Root Cause LO7933

jack hirschfeld (jack@his.com)
Mon, 17 Jun 1996 22:42:04 -0400

Bill Hendry, in LO 7896 and Barry Mallis in LO 7919 speak of the 5 whys and
the Ishikawa diagram as useful tools for getting at root cause. At this
point in the conversation, the "quality geek" will usually rush in to
remind everybody that these methods only uncover possible root causes, or -
to use Juran's description - theories of possible root causes. This
projects the mental model that the "tools" are only structured ways to
brainstorm, and that data must be collected to "validate" the root cause.

I agree that a team seeking to understand problems in a process may gain
insight through the use of these tools. However, in my opinion, the
activity reinforces the paradigm of direct cause and effect which I view as
a limited view of the systems in which most events occur. The tools of
systems thinking suffer, in my view, from the same deficiency of investing
speculations about reality with the aura of truth. But I find the loops of
systems dynamics more useful, since they usually encompass multiple effects
of any "cause" and point to potential relationships which help explain
surprising results from specific actions or events.

I distinguish among three different approaches to "our" influence on
events. The first is fatalism; che sera sera; it's all pre-ordained; you
can't escaped destiny, etc. etc. The second is the world of cause and
effect, the clockwork of the Newtonian world with which we are all
familiar, and which has been the core paradigm of Western thought for 500
years. And the third is a world of intention, in which the future is of
our making as a consequence of our volition. It is in this third realm
that systems thinking seems to have relevance, and this may be why people
with utopian longings seem to be attracted to the concepts of the Learning
Organization.

It takes radical change (note that the very word "radical" refers to
"root") to impact "root causes." I suspect that the aversion to pursuing
the 5 whys which Bill notes is not as much fear of knowing the truth as
fear of having to practice radical action.

Barry speaks of the "fun" of doing Ishikawas. The tool frustrates most
teams, and is barely usable where there is great diversity of thought. It
is certainly not inherently rigorous. My theory is that the Japanese have
an easier time with this than Americans because of the relative cultural
homogeniety of their society. Sooner or later, Coca-cola will change all
that.

--

Jack Hirschfeld How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky? jack@his.com

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>