Ten Tips for Facilitating an Effective Root Cause Analysis
Conducting a root cause analysis is ultimately about solving a problem. The basic parts of a root cause analysis can be grouped in three areas:
- Defining the problem
- Conducting the analysis
- Finding the solutions
While the steps are basic, the approaches and language for facilitating a root cause analysis vary widely. Some investigations are clear and coherent while others can be confusing and painful.
Basic root cause investigations typically involve multiple people from multiple disciplines within a company and the facilitator plays a key role in how well or how poorly it goes. This article summarizes ten tips for facilitating an effective root cause analysis.
Facilitator Tip #1: The purpose of a root cause analysis is to identify the best solutions
Many organizations believe that root cause analysis is about finding the root cause, the one thing that caused the problem. The belief is that eliminating the root cause eliminates the problem. This root cause logic seems reasonable, but it’s flawed. All of the causes of an incident are required for the incident to occur, not just the root cause. Controlling any one of the causes in the analysis will only have some impact on the incident. The root should be thought of a system of causes. It’s the underlying network of causes that collectively created the incident. Too often organizations get fixated on one cause and stop the investigation too early with favorites like human error, procedure not followed, training inadequate, design or equipment failure. The role of the facilitator is to lead the group through a complete investigation to find best solutions.