5 Whys
1 of 4
Ask why, then ask it again
When something keeps going wrong, the first reason that comes to mind is rarely the cause. Ask why. Take the answer, and ask why about that. Keep going until you reach something you can change.
For exampleWhy? Because… And why is that? Because…
Pick an activity. Each takes two or three minutes.
For a small problem that keeps coming back. Five minutes, on your own or with a colleague over a coffee.
Why this works in your room
Asking why five times gets you past blame to something you can change.
For your learners: The problem that keeps coming back in their lesson is fixed at its cause.
For you: You stop solving the same problem every week, and you have one change to make by Monday.
Start
Write the problem as something you could count.
No reasons in it yet.
Ask why
Take each answer.
Ask why about that.
Check each answer
Is it about what they are like? Try again.
Is it about the lesson? Keep going.
Stop
When you can change it this week.
Change that one thing.
Watch out for
Stopping at blame: they do not care.
Or at a shrug: it has always been like this.
Elsewhere in Bradford ThreadWorks
WalkThrusCalm, purposeful classrooms: routines, when the thread leads back to how a session starts or ends.Open WalkThrus (opens in a new tab)
The Inclusion HubCommon classroom challenges, for other reasons a problem keeps coming back.Open The Inclusion Hub (opens in a new tab)
Prompts to paste into Copilot
Copilot will keep asking why for as long as you like, and it can spot blame. Change what is in brackets, and leave out names.
Be my why-asker
I am a [subject] tutor. This keeps happening in my lessons: [the problem]. Ask me why, one question at a time, up to five times. If any answer I give is about what the learners are like and not about something that happens in the lesson, say so and ask me to try again. Stop when I reach something I could change this week.
Check my thread
Here is my chain of whys for a problem in my lessons: [paste the chain]. Is the last answer something I can change myself within a week? Is there a step where I jumped too far? Suggest one other thread I could have followed from the same problem.
Where it comes from
The habit of asking why five times comes from Toyota's factories, where Taiichi Ohno used it to get from a fault on the line to the reason it happened. It has been borrowed by hospitals, kitchens and schools since.
Ohno, 1988
Why blame is a dead end
When something goes wrong, people tend to explain it by what others are like and overlook the situation those others are in. The thread pulls you back to the situation, which is the part you can change.
Ross, 1977 (opens in a new tab)How sure is this?
Not very, for big problems. A 2017 critique argues five whys follows one thread when real problems have several causes. We found no study showing it helps teachers. Use it as a prompt for thinking, on a small problem that repeats in your own room.
Card, 2017 (opens in a new tab)