A lot of people spend a lot of time fixing problems. Of course, you have to do something about a problem that has occurred – especially if it’s one affecting our customers.
Burt the real key to problem-solving is to identify the root cause of the problem and sort that out. This prevents the problem re-occurring
Many of you will have heard of the 5 Why’s approach to solving problems,. When you have a problem, you ask what has gone wrong. Then you ask WHY it went wrong. What was the immediate cause of the problem happening? Then you keep working ‘backwards’ asking WHY until you feel that you have identified the real (or root) cause This typically takes 5 Whys – hence the name of the approach. It gets you to understand that if this root cause was fixed, the problem would not have occurred.
Sort that out and you have fixed the problem – for good.
You don’t have to use the 5 Why’s approach (though it is very simple) but you should always aim to understand why a problem occurred and the likelihood of it happening again.
I’ve often said that I made my career out of asking (awkward) questions. The 5 Why’s approach is just one way of asking those questions.
So, don’t (just) fix the problem – fix the cause the problem?