In medicine, it is critical that an accurate diagnosis be
made so that the disease can be treated and not just the symptoms. For example, if you go to a doctor with
stomach pains and she simply gives you something to make the pain go away, it
will not do you any good if you have cancer.
The cancer needs to be treated, not just the pain.
Also, the best treatment would depend upon the disease. The treatment would be different if you had
an ulcer or if you had cancer. An
accurate diagnosis is critical.
In business, root cause analysis is often used to determine
why something went wrong. In essence,
the process involves determining what happened, why it happened, and how to
prevent it from happening again. Of
course, the same process can be used when good things happen. Determine what happened, why it happened, and
how to repeat the good results.
Root cause analysis is very similar to making an accurate
diagnosis.
These same concepts can be used in our personal and
professional lives. If we define what
happened (or is not happening) and can pinpoint why, we can develop a plan to achieve
the results we want. The critical aspect
is determining why.
It does not matter whether you want to look at the process
as diagnosing what is happening in your life or as root cause analysis. The important thing is that you do analyze
what is happening and why. You may need
to ask yourself, “And why else” multiple times before you get a complete
answer. Once you do have a complete
answer, then act on the information.
You cannot make good decisions with bad or incomplete
information. Make sure your analysis is
complete and you have all the “whys” before developing a plan to address
them. This can be painful as it may show
that we have weaknesses that we do not want to admit. But it is necessary to achieve the success we
want.
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