Finding the Root Cause

Posted by: Bob Craig

Looking for the root cause? In the real world, you have to dig around in the dirt to see what’s going on. Your tools are a couple of gloves and a trowel. Any gardener will tell you that you are better off when you are messing in the roots of a plant to do the bulk of the work with your hands because the trowel can actually break the roots and damage the plant. In our business world, you also have to dig around for the root cause of performance issues as well. It might be just as messy! Your tools are two ears and a mouth. And just like a gardener, you are much better off using your two ears because your mouth may actually prevent you from finding what is really going on and can damage the relationship and the performance of the person you are working with. In fact, so many times we are in such a big hurry, and we are so busy telling them what we think they should do that we never actually hear the root cause of the problem no matter how many times they tell it to us. In any coaching conversation they should be talking way more than you and if that is not happening, you are telling instead of listening…  Listen and observe a lot today… you will be surprised what you can learn!

Comments

[EMR saves lives]

Ok. I get it. I actually really like this analogy. I may use it if that's ok with you. ??

[Jonena]

We're honored that you'd like to share our info with your readers. Please just give us a link back and credit.

[IT Consulting Firms Chicago]

Focus on your core business: the growth of your company. Outsourcing allows entrepreneurs to focus on growth of their business. The ideal IT Consultant is responsible for assisting their clients develop greater quality products and services with the assistance of the latest technology, both software and hardware, to meet the organization’s objectives.

[littmann cardiology stethoscope]

"Listen and observe a lot today… you will be surprised what you can learn!"

Thanks for the advice. Indeed, listening is better than talking. There are in fact a lot of things/words we might miss, just because we keep on talking and forget to listen to people. A lot of things could be learned through silence, eh.