Prevent arguments about the problem or the cause
Facilitator Tip #6:
In an investigation it’s common for people to disagree about the problem, as well as the cause. The facilitator can minimize these disagreements by focusing on the cause-and-effect principle (Tip #3). When someone says “The problem is…” the facilitator should respond with “got it,” and write it down. When someone offers their perspective on “the problem” it’s not constructive for the facilitator to disagree with them. When people offer their view of “the problem” they are actually providing one of the causes. A root cause analysis starts with the negative impact to the goals and then backs into the causes. People incorrectly put special emphasis on the word problem. An accurate root cause analysis fundamentally consists of the goals that were impacted and the causes of those impacts. When the facilitator employs this approach there is no longer a need to argue and spend unnecessary time debating about the problem or the cause. An effective facilitator focuses on the causes of the organizations goals being affected