Find the root

As a society we are very quick to focus on suppressing symptoms.  Just look at modern medicine where there is a pill for every ill.  You can suppress heart burn with a purple pill, or you could discover which foods are causing the heart burn and stop eating those?  When it comes to our physical health, the pharmaceutical companies might miss the recurring revenue, but the individual would be well served to shift our thinking to finding the root cause of an issue rather than trying to simply suppress the symptoms. 

The same principle holds true for the health of a team or business.  Especially when it comes to innovation or problem solving.  We have made the mistake in the past of throwing time, energy or capital at the symptoms of an issue before we found the true root cause.  Therefore we recently adopted a process called a “Root Cause Analysis” that is required before we make the next move.  

For example, we had a new harvesting operation that was not hitting the expected production numbers.  After months of throwing equipment and man power at the problem, we finally conducted a “Root Cause Analysis” and discovered that it was not an equipment or personnel issue, it was a process issue.  Being located in a region that has higher than average rainfall, we simply had to adjust our process to optimize the rain days.  So next time you are trying problem solve with your health, team or business, I encourage you to find the root.