June 14, 8:49 am
Let’s do a Root Cause Analysis on why managers won’t do Root Cause Analysis
Comments on my post about problems in workplace learning and several recent conversations have got me convinced: Not conducting an appropriate root-cause analysis when problems are encountered is a major deficiency in modern management. One would think that with all the books on leadership out there, business leaders would be getting better at identifying the real cause of problems in their workplace.
Interestingly, recent research from Carnegie-Mellon University indicates the need for teaching decision-making skills, and research from Teradata indicates that more front line supervisors are making key decisions without any training on how to do it – and they’re making costly, poor decisions as a result.
It would appear that insufficient problem solving methods among managers and leaders is a root cause of problems all by itself.
Maybe it would encourage people to do more root-cause analysis if we did a forward-thinking, ripple-effect analysis?
As a result of not taking time to really analyze a problem-
1 – The default solution too often becomes “conduct training.”
2 - True underlying problems continue to fester.
3 - Money, time, and effort are wasted on unnecessary training.
4 - Top leadership doesn’t communicate the value of prescribed training.
5 - People gripe about having to attend training.
6 - Production stalls while people are in unnecessary training.
7 - The training does NOT produce the desired result.
(because it was NOT the appropriate solution)
8 - Employees despise training even more (”it’s worthless”)
9 - The problem training was supposed to fix still exists.
10 - Top leaders blame the trainers for not doing a good job.
Does this sound like your organization?
Filed in Work, Business, Training, Management, Leadership, Team Building, Customer Service, Workplace, Train the Trainer, Corporate Culture
Why do top leaders in companies blame the trainers for not doing a good job? Interestingly enough, you can read the list backwards from 10-1 and conduct your own root cause analysis on why they do. Just keep asking yourself “why” for each question or “what’s the intent” and you’ll arrive at #1.
It’s really no surprise. It reminds me when the account executives in a sales department blame the marketing department for poor sales when it’s really their inability to sell.