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Getting to the root of it
Avanti Academy / Complexity, decisions and innovation / Solving Complex Problems and Decision Making / Bitesize
Bitesize

Getting to the root of it

Root cause analysis: five whys and fishbone.

Level
Bitesize
Learning time
1 hour 15 minutes
Where
Solving Complex Problems and Decision Making
Price
£39

When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms

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About this course

Overview and Outcomes.

Overview

How you frame a problem decides which solutions you can see. This module covers two simple root cause techniques from the Toyota Production System tradition: the five whys, associated with Taiichi Ohno, which follows one chain of reasoning in depth, and Ishikawa's fishbone diagram, which widens the search across fixed categories first. It shows how to run both well in a meeting, how they fit together, and why the discipline matters more than the technique. This deliberately narrow module asks whether a decision is genuinely made with the people it affects, or made for them and then announced. It sets out a collaboration spectrum from competing to co-designing, separates coordinating from collaborating, and adapts Habermas's principles of communicative rationality into three tests of comprehensibility, sincerity and legitimacy. Porto Alegre's participatory budgeting shows what binding citizen authority, combined with technical scrutiny, can look like.

What you'll develop

In this Bitesize, you will develop the ability to:

  1. Apply the five whys to a recurring problem, continuing until the answer would genuinely prevent recurrence.
  2. Identify the three ways a chain of whys breaks down, including stopping at a person rather than a process.
  3. Use a fishbone diagram with a group, and combine it with the five whys by working breadth first, then depth.
  4. Distinguish a decision made with people from one made for them, and between gathering opinions and sharing the decision.
  5. Use the collaboration spectrum to name honestly where a relationship sits, including the difference between coordinating and collaborating.
What it covers

The Modules.

1 hour 15 minutes of learning.

  1. 13Root Cause Before Solution: Five Whys and the Fishbone DiagramHow you frame a problem decides which solutions you can see. This module covers two simple root cause techniques from the Toyota Production System tradition: the five whys, associated with Taiichi Ohno, which follows one chain of reasoning in depth, and Ishikawa's fishbone diagram, which widens the search across fixed categories first. It shows how to run both well in a meeting, how they fit together, and why the discipline matters more than the technique.37 min
  2. 14Deciding Together: Collaborative and Participative Decision MakingThis deliberately narrow module asks whether a decision is genuinely made with the people it affects, or made for them and then announced. It sets out a collaboration spectrum from competing to co-designing, separates coordinating from collaborating, and adapts Habermas's principles of communicative rationality into three tests of comprehensibility, sincerity and legitimacy. Porto Alegre's participatory budgeting shows what binding citizen authority, combined with technical scrutiny, can look like.39 min
Where it fits

Keep going.

Part of the Solving Complex Problems and Decision Making topic, also sold whole as Clear calls in complex times.

How credit works

Go deeper, and pay only the difference

  1. You are hereBitesize, 1 hour 15 minutes, £39
  2. Next stepFocus, Deciding together, 2 hours 30 minutes, £69. Already own the Bitesize? You pay £30.
  3. Explore, Tools for hard choices, 7 hours, £129. Already own the Bitesize? You pay £90.
  4. The whole topicImmerse, Clear calls in complex times, 13 hours 30 minutes, £249. Already own the Bitesize? You pay £210.

When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Prices per person. Read the full terms

Other Bitesize in the Solving Complex Problems and Decision Making topic

See all in Solving Complex Problems and Decision Making