The 5 Why's to Problem Solving

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into today's topic. I think it's a fun one. Today we're going to be discussing The 5 Whys method of problem solving. Whys, W-H-Y apostrophe S. The 5 Whys method of problem solving. So let's, let's talk about this. Now, it's funny for me to use this 5 Whys approach because in some past episodes, I've talked around how using a question that starts with the word why is actually one of the weaker questions you can ask. But here's the caveat. It is a weak question that you can ask of someone else, but when you're in problem-solving mode, number one, you may be solving your own problems, so hopefully you're honest. Uh, when you ask a question with why, people have a tendency to skate around the issue or potentially even not give you the full truth. But since you're asking yourself, I'd like to think you're going to be honest. Number 1 and number 2, when you're using this 5 Whys method, again, it's a problem-solving technique. You're working together. It is not typically a back-and-forth coaching type conversation. I think you'll understand a little bit more as we run through this. So, the 5 Whys method of problem-solving, it actually, as far as I know, started with the Toyota company. Toyota was using it as part of its lean production process. You can dig into that or Google that if you'd like, but Toyota really kind of put this problem-solving technique on the map, this method of asking why 5 times to dig down to the root cause of the problem, and again, it was something they were using for their production process, but it is applicable all throughout life, all throughout business, all throughout your relationships. And so let's, let's talk through what this, what this looks like. And I think the best way to go about doing it is to actually just give you some real life examples. So let's assume that you have a sales business and your sales business is down. Okay? So my sales business is down. My numbers are down month over month or year over year. So the first why, I would ask a question like, Why is my business down? And the answer in this example, well, because I'm not setting enough appointments. Why number 2? Why am I not setting enough appointments? And the answer, because maybe I'm not talking to enough people. Okay. Number 3, why am I not talking to enough people? Well, Because I am not spending time making phone calls. Okay. Number 4, why am I not spending time making phone calls? Well, because I do not have time set aside in my calendar. And the 5th why, the last why, well, why do I not have time set aside in my calendar? Well, maybe because I've never actually blocked it and I don't have accountability in my world. So what did we discover here? In this particular example, given the direction this conversation went in this role play with my, with myself in this, this example, my business is down. I gave a bunch of symptoms, but the actual root problem, the reason it's down, is because I've never actually blocked time to make these calls, to talk to enough people, to make appointments. I've never blocked time. And I also said I didn't incorporate any sort of accountability. It's a very straightforward, uh, analysis of a root problem. Now that could have gone lots of different ways. I'm sure you're thinking through maybe a scenario in your mind right now. Now this applies to more than just business. Let me give you another example. Why is my relationship with my significant other maybe not as strong as it once was? And an answer: because we're just disconnected. Why are we disconnected? Because we don't communicate like we used to. Well, why do we not communicate like we used to? Well, because we're not spending quality time together. Why aren't we spending quality time together? Well, because the kids dominate our schedule. And they take precedence. So lastly, why do the kids dominate and take precedence? Well, because we allow it to happen and we don't set time aside together. So I give that example because it's a really common one. We see lots of symptoms here, but why is my relationship with my significant other in this example not as strong as it once was? It's because the kids take precedence and we really allow it to happen and we stop setting time aside together. And that's very, very common. And so you see relationships maybe not going the direction that, that they want to go or they used to go because of lots of reasons, but the core issue is they just stopped allocating time. They stopped sitting down, they stopped conversing. And this is— in this example, they just allowed the kids' schedules to, to take precedence. So the focusing questions, I guess, for you today: what are you trying to solve for? What problem are you looking to solve for? And how could you leverage the 5 Whys method of getting down to the root problem so that you can take action and solve? Where does this apply in your business? Where does it apply maybe in your health, maybe in your relationships? Or anywhere else in your world, right? From why am I not learning this concept at the rate I would like to learn it, to why am I not having fun with my friends and my social circle? I mean, you can apply this everywhere, and the further you dig, the more you will sift through the symptoms and the byproduct, byproducts I should say, of the core problem. The focus of the 5 Whys is to get to the core problem. So again, focusing question for you: where can you apply this today and change the way you're addressing, or maybe first identifying a problem and then changing the way that you're going about addressing it? That's all I have for you today. No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get at it.