Everyone has, at some point or another, looked at the work they were doing and said something to the effect of "I can't believe I need to do ____." And then gone off to try and figure out what caused this process to exist within their workflow.

In the vast majority of cases, whatever you used to fill in that blank, isn't actually the problem you need to solve. It is much more likely that it is the impact of the underlying problem that you are experiencing. 

Generally you can look at any situation as having three components: the underlying problem, the result, and the impact. What  differentiates them from one another is how they affect the user, and the steps required to identify and resolve them.

The impact is what most end users will deal with directly. It is the most visible and easy to (mis)-identify of the bunch. I would equate this to how we often treat the symptoms of an ailment versus the ailment itself. This can lead to large investments in what is effectively a patchwork job. It is important to limit long-term investment centered around resolving an impact. These resources should be used to either mitigate the result, or resolving the underlying problem entirely.

When you have a sore throat, you take a lozenge, but you haven’t identified or worked towards resolving the fact you actually have Strep throat.

The result is the big picture of what is causing strain or stress on the end user. Identifying the result may take a little digging to unearth, but it is invaluable knowledge to have. This is the first of many breadcrumbs that will lead you to the underlying problem at hand. Complex enough to warrant investment in, you will often be able to define them by asking yourself the infamous “why?”.

After finishing your fourth pack of lozenges, you go see a doctor who diagnoses you with Strep throat and prescribes you with antibiotics.

The underlying problem is what has caused one (or multiple) results to appear within the business. Often times it is something which has been dismissed as unimportant in the past, or whose existence is otherwise unknown. It is rare that an issue as important as this only generates one result, sometimes the others may just be more difficult to unearth. At times these factors are uncontrollable in nature, and cannot be resolved even with significant investment. When they can be resolved, I would strongly suggest doing so. This could save you or your business countless headaches (and dollars) going forward. Underlying problems often take multiple “why?” questions to uncover, but once you have uncovered the problem it will be apparent that there are no more questions to answer except “what’s our next step?”

You walk into your office building after finishing your antibiotic treatment, and notice a child from the ground floor daycare running up and down the hallway touching everything in their path.

Why is this important?

Especially in a smaller businesses or entrepreneurial ventures, time and money are two resources of which there are never enough. So spending them on frivolous attempts to resolve problems that aren’t actually problems will only hurt your bottom line. Taking the same amount of time to identify the underlying problem, and its result, will allow you to make a more informed and impactful decision, and could save you in the long run.

So I should never focus on fixing an impact?

Not necessarily. It isn’t uncommon to find yourself in a situation where you need something fixed yesterday, and can’t afford any greater delays. Each situation is unique, and needs to be handled as such. Sometimes putting a quick fix in place will give you the time and resources you need to analyze the underlying problem. Just don’t get complacent and make a temporary solution permanent!

What can I do to apply this?

The next time you notice a painful or unpleasant task, write it down. Keep a note of what the task is, what it achieves, and why it needs to be done. Try to notice if any other tasks you or your coworkers perform relate back to this why. Properly identifying this “why?” can help you to uncover one of these ever elusive underlying problems. 

Brainstorm with your team as you work through these steps and notice the similarities between the issues you all present. Doing so will point you towards the root cause, and allow you to identify how feasible it would be to invest in a way to resolve the problem.

The four steps to solving for “why?”

1. Isolate the pain point in your workflow

Getting the feeling that a task takes too long to complete, is redundant, or repetitive is not a bad thing. Write down what the specific task is, what the output of the task is, what it is used for.

2. Ask yourself why this task needs to be done, and what it accomplishes

The answer of “because we have always done this” or “it’s always been done this way” is not a good answer. Build a concrete idea of why this task needs to be accomplished, and what caused the introduction of this task in the first place

3. For each level that is uncovered by a why, repeat step 2 until you can’t any longer

Sometimes it takes more than one “why?” to reach the largest underlying problem. Each level you uncover should have an overall larger impact on the business. If you see that problems have smaller impacts, consider the fact you may have uncovered your problems out of their order of impact.

4. Isolate the problems you have control over

For every problem you cannot control, there is a solution you can control. These uncontrollable problems usually have one or two outcomes which can be mitigated, and sometimes that is the best outcome for the situation. 

For problems that stem from internal decisions, it is time to work with the necessary stakeholders to build an action plan. The time is now, and it could save you time, money, and effort in the long run.