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Video transcript – Root Cause Analysis

Video Transcript

(Upbeat music)

Hello, my name is Palina Louangketh and today I want to talk about a technique, a special way that you can use to identify issues and getting to the heart of the problems. So again, you’re gonna have to forgive me for my drawing.

(Draws carrot with the letters R, C, and A).

And I’m gonna call this R-C-A. Root cause analysis, ‘kay? This is one of the most simplest ways to really tackle low-risk problems and getting down to the heart of it, to the root of it, right? So let’s talk a little bit about the benefits of root cause analysis. First of all, again, my carrot. First of all, it helps us to identify what the root cause problem is, ‘kay? Now we’re going to talk about relationships. When we use root cause analysis, it actually helps us to determine the relationship, the relationships, actually, between the problems, and this is especially important because when we talk about relationships, we’re really trying to understand how they are connected. Determining the relationships between the problems is going to be very, very important because you want to understand how one influences the other. And then lastly, one of the benefits for doing a root cause analysis is that it actually does not need any statistical analysis. So we’ve got problem, identifying problems as one of the benefits, determining the relationships between the problems, and then easy to use, no statistical analysis. So now how do we get started in doing the root cause analysis? So how we’re going to get started is we are going to identify the problem. And then the five whys kick in. We’re going to ask why did this problem happen? So for example, I ran a red light. Why did Palina run the red light? Because I was running late, so then that’s the problem, number two, Palina was running late. I’m gonna ask why again, or you will be asking me why again, so why were you running late? And then the list goes on and on to problem number three and so on, so forth. Now when we do the five whys, know that you may not get to the fifth why before you determine that that is truly the root cause of the initial problem. You may decide, oh my goodness, the third why as an answer is really the root cause of the problem of where we’re currently at today. And so what you want to do is gain consensus from your peers, your team members, or your leaders of are we in agreement with this answer for why today’s issue exists? And it could be the fifth why, it could be the second why, or it could be the third why.

(upbeat music)