Taiichi Ohno, a Japanese engineer who helped to create the Toyota Production System, once described a five-step system to identify the root cause of a problem. It's called the Five Whys, and it works like this: A car doesn't start. A mechanic begins their diagnosis by asking 'Why does the car not start'' and finds the culprit: a dead battery. A good mechanic continues the interrogation and probes deeper, asking, 'Why is the battery dead'' It's because the alternator is broken. The mechanic evaluates each issue as it comes up, one-by-one, and asks 'why'' each time. Eventually, several whys down, it becomes clear that the alternator was not maintained on a proper service schedule. This is the root cause. The trickiest problems that we face in life are often multifactorial, yet we tend to address only the most proximate causes. But when it comes to solving complex problems, diagnosing and addressing them from the onset is usually more effective than firefighting after a spark has grown...
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