An Exercise on Root Cause Analysis

A Diagnostic Tool for Assessing Organizational Conditions

Acknowledgement:Images are © of Pixar Studios from the film “A Bug’s Life”

Grasshoppers’ food demands

Senior advisors

Duration of harvest season

Rejection of innovation

Worker culture

Leadershiptransition

Inadequate supply of food for the colony

Pressing problem identified by client

?

2

Grasshoppers’ food demands

Senior advisors

Duration of harvest season

Rejection of innovation

Worker culture

Leadershiptransition

Other bugs harvest same food

Food don’t ripen at the same time

Need for control

Hold on to power

Eat a lot

Protection for ants

Whose the source

Waste of time Follow me

Just do it

Limited solutions

Worrier type

Inadequate supply of food for the colony

Pressing problem identified by client

?

3

Duration of harvest season

Other bugs harvest same food Food don’t ripen

at the same time

Inadequate supply of food for the colony

Pressing problem identified by client

?

Exercise: Assume that this is the root cause. To what extent can the problem be resolved?

4

Grasshoppers’ food demands

Eat a lot

Protection for ants

Rejection of innovation

Whose the source

Waste of time

Inadequate supply of food for the colony

Pressing problem identified by client

?

If this was the root cause, is eliminating the grasshoppers a viable proposition?

If this was the root cause what practices or organizational structures will be introduced to encourage creative thinking and translate this into innovation?

5

Senior advisors

Need for control

Hold on to power

Worker culture

Follow me

Just do it

Leadershiptransition

Limited solutions

Worrier type

Inadequate supply of food for the colony

Pressing problem identified by client

?

How would you handle the senior advisors?

What would you do about the organizational culture?

What supports will be adopted to build the leadership competencies?

6

Inadequate supply of food for the colony

Pressing problem identified by client

! Ask questions to arrive at the Root Cause/s

Select the Doable Solution