The 5 Why's MethodWritten on the 11 April 2013 by Angela Magnan The “5-Whys” is a well known method used to analyse the outward symptoms of a problem in order to find its fundamental cause.This interesting method involves asking "Why… ?" five times in succession. This can sound simple, but requires intelligent application in order to find the Why? Solution. In most cases, the answer to one question will lead you to ask the next Why…?, although it may not always be possible to answer the next question immediately. Often, you may need to brainstorm in order to answer it properly. By the time you get to the fourth or fifth Why…? you are almost always looking straight at business practices as opposed to mere symptoms. The “5-Why’s” method is a valuable and powerful exercise which requires practice, patience and a team approach. There’s no doubt that the more you use and practice this exercise, the more you’ll begin to find the real root causes of problems.
Symptom
Why...? We pay for training from our budget so only a very limited number of our team can take courses
Using the method: Note: The 5-Why method is closely related to the Cause & Effect (Fishbone) diagram; it can be very effective to use them together. Funny how the 5 whys will always find the root cause of the problem! Copyright Zoom in Business 2013
Author: Angela Magnan
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