Beyond Airline Disruptions: Where to start digging for root causes of problems

Friday 14 October 2011

Where to start digging for root causes of problems

If you are trying to dig deeper into the root causes of problems and don’t know where to start, here is what you should look for:

VISIBLE causes shown in published reports (beware of their accuracy)
INVISIBLE causes built in planned schedules
INTERRELATED causes hiding across organisation
PATTERNS of causes that can most easily turn into loss making events

Try to VIIP it and let me know if you need further instructions.

My Favourite Quotes:

'The order is established not according to a pattern, but when there is complete understanding of what disorder is.' Krishnamurti

'Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.' Albert Einstein

‘In flying I have learned that carelessness and overconfidence are usually far more dangerous than deliberately accepted risks ’Wilbur Wright

‘If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don’t embrace trouble; that’s as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a friend, for you’ll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it.’ Oliver Wendell Holmes

'Anyone who is not given information cannot assume responsibility. But anyone who is given information cannot avoid assuming it.' Jan Carlzon

'Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.' Goethe

'Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.' Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Disruptions are like music out of tune. People can listen to it, but not for long.