{"id":3053,"date":"2026-05-08T15:00:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T19:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schooladvancement.com\/?p=3053"},"modified":"2026-05-07T13:15:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:15:20","slug":"the-5-whys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schooladvancement.com\/?p=3053","title":{"rendered":"The 5 Why’s – Determining the Root Cause"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’ve been a visitor to SchoolAdvancement.com, you’ll know that according to systems thinking pioneer Peter Senge, a complete system has 5 elements.<\/p>\n

Several years ago, I decided to do some research into Six Sigma process improvement, and was pleasantly surprised to see this article on “The 5 Whys” as part of the Analysis phase of the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) methodology.\u00a0 (It’s a process that’s also referred to in my book which deals with creating a marketing plan for your school.\u00a0 Check it out by visiting this link<\/a>!).<\/p>\n

Rather than reprint the article verbatim, here’s the link to the article on https:\/\/www.lean.org.<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s also interesting to note that the 5 Why’s are can be used individually or as a part of what’s called the “fishbone” (also known as the cause and effect or Ishikawa) diagram. The fishbone diagram helps to explore all potential or real causes resulting in a single defect or failure. Once all inputs are established on the fishbone, you can use the 5 Whys technique to drill down to the root causes.<\/p>\n

From https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ishikawa_diagram:<\/a><\/p>\n

Ishikawa diagrams (also called fishbone diagrams, herringbone diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams, or Fishikawa) are causal diagrams created by Kaoru Ishikawa (1968) that show the causes of a specific event.\u00a0 <\/sup>Common uses of the Ishikawa diagram are product design and quality defect prevention to identify potential factors causing an overall effect. Each cause or reason for imperfection is a source of variation. Causes are usually grouped into major categories to identify these sources of variation. The categories typically include<\/p><\/blockquote>\n