A good leader is a good questioner
They may be simple questions that seek clear facts, or complex
questions that probe deep into beliefs and understandings. Effective
questioning can provide an answer that solves the issue or may lead to
further questioning as knowledge and understanding grows. It is obvious
though, that however simple or complex an issue is, a good, clear and
relevant question will be of far greater use to a leader than a question
that is vague, poorly defined or irrelevant.
Effective questioning is no easy task. It requires skills, techniques
and experience coupled with a disciplined approach.
Questioning skill is a must to be an effective contributor
When you have a problem at work, how do you approach it? Do you jump
in and start treating the symptoms? Or do you stop to consider whether
there's actually a deeper problem that needs your careful attention? In
other words, do you get to the bottom of the issue through a process of
questioning to find out why the problem occurred. If you only fix the
symptoms, you see on the surface, the problem will almost certainly
happen again and you will have to continue 'fire-fighting' every time
the problem occurs. If, instead, you look deeper to figure out why the
problem is occurring, you can fix the underlying behaviour, systems and
processes that cause the problem.
Go beyond obvious reasons to dig deeper
Root Cause Analysis is a relatively new, popular and often-used
technique by modern, successful business organisations that help people
answer the question of why the problem occurred in the first place and
seeks to identify the origin of a problem.
What exactly happened and why it happened? You keep asking the
question 'why' until you arrive at the origin of the issue. Then you can
put in place measures to eliminate the recurrence of the same issue - at
least not for the same reason.
An action in one area triggers an action in another, and another, and
so on. By tracing back these actions, you can discover where the problem
started and how it grew into the problem you're now facing. Determining
how far to go in your investigation requires good judgement and common
sense.
Involve people who are close to the problem
You need to analyse a situation fully before you can move on to look
at factors that contributed to the problem. To maximise the
effectiveness of your Root Cause Analysis, get everyone together,
experts and front line staff, who understands the situation. People who
are most familiar with the problem can help lead you to a better
understanding of the issues.
Identify as many factors as possible and determine which factor or
factors led to the issue. Too often, people identify one or two factors
and then stop, but that's not sufficient. With Root Cause Analysis, you
don't simply treat the most obvious causes, you dig deeper to see the
unseen.
Making them understand is better than telling them what the problem
is
When working with employees to solve a problem, it is not enough to
tell them what the problem is. They need to find out or understand it
for themselves. You can help them to do this by asking them
thought-provoking questions. Rather than making assumptions find out
what the person, whom you are talking to, knows about the problem.
Half a solution to the origin of the problem can give you far greater
returns than a complete solution only to the symptoms triggered by the
problem.
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