The Lean Startup - Eric Ries [96]
I ask teams to adopt these simple rules:
1. Be tolerant of all mistakes the first time.
2. Never allow the same mistake to be made twice.
The first rule encourages people to get used to being compassionate about mistakes, especially the mistakes of others. Remember, most mistakes are caused by flawed systems, not bad people. The second rule gets the team started making proportional investments in prevention.
This simplified system works well. In fact, we used it at IMVU in the days before I discovered the Five Whys and the Toyota Production System. However, such a simplified system does not work effectively over the long term, as I found out firsthand. In fact, that was one of the things that drove me to first learn about lean production.
The strength and weakness of the simplified system is that it invites questions such as What counts as the same problem? What kinds of mistakes should we focus on? and Should we fix this individual problem or try to prevent a whole category of related problems? For a team that is just getting started, these questions are thought-provoking and can lay the groundwork for more elaborate methods to come. Ultimately, though, they do need answering. They need a complete adaptive process such as the Five Whys.
Facing Unpleasant Truths
You will need to be prepared for the fact that Five Whys is going to turn up unpleasant facts about your organization, especially at the beginning. It is going to call for investments in prevention that come at the expense of time and money that could be invested in new products or features. Under pressure, teams may feel that they don’t have time to waste on analyzing root causes even though it would give them more time in the long term. The process sometimes will devolve into the Five Blames. At all these junctures, it is essential that someone with sufficient authority be present to insist that the process be followed, that its recommendations be implemented, and to act as a referee if disagreements flare up. Building an adaptive organization, in other words, requires executive leadership to sponsor and support the process.
Often, individual contributors at startups come to my workshops, eager to get started with the Five Whys. I caution against attempting to do that if they do not have the buy-in of the manager or team leader. Proceed cautiously if you find yourself in this situation. It may not be possible to get the entire team together for a true Five Whys inquiry, but you can always follow the simple two-rule version in your own work. Whenever something goes wrong, ask yourself: How could I prevent myself from being in this situation ever again?
Start Small, Be Specific
Once you are ready to begin, I recommend starting with a narrowly targeted class of symptoms. For example, the first time I used the Five Whys successfully, I used it to diagnose problems with one of our internal testing tools that did not affect customers directly. It may be tempting to start with something large and important because that is where most of the time is being wasted as a result of a flawed process, but it is also where the pressure will be greatest. When the stakes are high, the Five Whys can devolve into the Five Blames quickly. It’s better to give the team a chance to learn how to do the process first and then expand into higher-stakes areas later.
The more specific the symptoms are, the easier it will be for everyone to recognize when it’s time to schedule a Five Whys meeting. Say you want to use the Five Whys to address billing complaints from customers. In that case, pick a date after which all billing complaints will trigger a Five Whys meeting automatically. Note that this requires that there be a small enough volume of complaints that having this meeting every time one comes in is practical. If there are already too