RCA TRAINING

Root Cause Analysis training by Sologic provides the tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to solve complex problems in any sector, within any discipline, and of any scale.
Learn More
 

SOFTWARE

Sologic’s Causelink has the right software product for you and your organization. Single users may choose to install the software locally or utilize the cloud.  Our flagship Enterprise-scale software is delivered On Premise or as SaaS in the cloud.
Learn More


“In the military, it doesn’t matter in which direction you choose to move when under a mortar attack, just so long as you move.”
 
Jeff Boss, Forbes’ contributor & former Navy SEAL
 
I was recently asked to facilitate a Root Cause Analysis project for a major organisation struggling to understand why their communication strategies were failing.
 
Before I arrived I was informed that 3 long meetings had already taken place in an attempt to solve the issue;
 
  • Their first meeting had gone well, and the group had left the meeting feeling that they were making some really good initial progress.
  • A second meeting revisited much of the same ground that they had covered in meeting one. This left the attendees feeling that the issue was now somewhat more muddled and overwhelming than when they started.
  • By the time they ended their third meeting there was a sense of discontent and disengagement amongst the group, a feeling that old ground had been re-hashed, conversations had been hi-jacked, personal agendas were being pushed and that many individuals’ views were not being heard.
 
None of this was a great surprise to me. Without a structure to follow the group had behaved in a predictable manner. They had become mired in the sort of circular conversations that give the illusion of analysis but in reality were rapid-fire exchanges of opinion. Their discussions had become confusion-heavy, time-sucking black holes incapable of providing any meaningful direction or clarity. 

Paradox_of_choice.jpeg
 
This experience is described as the “Paradox of Choice” (Barry Schwarz, Psychologist) wherein although increased choice and data allows us the potential to achieve objectively better results BUT it also has an equal likelihood to result in confusion, greater anxiety, indecision, paralysis, and dissatisfaction.
 
So how does Root Cause Analysis help?
 
Excellence in RCA is delivered via a combination of analytical and facilitation skills – these combine to ensure we get the best from the data and people we have at hand.  It was immediately clear that some key RCA questions would need to be answered to solve the challenge at hand.

1. What are you trying to understand?
My first question to the group was,
 
‘what is the problem that you are actually trying to solve?’
 
Surprisingly (or not), after 8 hours of previous meetings there was virtually no consensus on this. Hardly surprising that they couldn’t conduct any meaningful analysis. Some rapid and engaging techniques enabled them to agree on a singular focus and get to work.

2. Have you set, and stuck to time parameters?
You can run along all day but never actually arrive anywhere. 
  • Allocating time and creating an agenda against the RCA structure within this time focused the mind and will of the group.
  • It also provided a measure of progress as we moved through the structure of the process.
 
3. Where/who are you gathering your data from?
We selected a fresh cross section of individuals which served multiple purposes.
  • It gave the group access the experiences of those involved in developing the communications, as well as, to a sample of those receiving the information as a basis for analysis. 
  • It created a diversity of thought whilst also demonstrating to individuals that their experiences had value and were being recognised which promoting ongoing engagement throughout the process.
 
4. How are you keeping focussed?
One of the culprits contributing to analysis paralysis are excessive details, specifically, the desire to excavate deeper and deeper every new detail that arrives on scene. From these details individuals want to feed their growing intellectual curiosity that quickly yearns for more information, making wider and wider conceptual leaps - thereby stalling progress.
 
Using a charting method people working in the group were able to visually see:
  • The issue that is the focus of the current discussion
  • That their contributions are heard
  • That progress is being made
  • To make a judgement where their contribution belongs in the analysis

 
5. Did you remind everyone that ‘good is good enough’?
No matter how much information you and your team unearth, there will always be more somewhere. Decisions will only ever be ‘optimal’ for this very reason.
 
The visual charting enabled the group to:

  • Determine and appreciate the amount of information and understanding they had collated on the subject
  • Which in turn enabled them to break the anxiety, indecision and paralysis and feel more confident to identify specific actions against the analysis chart.
  
What did we learn?
At the end of our time together we discovered that the RCA method provided us with the structure, room for individual engagement and visible team progress which lead to recordable headway and ultimately, the specific actions that were essential to the organisation. Thereby breaking the analysis paralysis.

 

RCA TRAINING

Root Cause Analysis training by Sologic provides the tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to solve complex problems in any sector, within any discipline, and of any scale.
Learn More
 

SOFTWARE

Sologic’s Causelink has the right software product for you and your organization. Single users may choose to install the software locally or utilize the cloud.  Our flagship Enterprise-scale software is delivered On Premise or as SaaS in the cloud.
Learn More