Listening to conversations unfold, analysing situations develop and asking further questions to generate more information will help you make better decisions.
My fellow Mental Toughness Practitioner, Paul Lyons recently reminded me of a great strategy.
One simple but powerful tool for helping you cut through the symptoms of a problem to reveal its underlying cause, is the “5 Why’s “ technique developed in the 1930’s by Sakichi Toyoda, the Japanese industrialist, inventor, and founder of Toyota Industries.
He pioneered Toyota’s “go and see” technology which enabled decision making to be based on an in-depth understanding of what's actually happening. In his case, on the production line rather than what someone up the line or in the board room thinks should be happening.
The 5 Why’s technique allows those people who have hands-on experience of the process or problem in question to get to its cause quickly.
He explains that the method is remarkably simple in that when a problem occurs you systematically drill down to its root cause by asking "Why?" five times. Then, when a solution becomes apparent, you follow it through to prevent the issue from recurring.
Once you have defined the problem ask the first why, looking for answers that are factual rather than assumptions , otherwise you may be guessing at reasons rather than having factual responses on which to base the additional why questions.
Each time frame the question in response to the answer you've just recorded which prevents the 5 Whys from becoming a process of deductive reasoning.
You'll know that you've revealed the root cause of the problem when asking "why" produces no more useful responses, and you can go no further. Toyota found that for the vast majority of situations 5 why’s could generate sufficient information to define the underlying problem.
A personal observation is that it’s a highly effective methodology in probing for facts in decision making situations where I don't have enough reference points to make sound assumptions.
Want to know more about effective decision making? Send me an email at michelle@bakjacconsulting.com to enquire about coaching and /or training to build your personal strategies.
Michelle Bakjac is an experienced Psychologist, Organisational Consultant, Coach, Speaker and Facilitator. As Director of Bakjac Consulting, she is a credentialed Coach with the International Coach Federation (ICF) and a member of Mental Toughness Partners and an MTQ48 accredited Mental Toughness practitioner. Michelle assists individuals and organisations to develop their Mental Toughness to improve performance, leadership, behaviour and wellbeing. You can find her at www.bakjacconsulting.com or michelle@bakjacconsulting.com
