When a problem occurs within a company and a root cause analysis is required, it can seem difficult to identify the causes and determine effective solutions. This is where a ThinkReliability Cause Mapping® Investigation Engineer, also known as a facilitator, can change everything.
Our full-time investigators provide a neutral, third-party perspective meaning they lead an investigation without any emotional connection to the problem or the people involved. Below, we’ve outlined a few advantages of using a ThinkReliability Cause Mapping Investigation Engineer to facilitate an investigation with your company.
First and foremost, our facilitators help your team stay focused and objective while investigating your problem. Our facilitators are not emotionally invested in the issue and help your team stay on track, avoid jumping to conclusions, and gather all necessary information to develop an accurate Cause Map™ investigation file. This helps to prevent blind spots or missing important pieces of information that may be critical to solving the problem.
Another advantage of using a facilitator is that they bring a fresh perspective to the investigation while utilizing their exceptional skills in diagramming an incident and providing a thorough deliverable in a presentable format. The facilitator will ask thought-provoking questions and challenge assumptions to ensure that all possible causes are considered and captured. This is particularly helpful when your team has been working on a problem for a long time and may be too close to it to see it objectively.
Our facilitators also help provide support and open communication between team members. By establishing ground rules for communication and ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to share their thoughts, the facilitator helps create an environment that is conducive to constructive communication where insight and ideas are welcome. This helps build trust and collaboration among team members, which is invaluable when trying to solve complex problems, especially when dealing with the legal aspects of an incident.
Finally, using a ThinkReliability facilitator helps your team save time and resources by absorbing the workload associated with coordinating meetings, conducting interviews and documenting the details. By providing a clear process for an investigation and a structured framework for developing a Cause Map file, the facilitator helps ensure that the investigation is efficient and effective. The objective of the investigation is to provide a clear explanation of the incident so that solutions can be put in place that prevent similar issues from occurring across your organization.
For some of our clients, we function as their root cause analysis group, where we lead their small, medium and large investigations both remotely and onsite when needed. Others bring our team in to assist on large-magnitude RCAs or when their team is strapped for time due to competing priorities. We can help at whatever level makes sense for you.
If you'd like more information on how the incident investigation process might work for your organization, our team will happily provide additional information, or connect you with one of our expert investigators to answer any technical questions you might have.
What are you waiting for? Test our capability by picking a problem that you or your management would like solved, and send us a note today.