In the Five Whys missed-deadline example, what was the underlying root cause behind the late slides?

In the Five Whys missed-deadline example, what was the underlying root cause behind the late slides?

• A. The leader did not clarify roles and expectations
• B. The team lacked clear roles
• C. The deadline was unrealistic
• D. The resources were insufficient

Answer: (A)

When a deadline slips, the approach is to keep asking “why” until you reach a fundamental cause. The key idea here is that the late slides stemmed from not having clear ownership and expectations set from the start. The deeper reason is that the leader didn’t clearly define who is responsible for creating the slides, what exactly each person should deliver, and by when. Without that explicit guidance, team members guessed at their roles, leading to miscommunication, delays, and rework that pushed the deadline past due. If you traced it further with the same method, you’d likely find that this guidance gap from leadership is what allowed ambiguity to persist. So the root cause is a leadership lapse in clarifying roles and expectations, which creates the conditions for delays. Addressing that clarity—who owns what and by when—helps prevent similar misses in the future.

When a deadline slips, the approach is to keep asking “why” until you reach a fundamental cause. The key idea here is that the late slides stemmed from not having clear ownership and expectations set from the start. The deeper reason is that the leader didn’t clearly define who is responsible for creating the slides, what exactly each person should deliver, and by when. Without that explicit guidance, team members guessed at their roles, leading to miscommunication, delays, and rework that pushed the deadline past due.

If you traced it further with the same method, you’d likely find that this guidance gap from leadership is what allowed ambiguity to persist. So the root cause is a leadership lapse in clarifying roles and expectations, which creates the conditions for delays. Addressing that clarity—who owns what and by when—helps prevent similar misses in the future.