What does it mean to tackle root causes?

Photo by Tim Green aka atoach

Organizations get the results they are currently designed to deliver. Leaders and team members play their roles. Sometimes they go above and beyond their expected responsibilities. But they generally function according to the company’s policies, structures, and work environment. Culture influences what is valued and rewarded, what is talked about (and what is not), and how things are done here.

Given that, creating organizational change to improve delivery can seem like an overwhelming proposition. Where do you focus your efforts?

Looking for Focus through Root Cause Analysis

Recently I've been leading root cause analysis workshops with agile teams. The goal is to better understand delivery challenges and identify improvements at the team level and outside of the team. There's an image of a tree in my workshop materials to illustrate what root cause analysis is intended to do. We see symptoms at the top of the tree and trace them to the problem at the surface level and underlying causes below at the roots.

A process for revealing issues that are below the surface and causing a negative effect that we can observe.

I hear similar themes as I facilitate workshops with the various agile teams. There seem to be multiple problems with different causes. It got me thinking that multiple “trees” in the organization have roots causing problems for delivery.

I then found myself realizing that I didn't know how far this tree metaphor could be taken: if we discovered a problem with a tree’s roots in our backyard, what would we do? What might this metaphor mean for organizational change?

Implications of Root Problems in Nature

Tree roots can interfere with streets and sidewalks, find their way into septic lines, and create trip hazards. Problems are more likely to be seen in the area surrounding the tree rather than in the tree itself. Organizationally, challenges may come from a connected area and be below the surface. Agile delivery teams may be where the symptoms appear, but they are not the “tree” from our metaphor. They may not have many options within their control or even influence to improve the root cause issue. Engaging other teams or groups may be needed to identify and change the underlying “roots” causing delivery challenges. When a sidewalk issue appears, it is relatively easy to see the nearby tree that is causing the problem. Seeing where problems are coming from in organizations may not be as obvious.

Let’s say we’ve identified the offending tree in our scenario—both in our backyard and in our company. In nature, tree removal may be the only answer. For organizations, this would imply getting rid of a group of people, a policy, a role, or something similar. Imagine if delivery problems were traced back to environmental issues owned by an Infrastructure team. Is removing that infrastructure team a viable option for the organization to improve delivery? What benefits from this team would we lose if we removed them?

Some trees apparently die when they lose even a small portion of their roots. Could the same happen in an organization that makes a change to its existing design? There are likely good intentions behind company policies or procedures that have become problematic. And apparently root problems are not always solved by removal of the tree as the stump or remaining roots may continue to grow! In organizations, change could be held back by a culture of fear or remnants of the old way that persist.

We didn't mean to plant invasive problems when organization was designed--they grew over time through attempts to expand its ability to function. Asking five whys to get to a root cause may lead us to think of solutions to be applied for linear change and hoping for a cause and effect resolution to the problem. Reflecting on how we handle such problems in nature reminds us of the complex and systemic nature of change.