Did your boss hand you a TapRooT® Root Cause Tree® and ask you to do a TapRooT® Investigation?

If you are TapRooT® Trained, you probably smiled reading the headline of this post. But this happens. I know it happens because when I’m teaching courses, attendees tell me it’s happened to them. They’ve never had TapRooT® training but are expected to do a TapRooT® Investigation.

Understanding how to use the TapRooT® Root Cause Tree® sets TapRooT® Investigators apart. The TapRooT® Root Cause Tree® is an advanced, expert system for root cause analysis. The TapRooT® Root Cause Tree® Dictionary accompanies it. Oh . . . your boss didn’t give you a dictionary?

Please keep reading. It could save a life.

In the TapRooT® Investigation Process, investigators first create a sequence of events based on evidence collection. Then, mistakes, errors, and equipment failures that occurred in the sequence are identified. Once identified, they are analyzed with the TapRooT® Root Cause Tree® and the TapRooT® Root Cause Tree® Dictionary.

Course attendees don’t just learn how to do this in TapRooT® Training, they also practice it in training, on incidents we present via animation, and on incidents from their facilities that they bring to class.

Mark Paradies, co-developer of the TapRooT® System, calls handing a Root Cause Tree® to someone and telling them to “just do it” root cause malpractice. Because what happens? People use it as a pick list. They don’t use the process because they don’t understand the value and benefit of following the TapRooT® process. This understanding comes with training.

You don’t have to be a human factors expert to use the TapRooT® System, but using the TapRooT® System will give you the tools to gather the same information you would receive if a human factors expert analyzed your incident. The TapRooT® System takes you beyond your own knowledge and biases so that you can identify problems and root causes that you probably would not have considered prior to training. The tree format logically and visually directs the reasoning process from a single problem to the problem’s root cause. It’s not a complex system to use once you understand how to use it. But just like anything great, you have to invest a little time learning how to do it.

How long does it take to learn the TapRooT® System? You can learn all of the essential tools in just two days.