Page 69 - text

Change approaches & management tools SeCtion tWo
Strengths and limitations
A very simple tool, it enables potentially complex events and influences which underlie a problem or negative event to be explored. It encourages the search for solutions to underlying problems rather than to simply deal with presenting symptoms. It may also be used with client groups, as part of a participatory approach, to encourage reflection on their experiences and identify root causes to be addressed.
In relation to social care change, the 5 Whys’ simple language makes it potentially accessible to staff and people accessing services. The exercise does though need to be facilitated well to enable those taking part to challenge what may be long held assumptions and beliefs. It can be used throughout a change process to understand and therefore respond to the existing practice in an organisation and also why a change programme has encountered barriers to its implementation.
Further reading
1. Senge P, Kleiner A, Roberts C, Ross RB and Smith BJ (1994) The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organisation, New York: Doubleday.
2. Hewitt-Taylor J (2012) Identifying, analysing and solving problems in practice, Nursing Standard, 26, 40, 35–41.
3. Kohfeldt D and Langhout RD (2012) The five whys method: a tool for developing problem definitions in collaboration with children, Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 22, 4, 316–29.
66