The technique was originally developed by Sakichi Toyoda and was later used within Toyota Motor Corporation.
The 5 WHY is a technique where we get to the root of a problem when we have asked 5 questions in a chained manner.
For example, suppose a student faces an issue "I reach school daily very lately". Now if the student wants to analyse why this happens. The first question can be "Why I reach late?" , to which the answer would be "Because I depart from home late."
The next question to this would be "Why I depart from late?" . The answer to this now varies. "Because I get up late" or "Because I take a lot of time in getting dressed" or "Because I execute some activity in morning before departure".
So in this way one can continue questioning the evolving answers and is believed that by the fifth question is asked, one gets to the real cause of the problem. It is not necessary that five questions have to be asked. It can be lesser than that also. If you are unable to get questions or are not able to reach the root cause then it simply means you aren't giving the right answer to the earlier asked question or you aren't asking the right questions to the evolving answers.
This technique can be applied any where or any environment where an individual or group is stuck with problem or blocker. I have also felt that through the course of questioning one can create or obtain newer ways of doing things.
I have not started applying this to big problems but I have rather started exercising this in smaller issues so that I can really understand how to create the right questions.
The 5 WHY is a technique where we get to the root of a problem when we have asked 5 questions in a chained manner.
For example, suppose a student faces an issue "I reach school daily very lately". Now if the student wants to analyse why this happens. The first question can be "Why I reach late?" , to which the answer would be "Because I depart from home late."
The next question to this would be "Why I depart from late?" . The answer to this now varies. "Because I get up late" or "Because I take a lot of time in getting dressed" or "Because I execute some activity in morning before departure".
So in this way one can continue questioning the evolving answers and is believed that by the fifth question is asked, one gets to the real cause of the problem. It is not necessary that five questions have to be asked. It can be lesser than that also. If you are unable to get questions or are not able to reach the root cause then it simply means you aren't giving the right answer to the earlier asked question or you aren't asking the right questions to the evolving answers.
This technique can be applied any where or any environment where an individual or group is stuck with problem or blocker. I have also felt that through the course of questioning one can create or obtain newer ways of doing things.
I have not started applying this to big problems but I have rather started exercising this in smaller issues so that I can really understand how to create the right questions.
