The Five Whys

First we had All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten which helped explain how to get along with others. Now we have the principle of the Five Whys which explains how to find out what really went wrong on the production floor. You don't ask why the error happened, accept the answer, fix the problem and move on. You ask why, then you ask why again, and again, and again and again. The problem needs to be addressed at least five layers deep. Kids have know how to employ this technique since the beginning of the spoken word.

"Why can't I have candy for dinner?"
"It's not healthy"
"Why isn't it healthy today, I had some last night?"
"Last night you had a small piece after dinner."
"Why does it matter if I have it first or last?"
"It lacks the nutritional content of meat and vegetables. You need to eat those first so that you aren't too full to eat them later."
"Why do I need nutritional content?"
"You need the vitamins and minerals to grow strong and healthy"
"Why can't I have a vitamin pill with my chocolate?"
"You are right, eat the chocolate, take the vitamin and bring some for me too." okay, this isn't quite the same thing as getting to the root of the problem but it does illustrate the benefits of a persistent nature.

By the way if you haven't read Robert Fulghum's books you should.