Knowledge Base · Seeing Problems
What's the difference between a symptom and a root cause?
A symptom is the visible sign that something is wrong: the late delivery, the complaint, the queue. A root cause is the underlying reason the symptom keeps happening. Fixing a symptom gives temporary relief. Fixing the root cause stops the problem recurring, which is why the book's tools all aim past the surface.
Chapter 3 frames the whole job of seeing as getting past the symptoms to uncover the root causes. A symptom is what you notice first. It is real, it hurts, and it is usually the worst place to stop, because the system that produced it is still in place.
The book's 5 Whys example makes the layers plain. An angry customer and a late delivery were the symptom. The shipment was late, the warehouse was behind, and packing materials had run out. Each of those looked like a cause, yet each was itself caused by something underneath. The root cause sat further down: training on new procurement software that never covered the scenario the warehouse hit.
- Symptom: what is seen or felt, such as delays, errors, complaints, or waiting.
- Root cause: the underlying reason those signs keep appearing.
- Symptom fix: relief now, and the problem returns.
- Root cause fix: the problem is prevented from recurring.
Customers often describe symptoms too, because they feel the result rather than the mechanism. The leader's work is to listen for what sits underneath what is said.
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Related questions
- How do I run a 5 Whys analysis?
- What is root cause analysis?
- When should I stop asking "why?" in a 5 Whys?
Source: Continuous Improvement in the Workplace, Ch. 3 (Learning to See).