Five Whys — for facilitators

Samvinas

• State the problem clearly in the Prompt.
• Let the group branch; use the outliner view to follow the tree as it grows.
• Mark the root causes — they're copied out as items for the next step.

The marked root causes are what flows onward — connect the next tool's Source to Five Whys and it works on the causes, not the whole tree.

Paper and pen

You need: a wall or flip chart, sticky notes, a fat marker, and red dot stickers.

• Write the problem on a single note at the top of the wall.
• Ask "why does this happen?" — each answer goes on its own note in a row beneath. Several answers at once is a branch, not a mistake.
• Pick a note and ask why that happens; build each chain downward. Five levels is a guide, not a rule — stop when the answers turn structural.
• Mark the root causes with red dots as the group agrees on them.
• The failure mode: stopping at the first comfortable answer — often a person's name. Steer from blame toward systems and conditions, and keep drilling.
• Harvest: photograph the tree, then copy each red-dotted cause onto a fresh note. Those travel to the next activity; the tree stays on the wall.

When & why

This is Clarify work — you are still deciding what the problem is. See the four stages and framing problems as questions.

Reach for it when the group is poised to solve a symptom: the stated problem keeps recurring, or the obvious fix has been tried before.

• Keep asking "why" past the first comfortable answer; the real cause is usually a few levels down.
• Steer away from blame toward systems and conditions.
• What usually follows: reframe each root cause as a "How might we…?" and take it into Brainstorm; with several causes, Voting picks which to attack first.