Using Root Cause Analysis to Identify and Address Single Points of Failure
Are vacations highlighting single points of failure in your organization? Maybe covering for a teammate is proving to be much more difficult than expected. Or perhaps you have someone on your team that keeps canceling their vacation (or working from their vacation!) because they “just can't take time off.” It’s worth taking some time to assess the root causes of these challenges.
A simple yet difficult root cause analysis that’s worked well for us is the five whys, from Sakichi Toyoda and the Toyota Production System. This is the practice of asking “why?” five times, getting to more and more foundational reasons as you go. Five isn’t a magic number, it may be four or seven, but you’re asking “why?” enough times to get past superficial reasons and get closer to root causes.
Once we understand the root causes, we can take a more proactive approach to managing them.
Unexpectedly Difficult Coverage
If covering for a teammate seemed simple when it was theoretical, and then difficult in practice, we want to understand what we can do differently to prepare for their next vacation. Let’s get to asking why!
Our challenge: when Tamara took care of both of their responsibilities while Sydney was on vacation, coverage was bumpier than expected.
Why? Tamara forgot how to execute one of the weekly tasks and spent considerable time reviewing resources that were publicly available to accomplish the task.
Why? Tamara thought she understood how to accomplish the task, so she didn’t take detailed notes while Sydney was explaining it.
Why? Tamara didn’t practice the task, she only watched Sydney accomplish it. So, her understanding of how to accomplish the activity was superficial.
Why? Tamara and Sydney had limited time to prepare for vacation coverage, so Sydney went through each item rather quickly, with Sydney observing and asking questions.
Why? Tamara and Sydney began preparing for vacation one week before Sydney left.
Having gotten through five whys, we know not to be immediately satisfied with an answer around Tamara’s competence or Sydney’s teaching. Rather, we see that they didn’t make time for Tamara to have hands-on experience with the activities she would be covering, prompting either confidence that she understood them well or specific questions prompted by direct experience.
Potential next steps include:
Sydney documenting the critical activities on her plate, and having Tamara (and others) review for clarity
Sydney and Tamara scheduling vacation prep more than one week out – preferably spreading preparation over several weeks
Tamara insisting on hands-on practice for the activities she’ll cover, likely following an iterative flow of Sydney performing the task while Tamara watches and asks questions, all the way to Tamara performing the task while Sydney watches and provides feedback
Inability to Take Time Off
In our other example, if we have a teammate who “can’t” take time off, we really want to understand and address the reasons for this.
Our challenge: Jordan feels his absence would seriously endanger the business, so he doesn’t take meaningful time away from work.
Why? The last time Jordan took a day off, there was a production issue that took the covering team four hours to resolve and cost the business some sales, due to not being able to complete transactions.
Why? Jordan is typically the primary problem-solver with production issues, so the rest of the team has less experience responding to critical incidents.
Why? Jordan has considerable experience supporting the production system, and the rest of the team is relatively new, so it’s faster for Jordan to resolve issues and get the business back online, and then explain what he did to the team.
This time, it only took three why’s to understand the first component of our challenge: the team relies on Jordan’s expertise, experience, and responsiveness to make sure the business is online. At first blush, this is great! And yet, vacation reveals the fragility of this situation: Jordan is the single point of failure on this team.
There are likely a series of five why’s on our path to resolving this challenge. The first set may be around why Jordan is still carrying the ball, even though he has some new teammates. This may uncover topics around system familiarity, documentation, training methods, and more. The second set of questions may be around why the team hasn’t picked up the ball from Jordan, likely including some cultural dynamics, training needs, and more.
With a series of inquiries, research, and maybe even experimentation, we can be confident in our root cause analysis – and then start taking steps toward resolving this challenge.
This example, even more than the first, will involve:
The team gaining and demonstrating deep knowledge of the production system and troubleshooting typical issues.
Jordan practicing not being on first; rather supporting another teammate as they solve system problems and providing feedback during and after the incident. This will be uncomfortable in multiple ways: the issue may not be resolved as quickly as it would have been, and long-standing roles and responsibilities will be set aside. We may even realize that we have notification channels outside of the official channels, with business stakeholders reaching out directly to Jordan for help, knowing that he’ll address their issues quickly and thoroughly.
Several successful repetitions of the team managing support issues without Jordan’s active involvement.
It Will Be Worth It
This all may seem like a lot of effort to identify single points of failure, understand the root causes of each situation, and address root causes in a proactive manner. And yet, having a team where everyone can take time away from work without worrying about the impact to the business – or teammates being stretched to the point of breaking in their absence – will contribute to a productive work environment, a stronger team, and ultimately a more successful business.
