Five Whys of Success | Root Cause Analysis

Five Whys of Success
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NAVIGATION

Jay Arthur
888-468-1537
303-756-9144
KnowWare International, Inc.
DBA LifeStar
2253 S. Oneida
Ste 3D
Denver, CO 80224

We work with companies
that want to fire up their profits using
Lean Six Sigma

While most Six Sigma professionals use the "five whys" to solve problems, few use them to analyze the root causes of success. In April 2011's HBR article, Francesca Gino and Gary P. Pisano examine Why Leaders Don't Learn from Success. They found three key factors affecting the ability to learn from success:

Fundamental attribution errors - concluding our talents or strategies are the reason for success
Overconfidence bias - success increases our faith in ourselves
Failure-to-ask-why-syndrome - "the tendency not to investigate the causes of good performance systematically."

Most Six Sigma professionals look at the data to figure out what's wrong, not what's going right.

Solving for Success
It's pretty simple. As the authors put it: "Tools like Six Sigma have taught us to dig into root causes of problems. Why not use the same approach to understanding the root causes of success?" Just put the success in the head of the fishbone, then ask Why, Why, Why, Why, Why? Maybe it was the process, machines, materials, environment, or people.

Figure it out. Build it into your process so that you can succeed more easily next time.

Seems too easy doesn't it?

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