away another layer of the problem, moving closer to the root cause. The idea is that simple, surface-level solutions often do not address the true underlying issues, and by asking “why?” multiple times, you can now explore these deeper issues. Ideally, by the time you have asked “why?” five times, you will have uncovered the root cause of the problem and the goal is to ensure that the solution addresses this root cause rather than just treating symptoms. Once you have identified the real problem, you think of solutions that address it. The beauty of the 5 Whys approach is in its simplicity. It doesn’t require statistical analysis or complex tools, which helps make it accessible to anyone trying to solve someone’s problems, which really could be anyone!
BoweryJE22