Cause and Effect

Pick the best solutions from the possible solutions

There are two distinct parts of the “finding the solutions”

   1) identifying the possible solutions
   2) determining the best solutions.

An accurate cause-and-effect analysis is the platform for finding possible solutions. Possible solutions can be proposed for individual causes. It’s actually easier to get more ideas for a cause than for the entire incident. As the facilitator challenges the possible solutions some will be ruled out by the group as ineffective or impractical. Possible solutions are distilled into the best solutions. The best solution may be a combination of different solutions that mitigate the risk to an acceptable level. Even groups that incorrectly focus on the one root cause typically implement multiple solutions (which supports the system of causes approach). The facilitator leads the group through possible solutions to mitigate the risk of the incident. The facilitator also reminds the group that every cause in an investigation does not have to have a solution. It’s normal to have twenty causes to an incident with only four solutions.