5 Whys Quickly Getting to the Root of a Problem part 2

Using Aides Memoire

How to Use the Tool:

An Aide Memoire (Memory aid) is a structured list of points or headings that should be considered when solving a particular problem. It tends to be specific to the type of problem being faced.

A good aide memoire or checklist can be a very powerful planning tool, as it will contain a great deal of the experience of the people who developed it. If you use a good aide memoire effectively, you can be reasonably confident that you will have considered all relevant factors. Often this makes the difference between carrying out a task effectively and making a mess of it, particularly when you are under pressure.

Aides Memoire are routinely used in areas as diverse as computer systems analysis, construction of financial proposals and military planning.

Developing an Aide Memoire

If you are solving a common problem, then a good aide memoire may already exist for it. If you cannot find a good pre-prepared one, then you may have to develop it for yourself. This is worthwhile where you need to plan a number of similar jobs.

Developing an aide memoire is an iterative process: first you start by producing what you think is a definitive list of points or headings that should be considered. Use this to plan the job. After the job is complete, review the list, and see if there are any additional points that should be included. Every time an unforeseen problem arises on a project, ask yourself whether you need to prompt yourself on it on your list.

Key points:

An aide memoire is a standard list of points or headings that show what you should consider while you are planning to solve a problem. By using an aide memoire you ensure that you do not forget important factors.

Aides memoire should be improved continuously. If you find that have not included an important point, then update the list appropriately. This ensures that the next time you use the aide memoire you will remember to think about the point. This will improve the quality and depth of future planning that you carry out.

Drill Down
Breaking Problems Down Into Manageable Parts

Drill Down is a simple technique for breaking complex problems down into progressively smaller parts.

To use the technique, start by writing the problem down on the left-hand side of a large sheet of paper. Next, write down the points that make up the next level of detail on the problem a little to the right of this. These may be factors contributing to the problem, information relating to it, or questions raised by it. This process of breaking the problem down into its component part is called 'drilling down'.

For each of these points, repeat the process. Keep on drilling down into points until you fully understand the factors contributing to the problem. If you cannot break them down using the knowledge you have, then carry out whatever research is necessary to understand the point.

Drilling into a question helps you to get a much deeper understanding of it. The process helps you to recognise and understand the factors that contribute to it. Drill Down prompts you to link in information that you had not initially associated with a problem. It also shows exactly where you need further information.

Example:

The owner of a windsurfing club is having complaints from its members about the unpleasant quality of the water close to the clubhouse. This seems like a huge problem. She carries out the analysis in Figure 1:

This gives her a starting point in which to begin thinking about the problem. It highlights where she does not fully understand the problem, and shows where she needs to carry out further research.

Key points:

'Drill Down' helps you to break a large and complex problem down into its component parts, so that you can develop plans to deal with these parts. It also shows you which points you need to research in more detail.

5 Whys Quickly Getting to the Root of a Problem

Why use the tool?

The 5 Whys is a simple problem-solving technique that helps users to get to the root of the problem quickly. Made popular in the 1970s by the Toyota Production System, the 5 Whys strategy involves looking at any problem and asking: “Why?” and “What caused this problem?”

Very often, the answer to the first “why” will prompt another “why” and the answer to the second “why” will prompt another and so on; hence the name the 5 Whys strategy. 

Key Points:

The 5 Whys strategy is an easy and often-effective tool for uncovering the root of a problem. Because it is so elementary in nature, it can be adapted quickly and applied to most any problem. Bear in mind, however, that if it doesn’t prompt an intuitive answer, other problem-solving techniques may need to be applied.

This article is part of the Solve and Decide Learning Stream. To read the next article in this Learning Stream, or to find out more about Learning Streams for Premium members, click on the links below.

Also below, you’ll find links to the next article in our Problem Solving section,  and to further related Mind Tools resources.

Appreciation
Extracting Maximum Information From Facts

Appreciation is a very simple but powerful technique for extracting the maximum amount of information from a simple fact.

Starting with a fact, ask the question 'So what?' - i.e. what are the implications of that fact? Keep on asking that question until you have drawn all possible inferences.

Example:

Appreciation is a technique used by military planners, so we will take a military example:

Fact: It rained heavily last night

So What?
- The ground will be wet
So What?
- It will turn into mud quickly
So What?
- If many troops and vehicles pass over the same ground, movement will be progressively slower and more difficult as the ground gets muddier and more difficult.
So What?
- Where possible, stick to paved roads. Otherwise expect movement to be much slower than normal.

While it would be possible to reach this conclusion without the use of a formal technique, Appreciation provides a framework within which you can extract information quickly, effectively and reliably.

Key points:

Asking 'so what?' repeatedly helps you to extract all important information implied by a fact.

Using CATWOE

Using CATWOE

Before you try to solve an important problem, use the CATWOE checklist to brainstorm the various people and elements that are affected.

Taking the example of low employee retention rates that we used at the start of this article, start your thinking not with reasons why it is happening or by trying to identify solutions, but by using CATWOE to expand your thinking about the situation in general.

Step One: Define what you are thinking about. Remember, this is not a problem statement; It is merely a statement describing the situation.

