Ask “Why” Five Times
The fastest way to find the root of the problem.
Something went wrong. A mistake was made. A deadline slipped.
You fix it. You move on.
But if you don’t dig into why it happened, it’ll happen again.
Surface-level fixes don’t prevent repeat problems.
How do you get to the root of a problem—not just the symptoms?
Use the 5 Whys method.
It’s exactly what it sounds like:
Ask “Why?” five times to trace the problem back to its source.
Example:
Problem: The client presentation wasn’t ready in time.
Why? → We didn’t finalise the deck early enough.
Why? → We were waiting on the design team.
Why? → They didn’t know the copy was ready.
Why? → The project channel was quiet for a few days.
Why? → No one was assigned to keep things moving.
Root cause: No clear owner of project communication.
Not: “The design team was slow.”
You don’t always need exactly five whys—but the exercise forces depth.
The goal isn’t blame.
It’s insight.