Five Whys

Chase the problem down to its root.

The Five Whys is the simplest tool in the kit and the most often skipped. Ask why five times and you stop treating symptoms. Most teams never get past Why 2. The root cause is usually a system, incentive, or assumption — not the event that triggered the conversation.

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How to run this

  1. State the problem as a specific observable event — something you can point to.
  2. Ask "why did this happen?" and write the first answer. Resist the urge to jump to solutions.
  3. Ask "why?" to that answer. Repeat until you reach Why 5.
  4. Circle the answer that could be changed to prevent recurrence.
  5. Check: if you fix the root cause, does the chain above it go away?

Five Whys

Sakichi Toyoda · Toyota Production System · 1930s
The Studio · Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship
START
Problem — The Event
What happened? State it as a specific, observable event — not a feeling or a general frustration.
①
Why 1
Why did this happen? Write the most direct cause.
②
Why 2
Why did that happen? Go one level deeper.
③
Why 3
Why? Push past the symptom — look for a system or process.
④
Why 4
Why? You're approaching the structural level — a decision, incentive, or policy.
⑤
Why 5 / Root Cause
If you fixed this, would the chain above it be prevented from recurring? This is your root cause.

Challenge: __________________________________    Date: _____________    Facilitator: _____________________

Common mistake

Stopping at Why 2 — the first answer is usually a symptom, not a cause. Push deeper until you hit a system, a decision, or an assumption.

What good looks like

Root cause identifies something fixable: a process, a policy, a missing check. Not a person. "John didn't review it" is not a root cause.

When to move on

When fixing the root cause would prevent the original problem from ever happening again — not just this time.

Try it interactively with WAiDE

WAiDE will guide you through the Five Whys — asking the right follow-up questions at each level, and helping you distinguish symptoms from root causes. You'll leave with a completed analysis and a session report.

Start Five Whys with WAiDE →

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