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]

Just do it!

Years ago, before I had written my first book, I saw a movie entitled, "Throw Mama From The Train." The film starred Billy Crystal. Crystal's character was an instructor at a community college teaching creative writing. At the end of his classes, he would close the session with the line, "...and remember, a writer writes."

Not long ago, I had opportunity to read a book entitled, "How to Run Seminars & Workshops: Presentation Skills for Consultants, Trainers and Teachers." I read a comment in the book, that paraphrased, stated that outlining is not writing, talking about writing is not writing, only writing is writing. This holds true for investigators in two different ways.

First, an investigator cannot complete an investigation without the appropriate activity taking place. An investigator, investigates. It doesn't matter if you are a Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt, an investigator using Root Cause Analysis, or any other methodology. Nothing happens until you start investigating.

Second, an investigator writes. all the investigation in the world is meaningless for others to learn from, unless, the investigation, and the results of the investigation are documented. Furthermore, many organizations require approval of the investigation from many different functions, as well as different layers of management in the organizational structure, requiring a technical document describing the investigation and it's results. An investigator writes.

What does one do if they don't really like to write? An investigator, investigates. An investigator writes. To quote a Nike ad that will be easily remembered...

"Just do it!"