thinking about WHY the employee performance was so poor. I was thinking about what leadership had failed to do that prevented employees from performing effectively.
not possess the attributes – skills, knowledge, experience, attitudes – to succeed in this position. (Unlikely here as these are definitely entry level positions.) • Training: The employees were Those who blamed the employees not sufficiently trained in menu were reacting to symptoms. By ask- items, pricing policies, and customing WHY, I was looking for real or er service. (I believe this was a big root causes. part of the real or root cause.) • Supervision: The employees Let’s return to our poor employee were not being provided clarity – performance cafeteria and look spe- “chalking the field” – and feedback cifically at the cashiers. They were – positive, redirection, negative. (I mostly unenthused, slow, and ofam pretty certain this was a key root ten incapable of pricing meals that cause. The root cause of the poor were not entirely routine. Clearly, supervision was likely lack of suthe easy conclusion from observing pervisory training.) their behavior – the symptom – is • Authority: The employees had that the cashiers were lazy, unwill- insufficient decision-making authoring to focus, and unmotivated. ity to effectively make needed decisions. (I saw this as cashiers often Let’s further analyze what I obhad to wait for a supervisor to auserved and suggest some possible thorize a charge.) real or root causes: In this example I trust you have • Motivation: The employees seen the power of identifying the are in fact lazy and do not have suf- real or root cause of employee probficient self-motivation to perform. lems. You have also seen several (Although this is possible for indiof the most common root causes for vidual employees, it is not likely the employee problems. root cause for all of the employees.) • Staffing: The recruitment and We conclude our discussion of emselection processes were inadequate ployee problem root causes with resulting in employees who do three amplifications to assist you in
Page 16
determining employee problem root we have often discussed, one of the causes. easiest ways to decrease employee trust in their supervisor is to pro1. The Fundamental Theorem of vide a negative feedback when the Attribution – a key tenant of organi- employee believes he or she should zational behavior – holds that when have received redirection feedback. we as human beings are analyzing Treating symptoms rather than root a problem we caused, we tend to causes often creates this disastrous blame the problem on the situasituation. tion – not on what we did. On the other hand, when we are analyzing 3. One word – WHY – was prevaa problem someone else created, lent in our discussion of root causes. we tend to blame the person. For That is because the key to finding employee problems, the Theorem root causes is to ask WHY. Why of Attribution is a powerful force did this problem happen? In fact a keeping supervisors and leaders simple and effective tool for deterfrom seeking real or root causes. mining root cause is called “Five It is easier to treat the symptom – WHYs.” Ask WHY until one or blame the employee – that seek root more toot causes are found. It is causes that likely will lead back to called “Five WHYs” because a root the supervisors and leaders. cause is normally found by asking WHY five or fewer times. 2. The conclusion that an employee problem is caused by the emA concluding comment: The next ployee should result in some form time you observe an employee probof employee reprimand – negative lem, use the Five WHYs and the feedback. After determining root process we used in the cafeteria cacauses, where the cause was not shier example to determine the root under the control of the employee, cause or causes of the problem. Do a redirection feedback would be in not act hastily and respond to symporder. With redirection feedback toms. we provide the employee the training, feedback, authority, clarity, etc. needed to successfully perform. As
Page 17