>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@his.com
Even though I am a 'quality geek' I must side with Jack in not
recommending fishbone diagrams for most root cause thinking. They work well
in clearly defined processes where the causal chain is more obvious.
However (and this is not a cultural issue) in situations where the causal
chain is less direct, with the kinds of feedback loops , delays, and other
'non-linearities' the systems dynamics diagrams are much more useful.
Healthcare, where I ply my trade, has never taken well to the fishbones and
other tools are more useful. And we ain't Japanese either.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Bob Luttman
Principal, Robert Luttman & Associates
* 50 Keith Street * West Roxbury, MA 02132
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Consultants in organizational assessment, measurement, and improvement
--rluttman@zork.tiac.net (Bob Luttman)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>