Often during a Root Cause Analysis session, it’s easy to get lost in the detail. The issues are typically complex and there are many aspects that need to be considered. Something that really doesn’t help is when people seem to be unable to answer a simple question. For example, you might ask “At what point would you consider escalating such an issue?” and you get a response such as “I emphasised the importance of the missing data in the report and follow-up letter.” The person seems to be making a statement about something different and has side-stepped your question. Why might that be?
Of course, it might be simply that they didn’t understand the question. Maybe English isn’t their first language, or the phone line is poor. Or they were distracted by an urgent email coming in. If you think this is the reason, it’s worth asking again – perhaps re-wording and making sure you’re clear.
Or maybe, they don’t know the answer but feel they need to answer anyway. A common questioning technique is to ask an open question and then be silent to try to draw out a response. People tend not to like silence and so they fill the gap. An unintended consequence of this might be that they fill the gap with something that doesn’t relate to the question you asked. They may feel embarrassed that they don’t know the answer and feel they should try to answer with something. You will need to listen carefully to the response and perhaps if it appears they simply don’t know the answer, you could ask them whether anyone else might. Perhaps the person who knows is not at the meeting.
Another possibility is that they are fearful. They might fear the reaction of others. Perhaps procedures weren’t followed and they know they should have been. But admitting it might bring them, or their colleagues, trouble. This is probably more difficult to ascertain. To understand whether this is going on, you’ll need to build a rapport with those involved in the root cause analysis. Can you help them by asking them to think of Gilbert’s Behavioral Engineering factors that support good performance? Was the right information available at the right time to carry out the task? What about appropriate, well-functioning tools and resource? And were those involved properly trained? See if you can get them thinking about how to stop the issue recurring – as they come up with ideas, that might lead to a root cause of the actual issue. For example, if they think the escalation plan could be clearer, is a root cause that the escalation plan was unclear?
“No-one goes to work to do a bad job!” [W. Edwards Deming] They want to help improve things for next time. If they don’t seem to be answering your question – what do you think the root cause of that might be? And how can you overcome it?
Do you need help in root cause analysis? Take a look at DIGR-ACT training. Or give me a call.