"Ineffective Communication" Most Likely a Root Cause of Failures

Turtle Diagram used to identify top 3 risks, opportunities and associated action items for team-based continuous improvement

My friends Sam Yankelevitch, ChatGPT AI and I had a conversation today about communication. Sam and I asked the AI to give us an example of a 5-Why Analysis. Here is the example that it created... which is strangely similar to one of the exercises used in a few of our classes at Concentric Global.

"Problem: The production line is not meeting the expected output targets.

1. Why is the production line not meeting the expected output targets? Answer: The machines are breaking down frequently.
2. Why are the machines breaking down frequently? Answer: The machines are not being maintained regularly.
3. Why are the machines not being maintained regularly? Answer: The maintenance schedule is not being followed.
4. Why is the maintenance schedule not being followed? Answer: The operators are not aware of the maintenance schedule.
5. Why are the operators not aware of the maintenance schedule? Answer: The communication between the maintenance team and the operators is not effective.

Therefore, the root cause of the problem is ineffective communication between the maintenance team and the operators."

Communication breakdown is not only an excellent Led Zepplin song, it is also one of the most "common" root causes we see in process failures. The majority of inputs, work activities and outputs are communication.

We're interested in knowing more about how you measure communication integrity? How to you plan>do>check>act for your communication processes? How do you measure communication effectiveness? #communication #communicationhabits #communicationintegrity #thecommunicationprocess #teamwork #systemsthinking