The “5 whys” revisited by Adam Weisbart brings this Lean tool back to the fore. The “5 whys” allow us to face our mistakes.
They are a valuable problem-solving tool. In its Agile version, it is a game coaching tool allowing to revisit the concepts of problem solving and to focus on the essential.
The “5 whys”, Agile anti pattern
The “5 whys” are a basic tool in Lean management to identify the major cause of a problem.
“By repeating why 5 times, the nature of the problem and its solution become clear” Taïchi Onho
Aligning with these “5 whys” is a team alignment issue
In facilitating a “5 whys” workshop, the first difficulty encountered resides in identifying the first question. Everyone brings their solution even before understanding the problem you want to solve.
Agreeing on the first question, on the first why, allows the team to focus on highlighting the problem. It is a valuable alignment effort.
The “5 whys”, suggested tools sheet
The Agile Anti pattern tool sheet is a game coaching tool that allows you to identify where the problem you have to face really lies.
Once this perimeter has been identified, the animation game of your game coaching will be to get everyone to ask their first question intuitively, then to bring in small groups the other 4 questions.
The more intuitive the questions, the more obvious your answers will be …. In game coaching, the intuitive facilitation of this Agile Anti pattern will lead you to identify where you have the most impact. It’s up to you to try!
Below is a card-shaped representation of the “5 whys”.
On his AgileAntipatterns.com site, Adam Weisbart offers you a set of cards to animate your Agile retrospectives. This allows you to simply verify that the members of your Agile team have not fallen into the trap of an anti pattern!
The other advantage of this sheet is to get the teams to focus on the issues, to identify the actions to be implemented at their level. It is also a tool for quickly quantifying the problem that can give arguments to the team so that the strategic management can seize it, in the event of necessary escalation.
Feedback for using the “5 why”?
You will find feedback and an example of using this Agile Anti-pattern in this article: an example of autocratic culture.
Learn more about the 5 why’s, it works! Lean version, by Taïchi Ono