To Fix Your Problems, Find the Root Cause
Do you play pool? I sure don’t. But I know enough about the game to use it as a metaphor for the hidden reasons we don’t do what we say we will.
The object is to get balls into pockets using a big stick. However, you can’t just hit the balls into the pockets with the stick directly, you first have to get a white cue ball to smack the right ball in just the right way.
So here’s the question: What causes the balls to go into the pocket?
On one hand, the white cue ball does it. After all, if the white ball doesn’t hit the numbered ball, it wouldn’t go in, so that must be the cause. But that’s clearly not the whole story. Something else had to set the cue ball in motion, namely, the player. Clearly, it’s the force exerted by the player through the stick that starts the chain reaction.
Understanding the “root cause” of why something happens is critical for dealing with many of our problems, particularly when it comes to the problem of distraction. The book Root Cause Analysis, defines the term as, “that most basic reason for an…
