There’s a problem in my realm. It’s not going away. It was there on Monday. And it was still there when I looked in its direction today. It seems it won’t go away. I will have to deal with it. The approach is not obvious. Really, I have no idea what to do. I think there is much to know below the surface, but I haven’t been brave enough to invest my time in it.
If I’m going to make change - really meaningful change, I need a thoughtful approach to this. I need to look at the problem and reveal the deeper layers. “If this is what the surface view shows, what do I find if I ask some questions?”
This is the fundamental thinking in getting to the root cause of a problem. We need to invest this kind of effort in a variety of contexts - a student who is always surly, a teacher who feels defeated, a parent who is dissatisfied. As the person responsible for supporting others and for increasing student achievement I need to have a way to get to the source of the issue so I can make an adjustment that will have a meaningful impact.
Root Cause Analysis is an approach we can use in any problem solving situation. . .
Why is the circuit breaker for my outdoor lights flipping off repeatedly?
Why is the reading achievement of my students with special needs not improving?
Why are students getting hurt on the playground?
We have practiced and applied root cause analysis over the years and this mid-year point seems like a good time to review. We all need to refresh and consider where we are at in our goals for the current school year and also to get a handle on the problems to be solved in the year ahead.
The BEST example of asking why until you get to the root cause is portrayed in the Jefferson Memorial example in this video - please watch! And consider how the problem solvers in this case revealed a great deal of unknown information by employing the question, ‘Why?'
Enjoy and be inspired!
No comments:
Post a Comment