The Art of 5Y – Ask Why, Like You Were Five Years Old Again

Jan 09, 2012 – 12:26 pm   |   Posted by Joe Panebianco

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Why? How is it that such a short and simple question can make you crazy when asked over and over again by a small child? Probably because we quickly realize that we don’t really know WHY something happens when we start peeling back the onion. However, that childlike persistent curiosity can pay some serious dividends if we want to understand the true reason something happens.

There are many effective tools to help get to the root cause of a problem and find a solution that is quick and efficient; one of my favorite is 5 Whys (5Y). The 5 Whys method simply states to ask why until you get to the root cause of a problem and then address that issue.

A classic example is when the National Parks Service was faced with the issue that the Lincoln Memorial was showing varying degrees of deterioration. The task force that was established to understand how to slow the deterioration found that weekly washing with high powered washers was causing most of the wear. If they stopped here, the solution would have been to find a different cleaning method—likely one that would have been slower and more costly. Instead, the National Parks Service used the 5 Why method.

1. Why is the Lincoln Memorial deteriorating?
A: Due to the use of weekly high pressure water cleaning methods.
2. Why do we clean the Lincoln Memorial so often using high pressure water?
A: Because of bird droppings.
3. Why do the birds congregate at the Lincoln Memorial?
A: Because the birds have a large food supply of spiders that live above the monument.
4. Why are the spiders so plentiful above the Lincoln Memorial?
A: Because there is a large food supply of insects.
5. Why is there a large supply of insects in the area of the Lincoln Memorial?
A: The insects hatch around sunset and are attracted to the lights on the Lincoln Memorial.

Solution: Since insects are attracted to the lights, then why not delay the monument lights until 30 minutes after sunset and allow the bugs to relocate themselves by finding other lights in the area?

Result: The bugs and spiders were greatly reduced, which caused the birds to no longer congregate in this area and leave their droppings.

The moral of this story: Ask why with reckless abandon. Pretend you’re a kid and don’t feel limited by the first answer you get. You might fix the real problem once and for all.

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7 Comments for this entry

  • sudhir chhibbar
    January 9th, 2012 on 11:45 pm

    Great….very simple yet powerful tool to find the root cause of any problem.

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