Five Whys
Root-cause technique: ask 'why' five times until you pass symptoms and reach causes. Toyota's gift to problem-solving, and the reason facilitators sound like relentless toddlers.
Heard in the wild
“Five whys took us from 'pump failed' to 'PM schedule was never updated after the retrofit.'”
Tone check: Technical
Simple and genuinely effective. The fifth why is usually a process or budget decision someone made years ago.