Many problems have one right answers, but not all of them do. Understanding this will improve your root cause analysis. How many seconds define a minute? The right answer is 60. How many feet are in a mile? 5,280 is the right answer. What is 2 multiplied by 7? The right answer is 14. There are many problems that have right answers. Anyone who has attended elementary school, junior high or high school has significant experience with right-wrong answers. You may remember the directions form your teacher to grade a test; “Exchange papers with the person next to you. Put an X through any answers that are wrong.”People have a tendency to think of all problems as having a right answer. If someone asks “What’s 3 multiplied by 5?” anyone whose answer is different than 15 is wrong. “I’m right and you’re wrong” may not be the nicest way to say it, but it is accurate. The correct answer is 15. This view of problems having right and wrong answers is essential when working a problem that has a right answer. But this right-wrong approach doesn’t apply to all problems. Not all problems have a right answer.
Problems that organizations investigate using root cause analysis, don’t have right answers. As an example, if someone asks “Why did the Titanic sink?” people will respond with different answers. Some will say the Titanic sank because it hit an iceberg, others will say it sank because it filled with water and still others will say it was because of the strength of the rivets. Ironically these three different responses are all accurate. Each person is telling the truth, but they think they’re right. This is why disagreements and arguments are so prevalent in company problem solving sessions.
Some people may be emotionally connected to the rudder on the Titanic. They may argue that “if the rudder would have been bigger, the Titanic never would have sank.” They won’t move off that point because what they’re saying is true, however they believe they’re right. Anyone who provides an explanation different from theirs is perceived as disagreeing (or just wrong). An effective root cause analysis prevents these unnecessary miscommunications. This is not some new way of thinking, it’s simply accurate. Our clients have told us this is profound, not because it’s sophisticated, but because it’s simple.
Interestingly, when people believe the purpose of root cause analysis is to find the root cause they’re mistakenly imposing right-answer thinking on the incident. The analysis is flawed from the start which has a negative affect on the way the organization solves the problem.
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