Seeing RCA Improvement as a Journey and Remembering Mindset Change Takes Time
Embracing Root Cause Analysis (RCA) with a systems thinking overlay requires a mindset change and is a long-term journey for audit teams, often taking months to years. This approach helps auditors understand recurring problems and provides richer insights for senior management.
THE IDEA
Seeing RCA Improvement as a Journey and Remembering Mindset Change Takes Time
We are entering a time when RCA is (finally) coming of age, helped by greater stakeholder interest in getting insight and value from internal audits and an increasing focus on RCA by the IIA as well as various regulators/supervisors.
In parallel, many audit teams are developing their use of data analytics, but this becomes even more powerful when it is linked to RCA. For example:
- Looking at problems from new angles (e.g. end‐to‐end process work and thematic reviews).
- Focusing testing and analytics work in the right places (e.g. through working hypotheses of areas where there may be vulnerabilities).
- Consolidating observations into causal themes (explaining reasons why) and making the links to behaviour and culture.
- Highlighting why audit findings matter (e.g. by moving from current issues and consequences to potential future problems and consequences, etc.).
Embracing RCA does require a mindset shift for many auditors, but my experience with dozens of audit teams is that many things ‘click into place’ once they learn about RCA with a systems thinking overlay; for example, ‘That's why we are seeing a problem over and over again’ and ‘Now I see why managers are not taking action the way I think they should be’.
For chief audit executives and senior team members, RCA and systems thinking can help connect findings with behavioural risks and cultural problems. This gives management more to work with than a list of isolated control failures.
In my experience, embedding effective RCA takes months and sometimes 1–2 years, depending on the team’s existing practice. Teams accustomed to finding one root cause through the five whys may need to reconsider that habit and learn additional techniques. Progress can be gradual. Working with risk, compliance, and other functions also lets teams share what they learn.
Finally, remember that good RCA will not overcome the inevitable stakeholder management and influencing challenges you will encounter when proposing actions on more fundamental topics. But it's worth noting that as you gain an appreciation for the systemic nature of some problems, you will, in fact, be more likely to ‘see’ why there is resistance to change and identify some of the politically savvy strategies that might be needed to make progress.
When to use it
An internal audit team wants to elevate its insights from compliance-focused to value-added strategic recommendations. Using systems thinking RCA helps identify behavioral and cultural root causes.
A manager is frustrated with repeated failures in a process. Instead of quick fixes, applying RCA with a systems perspective can uncover deeper structural issues.
An organization faces resistance to change. RCA with systems thinking can reveal the political and structural reasons behind resistance, allowing for more effective change management strategies.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Recurring Customer Complaints
An audit team noticed repeated complaints about late deliveries. Using the five whys, they initially blamed individual drivers. However, applying systems thinking RCA revealed that the root cause was a flawed scheduling system that didn't account for traffic patterns and delivery volume. This insight led to a systemic fix rather than training drivers.
Resistance to Policy Changes
Managers resisted implementing new compliance policies. Traditional RCA might attribute this to 'resistance to change.' But using a systems-oriented RCA, auditors identified that the real causes were unclear communication, misaligned incentives, and lack of resources. Addressing these systemic issues improved adoption.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
Consider a problem that keeps recurring in your work or organization. What might be the systemic causes that a surface-level analysis could miss?
How can you shift your thinking from blaming individuals to identifying system flaws when analyzing an issue?
What steps can you take to help your team or stakeholders see the value of investing time in deeper root cause analysis?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Beyond the Five Whys Root Cause Analysis and Systems Thinking (James C. Paterson)