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Remote Scheduling Jobs, Spotting Root Causes, Building Training Expertise

Remote Scheduling Jobs, Spotting Root Causes, Building Training Expertise

Micah Piippo
January 27, 2025

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Welcome back to Beyond Deadlines newsletter—a free perk for people looking to improve in Planning and Scheduling. Each week, we provide tactics, prompts, jobs and food for thought. We want you to succeed today, tomorrow and throughout the rest of your career.

Distinguish proximate causes from root causes. Proximate causes are typically the actions (or lack of actions) that lead to problems, so they are described with verbs (I missed the train because I didn’t check the train schedule). Root causes run much deeper and they are typically described with adjectives (I didn’t check the train schedule because I am forgetful). You can only truly solve your problems by removing their root causes, and to do that, you must distinguish the symptoms from the disease.

Principles by Ray Dalio

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Ever feel like you’re solving the wrong problem? Here’s why—and how to fix it.

Too often, we focus on proximate causes—actions or behaviors that seem to explain an issue. They’re easy to spot but rarely solve the root of the problem.

For example: “We’re over budget because material costs were underestimated.”

Sounds clear, right? But why were they underestimated? Dig deeper.

💡 Here’s the tactic I recommend to uncover root causes:

1️⃣ Ask “Why?” Five Times Let’s break down the example:

Why were material costs underestimated? The supplier quotes were incorrect.
Why were they incorrect? We relied on outdated pricing.
Why was outdated pricing used? The purchasing process doesn’t include updated checks.
Why isn’t the process updated? There’s no policy for price revalidation.
Why isn’t there a policy? Because no one owns that responsibility.

Now we’ve hit the root cause: a lack of ownership in updating procurement processes.

2️⃣ Listen for Adjectives, Not Just Verbs Proximate causes are actions (verbs), like “underestimated” or “relied on.” Root causes often reveal qualities (adjectives), like “outdated” or “undefined.”

3️⃣ Identify Symptoms vs. Disease Is the issue a one-off (symptom), or does it reflect a deeper, recurring challenge (the disease)? Solving symptoms means the problem will reappear. Target the disease.

4️⃣ Close the Feedback Loop After solving the root cause, check your results. Did the issue disappear? If not, revisit your assumptions.

👉 Your takeaway: You can only drive meaningful change by addressing the disease, not just the symptoms. Start asking better questions, and watch how quickly your results improve.

Uncovering Root Causes

Copy and paste this prompt into ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude.

Act as a skilled business strategist specializing in problem-solving frameworks. Write a practical and engaging guide for professionals on how to identify and resolve root causes of recurring challenges, ensuring the solutions lead to long-term improvements.

Base your guidance on the principles of digging deeper using the "Five Whys" technique, distinguishing between symptoms and underlying issues, and leveraging adjectives to uncover core qualities of problems.

Draw from an example where addressing the root cause (e.g., lack of ownership in updating procurement processes) resulted in meaningful change. Present the content in a clear, step-by-step format that includes actionable tips, concise explanations, and relatable analogies. Use a professional yet approachable tone to empower readers to apply these methods in their own work. Before you begin, ask me 3 questions to help improve your answer.