“Thinking about ways to improve employee retention”

Step Two: Brainstorm ideas around the various CATWOE elements

C: Customers	Who is being served and what problems are they experiencing? Organization as a whole: Lower productivity because not enough people High costs of retraining High costs of losing customers Teams/Employees: More work with lots of vacancies Stress because of increased workload Low moral with the high turnover Organization’s Customers: Low production and inexperienced staff affects quality and supply Higher levels of dissatisfaction
A: Actors	Who will implement the solution? HR department: Must look at recruiting techniques Must look at internal systems that may be affecting employee leaving rates Organization wide: Must look at how employees are treated How are employees trained and supported? How can we keep people happy? Impacts: Lots more work for everyone, may trigger cultural changes
T: Transformation Process	What is being affected? The system of recruiting and selecting employees including advertising, resume screening, interviewing, testing, reference checking Other systems: Performance evaluation Rewards and recognition Training and development Mentoring and coaching
W: World View	What is the larger picture? Is our company culture driving people away? Or are we not hiring the right employees? Or are we driving the right employees away? Do people feel that they - or we - are making a positive contribution to the world?
O: Owner	Who owns the process currently? Individual managers across the organization HR Department Must be aware of resistance to change. Have to show value in terms of money and satisfaction.
E: Environmental Constraints	What constraints must you work under? A culture that is traditional and change resistant Time and money – we need lots of both Employees’ market – it's hard to find staff

Step Three: Analyze your “answers” to the CATWOE questions. Look for underlying processes that are having the greatest impact on the issue you are investigating.

Corporate culture
Employee training

Step Four: From these processes, separate out the problems that you can identify and then begin your process of problem solving. Notice that you will have a larger number of problems, and presumably more root problems, than you would otherwise have started out with.

Our company culture isn’t people-oriented – new people are left to “sink or swim”
There's no orientation training
The rewards we give aren't motivating and engaging people

Key Points

CATWOE is a method for expanding your thinking about a problem or situation before you zero in on a specific problem that you want to solve.

By analyzing the CATWOE factors (Customers, Actors, Transformation process, World view, Owner, Environmental constraints) that are influencing an issue of concern, you keep your perspective broad and are able to see the issue from many angles. This is a great tool to keep in mind, especially when you first start thinking about a problem, or try to come up with a solution.

This article is part of the Solve and Decide Learning Stream. To read the next article in this Learning Stream, or to find out more about Learning Streams for Premium members, click on the links below

Introduction to Problem Solving Skills

   The tools in this section help you understand complicated, difficult situations. Without them problems might seem huge, overwhelming and excessively complex.

These techniques help you conduct a rigorous analysis of the problems you face, helping you look at as many factors as possible in a structured and methodical way. They give you a starting point in business problem solving (and other problem solving situations) where other people would just feel helpless and intimidated by the situation.

CATWOE
Understanding the different elements that contribute to a problem

What do you do when you’re faced with a really big business problem? (Maybe your employee retention is low, and you are looking for the reasons why.) Perhaps your first step is to brainstorm the possible reasons, and maybe then you apply a range of different problem-solving skills. But what if you've focused on the wrong problem, or you're just looking at a symptom of a larger problem?

By focusing on one specific problem, you tend to stop looking for other problems. And that’s when you risk missing something that’s potentially more fundamental than the problem you first decided to investigate. This is where CATWOE can help you avoid making a serious mistake.

Understanding CATWOE

In the 1960s Peter Checkland, a systems engineering professor, developed a problem-solving methodology called Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), which sought to apply systems principles to business and other "soft" problems.

SSM conceptualises the activities or business being examined as a system, the essence of which is encapsulated in a "Root Definition".

In 1975, David Smyth, a researcher in Checkland's department, observed that SSM was most successful when the Root Definition included certain elements. These elements, remembered by the mnemonic CATWOE, identified the people, processes and environment that contribute to a situation, issue, or problem that you need to analyze.

CATWOE stands for:

Customers	Who are they, and how does the issue affect them?
Actors	Who is involved in the situation? Who will be involved in implementing solutions? And what will impact their success?
Transformation Process	What processes or systems are affected by the issue?
World View	What is the big picture? And what are the wider impacts of the issue?
Owner	Who owns the process or situation you are investigating? And what role will they play in the solution?
Environmental Constraints	What are the constraints and limitations that will impact the solution and its success?

When you look at all six of these elements, and consider the situation from all of these perspectives, you open your thinking beyond the issue that sits directly in front of you. By using CATWOE, the output of your brainstorming and problem solving should be much more comprehensive, because you have considered the issue from these six, very different, perspectives.

Using CATWOE

Before you try to solve an important problem, use the CATWOE checklist to brainstorm the various people and elements that are affected.

Taking the example of low employee retention rates that we used at the start of this article, start your thinking not with reasons why it is happening or by trying to identify solutions, but by using CATWOE to expand your thinking about the situation in general.

Problem Solving Techniques The tools in this section help you solve complicated business problems.

By using these techniques you can start to tackle problems which might otherwise seem huge, overwhelming and excessively complex. These tools give you a starting point in problem solving where other people would just feel helpless and intimidated by the situation.

The section starts with some simple complexity skills and then moves on to more powerful, "industrial strength" techniques like use of Systems Diagrams, SWOT Analysis, Cash Flow Forecasting and Risk Analysis. We conclude with four powerful business strategy tools: Porter's Five Forces, PEST Analysis, Value Chain Analysis and USP Analysis.

Enjoy using the tools!