Toyota's Secret of Success

All of us have been drilled by a 4-year-old who keeps asking the question, "Why?" It usually goes something like,

Kid: Why is the sky blue?

Adult: Because that is the way God/nature made it.

Kid: Why did God/nature make it that way?

Adult: Ah, I don't know just because.

There is a theory that was formally developed by Sakichi Toyoda and is used within the Toyota Motor Corporation that is credited for their legendary manufacturing system. That theory is called the 5Whys. Toyoda espoused that to get to the root of the real problem you must ask "why" five times. So, in the above example, if the adult did not punt on answering the kid's "whys," by the fifth "why" they would have ended up with the following explanation of why the sky is blue:

The sky is  blue because molecules in the air scatter  blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light.

The 5Whys are critically important in solving problems, not only in manufacturing but for all problems-business, social, and personal. Abert Einstein famously said, "If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about the solutions. Toyoda and Einstein both knew the surface problem is just a symptom of the real problem. The 5Whys is a tool to get beyond the symptom(s) and get to the root cause.

The 5whys are especially important for Social Impact Companies (SIC) and Social Entrepreneurs. All too often a well-intentioned person, organization, or government will try and "help" people only ending up making the problem worse by treating a symptom and not solving the core issue. This is evidenced by a mountain of failed initiatives that have compounded problems like homelessness, hunger, poverty, and drug addiction.

Shallow thinking has led people, organizations, and governments to dump an enormous amount of resources trying to solve these symptoms, leading to disastrous results. Shallow thinking like, homeless people need homes, hungry people need food, poor people need money, and drug addicts need to "Just say, No" are just a few examples of how symptom solving actions don't actually solve anything.

Nancy Reagan, fell victim to this shallow thinking with her "Just say, No" campaign. It is a prime example of why it is necessary to employ the 5Whys when trying to solve a problem. Nancy Reagan was technically correct, if people just said no to drugs, they would not become addicted. Tragically, drug addiction is not caused by saying, "yes" it is much more complex than that as we have seen with the recent opioid addiction epidemic that is now credited with over two-thirds of all overdose deaths in America.

Bellow is a very quick example of how the 5Whys can help people, organizations, governments discover the real problem using the opioid crisis.

This is only an example and not intended to imply or suggest a solution to the very complex issue of drug overdose and drug addiction.

If Nancy Reagan and her team would have employed Toyoda's "5Whys" I believe they would have implemented a completely different strategy to combat America's growing drug problem. It is pure conjecture, but if they would have done so, perhaps American would not be in the addiction/overdose mess we are currently experiencing.

Again, these are very complex issues and my intent is to give you a powerful tool to solve the real problem you are facing. The following are some best practices when using the 5Whys.

Best practices using the 5Whys

1. Use paper or a whiteboard
2. Write down the problem in a way everyone understands
3. Human error cannot be the answer to the 5th Why
4. Honor the process (don't take shortcuts)
5. Focus on cause and effect (using the above example: Why1 are people ODing? Because they are drug addicts. -> Why2 are they drug addict? Because they took too many perscribed opiod drugs....)

I would like to encourage you to try using the 5Whys the next time you or your team are faced with a problem. It may seem a little clunking at first, but once people get used to honoring the process it can be a powerful tool in solving the real problem.