Ask Why

Understand

Get to the root of any problem by asking “why?”.

In a busy ER, patients were waiting over six hours. The staff knew something was wrong—but not what. In a quick huddle, they asked: “Why are patients waiting so long?” “Because only one nurse is doing triage.” “Why?” “Because the second nurse gets pulled into other tasks.” “Why?” “Because we don’t have a backup plan when it gets hectic.” That was the root of the problem: no system for handling surges.

Steps

1. Bring together people directly affected by or connected to the issue.

2. Identify the problem, then ask, “Why did this happen?” Write down the answer.

3. Using the previous answer, ask again: “Why did that happen?” Repeat this process until you reach the root cause.

4. Capture the final insight—this is the real issue to solve, not just a symptom.

Based on the ideas of Sakichi Toyoda (1930).

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