#root cause analysis

Tonight I got distracted by a fly buzzing around my office. I guessed the root cause: flies are attracted to light, and my office was the only room with lights on. I tested my hypothesis by turning off the overhead light in my office and turning on the one in the hallway. In support of my hypothesis, the fly flew into the hallway. I then toggled the lights and closed the door.

If you flag an issue, like degraded performance, user safety concerns, or anything impacting system stability, and the response is: “That’s normal, I’ve had the same experience here, too,” it’s deflection. It looks like the incident ticket is being redirected back to you rather than addressing the root cause and improving beyond the norm.

You deserve to be in environments where your efforts are valued, and your concerns don’t get dropped the moment you raise them. Where naming threats isn’t treated like a service disruption.

Series: Stewardship, Standards, and Human Potential “Every day is a great day to learn something new by removing excuses and addressing the issues.” – D. L. Dantes Introduction One of the easiest ways for an organization to stay weak is to become comfortable with excuses. Not always loud excuses, and not always lazy excuses, but the kind that hide behind routine language, vague complaints, and…