Behind every symptom sits a cause, and behind that often another. The 5 WhysA simple, non-statistical method of repeatedly asking "why" to drill from a symptom down to its root cause. Click term for full definition takes you down step by step, until you reach something you can fix. Watch the short video, then work with the toolkit PDF: it explains the method, shows a worked example and gives you a blank template to fill in.
Tool video
The short tool video will appear here.
5 Whys in short
- State the problem. Specific and factual, free of assumptions or suspected causes.
- Ask the first why. The answer is usually a surface cause.
- Keep asking. Take each answer as the new subject. Look for a process or system failure, not a person.
- Stop at a changeable cause. When you reach a process you can change, or why yields nothing useful.
- Plan the action. Address the root causeThe fundamental, underlying reason a problem occurs, as distinct from its symptoms. If you remove the root cause, the problem does not come back. Click term for full definition directly and assign an owner.
Key points
- Start with a factual problem statement.
- Each answer becomes the next question.
- Look for process causes, not people.
- Stop at a cause you can change.