The 5 WHY questions

Are projects answering the correct why response?

Let’s deviate slightly to understand what triggered my question. This week I picked up my granddaughter from daycare and told her we were not going straight home; we were going to call into the shops to get a few things. “Why Nanny”. There is no eggs or milk in the fridge. “Why Nanny”. I used them making scrambled eggs for breakfast. “Why Nanny”…and we continued the question/response pattern all the way to the shops.

Have you heard of “the 5 whys” method as part of the Toyota Production System, which was developed by Sakichi Toyoda, a Japanese inventor and industrialist.

I believe it supports decision making in why invest or not invest in a project.

The 5 Whys are more than likely to show you the source of the problem is not what you expected. Often, issues that are considered a technology problem actually end up being a people and/or process problem.

Here is a sample why question response.

Source: kanbanize.com

Imagine the team looking at this problem, jumped to a technology solution to fix the alarm that didn’t work when a fix to the process like adding a checklist item “check the alarm battery” could have solved the problem.

I can hear you thinking a technology solution would have been a waste of time and money. There are bigger problems to fix.

How to get started with 5 Whys

Step 1 Form a team

Bring together a cross-functional team, who can provide different points of view.

Step 2 Define the problem

Document a clear problem statement to define the scope of the issue and keep focus.

Step 3 Ask why

Have someone facilitate the process.

Ask questions based on data rather than emotional opinions.

Sometimes a why question can have more than one response, track each as a separate branch.

Step 4 Take action

Confirm the root cause and recommend the solution.

Usually there are two action options to implement the solution:

• strategic change will require a business case to seek additional funding and establish a project; or
• operational change will happen as part of a continuous improvement process.

Here are problems from project executives who I have supported to make a strategic decision and take action to either invest or not invest in a project.

1. Customers are complaining about the call centre wait times.
2. Consulting projects are not being delivered on time or bringing in the expected revenue.
3. Warehouse stock is not available for urgent asset repairs.

What strategic decision and action process do you have in place that answers the WHY questions?