It's Black History Month, so perhaps it's appropriate for me to ask if you have ever read Alex Haley's book, Roots: The Saga of an American Family? The book was made into a two-part made-for-TV movie in 1976, and let me tell you, if you think you have problems, step into the shoes of Kunta Kinte (the book's primary character) for a day. If you haven't ever read the book or watched the movie, put them on your list. You won't be sorry you did. A talented and proud man, Alex Haley served in and retired from the U.S. Coast Guard - now, that's near and dear to my heart!. He died at the age of 70 in 1992.
While Kunte Kinte had his problems, you might be thinking, "Yeah, well, I have my own problems!" And I am sure you do. We all do!
One of my biggest problems is repeating mistakes. It seems that I catch myself repeating the same ridiculous mistakes all the time. I roll my eyes every time and vow that they won't happen again. There is a certain psychology behind repeating mistakes, but I am not going to go into that here. Instead, I am going to let you in on a method that helps me find out the root cause of my mistakes. This helps me avoid making them again and it will help you, too, if you practice what I am preaching.
You will recall from previous posts that I said we need to ask WHY something bad happened rather than assigning blame to what happened. The reason you ask why is so that you get to the root cause of a mistake, problem, bad decision, or accident.
You should know that it is very important to distinguish between ROOT CAUSE and BLAME. Blame is what many lawyers do. They prove blame people so they can make money. It is also what many other people do - until they get on the bus of El Entrenador. Remember, there are no blamers allowed on my bus!
At this point, you might be asking, "Exactly what is ROOT CAUSE?" Well, root cause is the bottom line REASON or REASONS something happened. The art of finding the root cause seeks to improve our lives, whereas assigning blame seeks to make it worse.
Let me give you a very simple example of finding a root cause versus assigning blame. You will see the difference immediately and you will know exactly why blame is destructive and finding root causes is constructive.
Here's the scene: It's winter and there is an ice storm. The ice stops but doesn't melt the next day because it's still very cold outside. Every neighbor on your street but one shovels the ice off of his/her sidewalk. Your child, walking home from school, uses the sidewalk on her journey and when she gets to the unshoveled sidewalk, steps on it ,slips, falls and dislocates her elbow. Now, do we want to assign blame or do we want to find the root cause? Well, naturally, we are pretty aggravated at at the lazy neighbor (who, in actuality, is not lazy, but is just out of town on business). Our initial reaction is to blame the neighbor. But let's take a different approach. Let's ask why the accident happened.
The process works like this:
1. Why did my little girl fall down on the icy sidewalk? Because she was unprepared for the lack of traction and additional balancing that walking on an icy sidewalk would take.
Now ask WHY again!
2. Why was she unprepared for the lack of traction and additional balancing that walking on the icy sidewalk would take? Because she is inexperienced in and naive about such situations.
Ask WHY again!
3. Why is she inexperienced in and naive about such situations? Because she has not received training, warning, or coaching about icy sidewalks.
Ask WHY again!
4. Why has she has not received training, warning, or coaching about icy sidewalks? Because her parents did not train, warn, or coach her about icy sidewalks.
Ask WHY again!
Why did her parents did not train, warn, or coach her about icy sidewalks? Because they lacked the foresight to know they should be considering potentially dangerous situations that their little girl could be encountering and that they should be training, warning, and coaching their little girl on various situations!
BINGO! ROOT CAUSE!
Had the little girl been adequately trained, warned, and coached, this accident would not have occurred. This is the ROOT CAUSE. Note that is assigns NO BLAME. It is just a matter of fact statement as to the true reason for the accident.
Now, what needs to happen? The parents need to become more diligent about teaching their child and they need to become more cognizant of the potential dangers facing their children. If they are reading this blog, you can bet this type of accident won't happen again!
Who is to blame? WHO CARES? What is important is that the problem gets fixed and that the little girl knows the dangers of walking on ice. Look, blaming the neighbor only serves to get the sidewalk shoveled. Finding the root cause helps the parents learn how to train their daughter better and helps the little girl be more alert to potential dangers. Finding the root cause is infinitely more productive, don't you agree?
The "Ask Why" technique is a root cause-finding methodology I learned in an accident investigation course many years ago. The truth is that most accidents and mistakes have more than one root cause. Finding the root cause or causes is not always as simple as above, but it's far better than assigning blame.
If you want to improve your life tremendously, I strongly recommend that whenever you have an accident or make a mistake, you forget blame, and find the root cause. I guarantee you, it would make Alex Haley proud.
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