The ‘Five Whys’ Problem Solving Technique

Have you ever had a problem that refused to go away? Stubborn problems such as these are often symptomatic of deeper issues that cannot be rectified with a ‘quick fix.’ A quick fix may resolve surface issues, however, they are ultimately wasted resources when the problem reoccurs. When this is the case, the real cause of the problem needs to be tackled - but what is the best way of doing this?

In this article, we look at ‘5 Whys’ – a simple but powerful tool for getting to the root of a problem to reveal its underlying causes and help you deal with it for good. 

The ‘5 Why’ technique was developed by Sakichi Toyoda in the 1930s. He was an industrialist, inventor and founder of Toyota Industries. The 5 whys is a ‘go and see’ philosophy meaning that decision-making is based on an in-depth understanding of what’s actually happening, rather than what someone thinks may be happening.

The simple technique helps you get to the root cause by asking ‘why’ five times. Then when you’ve established the cause you can create countermeasures rather than solutions to prevent the issue from recurring. This is because a solution may only deal with the symptom, whereas a countermeasure will more likely prevent the problem from reappearing. 

The model uses a simple 7 step process:

1.    Assemble a team, ideally people who are familiar with the details of the problem

2.   Define the problem. Ideally, observe the problem in action and agree on a clear problem statement, writing this on a board with space around it to write your ‘why’ answers.

3.           Ask the first ‘why’ - Why is the problem occurring? These answers should be facts and not assumptions at this point. Your team may come up with a series of reasons, some obvious and some plausible. Record all their answers on your sheet.

4.           Choose one of the answers from step 3 and ask four further ‘whys’ in succession. Ask each ‘why’ in response to the last answer given. Quickly move through this process without passing any judgement or jumping to conclusions at this point. 

5.           You will have discovered the root of the problem when asking ‘why’ no longer produces useful responses, or you can go no further in the process. At this point, a countermeasure or a change in your process should become clearer.

6.           Now that you’ve identified what the root cause could be, your team can discuss and agree on what countermeasures could be put in place to prevent this from happening again. 

7.           Monitor the effect your countermeasure has on the initial problem. You may need to adapt or completely re-think, depending on your results. If this is the case, begin your ‘5 Why’ process again until you identify the correct root cause to your problem! 

Points to note:

• Sometimes you may need to ask more than 5 whys until you reach a point you can go no further in the process. 
• This problem-solving process is best suited to moderate to difficult problems. Complex problems may benefit from a more detailed method!
• The ‘5 why’ method helps you go further than jumping to conclusions or assigning blame. It asks you to think about why this has happened and can help you to identify organisational issues or areas/processes that need to be improved. 

Next time you have a problem to solve, why not try the ‘5 Why’ method with your team and see what results you get? You might be surprised at how effective this method really is!