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possible in a reasonable time frame. Naïve questions should be
encouraged because they help members break out of their traditional way
of viewing the situation and question assumptions that may no longer be
valid.

To facilitate the identification of the root cause, the Japanese have
developed a procedure called the five whys. They ask “why” five times
when confronted with a problem. By the time the fifth why is answered,
they believe they have found the ultimate cause of the problem. For

example, revenues for the organization have declined over the past two
years.

1. Why have the revenues been declining?
Answer: the funders have been dissatisfied with the results of the

organization’s efforts.

2. Why have the funders been dissatisfied?
Answer: they haven’t understood that the community has no
suitable sites or buildings for new business.

3. Why haven’t they understood?
Answer: because we (the staff of the organization) haven’t done a
good job of explaining the real estate problem

4. Why haven’t we done a good job of explaining?

Answer: we haven’t provided our stakeholders with a good
education and training program so that they understand broad
economic development trends and how they impact our community.

5. Why haven’t we provided this training?
Answer: we didn’t think it was important.

Generally, as the team or organization delves into the problem and its
possible causes, it will become clear that needed information is missing and
additional information is needed to better understand what is happening
and why. Frequently, this involves looking at what other organizations

have done in a similar situation or reviewing the literature on the topic. It
is also useful to determine what information is irrelevant to the problem.

The results of this research should be properly organized so that it can be

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