Root Cause Investigation of the Month Winner

On my pager, I was just sent a page from a colleague (not more colleagues!?) to look at my email account at work. When I did, I was surprised to find that I had been selected, in my Corporate Division, as the Root Cause Investigation of the Month Winner. What I was even more gratified by, was that the things that I think are truly important to a good Root Cause Analysis, were all listed as components of the selection criteria.

The body of the text in the announcement included the following:

"Strong points include: 1) Performed thorough fault tree analysis of the situation and provided data for those paths both pursued and eliminated, even though confirmed root cause could not be identified, 2) Employed investigative tasks to obtain SME contributions, 3) Supplied solid data to support impact conclusions and final disposition, 4) Employed good technical writing practices, and 5) Demonstrated adherence to [appropriate] tools. In addition, the [investigative] team exhibited curiosity and open-mindedness."

My intent in sharing this is not to toot my horn, so much as to illustrate that development of this skill set is highly valued by organizations. There are not a great many individuals that are willing to do what it takes to seriously develop these skills. Doing so requires you to make yourself vulnerable by soliciting feedback, and credible, by acting on that feedback. Demonstrating these behaviors with each investigation will drive improvement of your skill set, as well as your capability within the organization.

The Root Cause Investigation of the Month Winner is...

[Insert your name here]