Use the 5 Whys to Get to the Root of Your Productivity Problems
Planning your next steps is important for productivity, but it’s only useful if your plans are well informed. To succeed, you need to understand why previous attempts to solve similar problems have failed. Conducting a personal impact analysis is one way to evaluate your performance, but to truly understand what went wrong and prepare for future attempts, you need to dig deeper. Try the Five Whys technique to get to the bottom of things.
What is the Five Whys technique?
First of all, you should know that this is another productivity protocol that originated from the famous Japanese factory system, similar to the 5S and 3M methods. Essentially, once you identify the problem, you ask, “Why?” five times, which will ultimately reveal the real cause of the problem and what you need to focus on.
How to Use the Five Whys to Solve Problems
Some variations of the technique require you to gather a team to brainstorm before you begin, but if you’re assessing a personal problem, this part can be easily adapted. Your “team” could be, for example, people posting about an issue on forums, or a group chat with your friends. If the issue is domestic, talk to your family. It doesn’t have to be too formal, but if the issue is work-related and you have co-workers, involve them in the discussion.
Whether you’re consulting with the team or not, the real work begins when you identify the problem. State it clearly and, ideally, write it down. Let’s say the problem is that you didn’t clear the dining room for dinner, so everyone had to eat at the counter. Simplify it to: “I didn’t clean the dining room.”
Then ask, “Why?” Write down a response, for example: “I had to answer a call from work.”
Ask why?” Write down the answer and ask again. Then again, and again, and again until you’ve asked five times. So, your article might look like this: I didn’t tidy up the dining room > I had to take a phone call from work > I didn’t finish the reports my boss wanted > I didn’t have the data the sales department needed > the sales department didn’t know about my deadline.
When you finish digging into the problem, you will see how the answer to the final question, “Why?” caused a domino effect that led to the original problem. Addressing these more detailed issues will ultimately help prevent larger problems. So, in this case, write down: “I will communicate timelines and needs to other departments early on in the project.” The next time you have a project, when you plan your tasks for it, be sure to include: “Communicate with sales about deadlines for providing data.”
Keep in mind that root causes are not always obvious after five rounds of “Why?” For example, it may not be your responsibility to communicate deadlines to the sales team. Perhaps the person who was supposed to do it screwed up, or the people on that team didn’t check their email. In this case, the solution may be to review your protocols at work. The Five Whys are not specific; it is a way to change the way you think about problems so that you can easily identify their root causes and eliminate them. Once you get into the habit of asking why and working backwards, you’ll be able to do it quickly and change your plans for the future more effectively.