There are many creative ways to solve business problems. One quality tool that is commonly used is called the \u201c5 Whys\u201d. This is an exercise that involves asking the question \u201cwhy?\u201d five times to help you quickly drill down to the root cause of a problem. It is tempting to jump to the first conclusion that comes to mind when trying to solve a problem, so it is important to make sure that what is thought to be the root of the problem truly is. Ok, let\u2019s look at this problem and ask the question why 5 times.<\/p>\n
Problem<\/strong>: Children\u2019s ministry has to turn away children because there are not enough workers to comply with teacher-to-student ratio requirements.<\/p>\n Why?<\/em><\/p>\n If you look at the answer to the first ‘why’ and stop there, you may be tempted to lay blame on the worker and jump to the conclusion that the worker is not responsible and is unreliable. But as you dig down into the fourth and fifth time you ask the question, you quickly realize the problem is very different than originally thought.<\/p>\n When problems arise it is only human nature to try to find the culprit and lay blame on someone, but more often than not the person is working in a broken process that limits their ability to perform well.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at another example. Let\u2019s say you are getting a lot of complaints about the receptionist. You are told she is unable to answer many of the questions she is asked, and that she continually transfers callers to the wrong person or department. You can discipline the employee or you can try to learn where the breakdown is in the process. Going through the \u201c5 whys\u201d could flush out reasons and possible solutions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Problem<\/strong>: Complaints about the receptionist not knowing the answer to questions asked.<\/p>\n Why?<\/em><\/p>\n As you can see from this example, the problem is a training issue and not with the receptionist. This would not have been identified without asking the question at least 5 times. These examples demonstrate that once you separate the person from the problem you can drill down on the causes and fix the process that will ultimately fix the person. There are many creative ways to solve business problems. One quality tool that is commonly used is called the \u201c5 Whys\u201d. This is an exercise that involves asking the question \u201cwhy?\u201d five times to help you quickly drill down to the root cause of a problem. It is tempting to jump to the first conclusion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3562,"featured_media":10987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2307,4154,405,4136],"tags":[1915],"class_list":{"0":"post-10965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-lifestyle","8":"category-church-resources-church-resources","9":"category-pastor-how-to","10":"category-pastoral-leadership","11":"tag-church-management"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogrouting.sharefaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Person-in-Wheat-Field-Religious-Stock-Photograph2.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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\nMost employees come to work and want to do a good job, and in order for them to be able to, managers need to make sure that internal work processes are efficient and that they help support employee performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"