All Problems Are A Manifestation Of Their Root Causes.

If you want to be good at solving problems, you need to be good at getting to the root of issues. 

Since most things are done or not done because someone decides to do it a certain way, we can trace the root cause for many problems or issues we encounter in our day-to-day life to specific people—especially those who are eventually responsible for something. 

Now, if you can attribute a problem to a person, you need to ask Why that person made a mistake. Because if you know why that person made a mistake, you can help rectify the issue and ensure that the person does not repeat the mistake. This is the core idea of a Root Cause. 

So ok, the person made a mistake. BUT why did they commit the error?

When you go down the rabbit hole of asking WHY you eventually get to discover the root cause. 

Here is an example of the root cause discovery process. 

Why are there so many customer service issues? 

Because the campaign design was flawed. 

Why was there a flaw in the marketing campaign design? 

Because the Marketing executive responsible for designing the campaign, Tom, designed the campaign poorly. 

Why did Tom design the campaign poorly? 

Because he was inexperienced and no one guided him, he was also in a rush to meet a deadline. 

Why was he not guided by someone more experienced if he was inexperienced? Did his manager know that he was inexperienced and let him run with the campaign anyway? Or did not know?

All problems are a manifestation of their root causes. So when you ask WHY you peel the layers of noise surrounding an issue, you get to discover the root of the issue and nip the problem at the source.