A Variation of the 5 Whys? - How Do You Know? Fri 01 Dec 06

One of the more popular Six Sigma techniques to get at the root cause of a problem is to ask the 5 Whys.  By repeatedly asking the probing question of why (5 is just a rule of thumb) you can probe down through the layers of symptoms to get to the root cause of the problem.  For example:

Q: Why are there scratches on the machined part?

A: The part moved slightly during machining

Q: Why did the part move?

A: It wasn't held firmly in place.

Q: Why wasn't the part held firmly in place?

A: The operator didn't engage the locking mechanism.

Q: Why didn't the operator engage the locking mechanism?

A: The lock is in a location that is difficult to get to engage.

Q: Why is the lock located that way?

That was the original location before the equipment was rearranged.

Root Cause - The locking mechanism being inconveniently/improperly located results in it not being used every time.

Solution - Re-locate the lock so it can be easily used every time.

Although this is a greatly over-simplified example I think it illustrates to power of the probing questions of why?

I bring this up because we in IT are often asked to do things such as customize the ERP program that we don't always think make sense.  Maybe it is just our lack of understanding of the business needs or maybe it a case of the user not wanting to change to a new process or acting on age-old assumptions that may or may not be still valid.

The use of probing questions can help clarify this both for IT and the business.  Sometimes the requester either acting on an assumption or in an attempt to get IT to stop questioning them, uses the "nuclear option" of saying - "Our customers want it this way".  In this case asking why may only elicit a response of "I don't know, they just do".

I recently came across 2 blog postings that discuss a different form of probing question that may be more useful than why.  In do you know? Don Blohowiak shows how instead of asking "Why?" asking the probing question of "How do you know this?" may lead to clearer results.  As he states:

If your experience is like mine, with the tiniest bit of scrutiny you may find that your colleagues are too often implying facts and reaching conclusions on the flimsiest of foundations. They do this not because they intend to mislead but because the pressures of a chronologically crunched work pace lead well-intending people into sloppy thinking. And that can lead to poor decisions and costly actions.

The point of the questioning exercise is not to “trap” or embarrass anyone. Asking, “How do you know?” is aimed at helping your associates see each situation fully — appreciating what’s known about it and what’s not.

Excellent observation.  Earlier Terry Seamon also addressed this question in Whatcha Thinkin'? where he suggested questions of:

• What do you mean?
• How do you know?
• What then?

Great questions. 

I'd like to add another question: What would happen if  . . .?  The customer wants it this way. What would happen if we didn't provide it that way?  This can help determine just how important it really is to the customer and why we feel they want it.  Who knows, maybe what they want is really something different and what they asked for was just a means to getting it.  If we provide what they really want by other means may be we don't have to fulfill the original request.

The whole point of this is that by properly using probing questions we can get to the heart of the issue.  Although neither Don nor Terry were trying to link the art of questioning to root cause analysis they implicitly knew the value of this discipline.  Fortunately they also provided some reference links.  Don recommends Dr. Marilee Adams' book Change Your Questions, Change Your Life: 7 Powerful Tools for Life and Work .  He also provides a link to his interview with her about the art of questioning. Terry recommends Living with Change the Semantics of Coping by the late Wendell Johnson.  I haven't yet had the opportunity to read either book and would love to hear your comments about them.

Do you have any examples of where the probing question technique has been helpful?