By Adam Turteltaub

“Root cause analysis” is an oft-used phrase in compliance, but what is it in practice?  In this podcast, Leigh Faugust, Counsel at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) brings insight into what root cause analysis is and how to do it properly.

She explains that

* Root cause analysis looks at what happened, why it happened and should it have happened

* Getting to the root cause uses iterative digging: asking a “why” question over and over again until you get to something that you can fix

* Generally, five why questions are enough to identify the controls you need to make sure you can get to and fix what went wrong

* One key to success is to put together a team of subject matter experts to help you identify what happened

* Once there is a clear picture of the problem can start figuring out why it happened

* Having a good report writer is essential to help ensure support of the change

* Identifying a problem as human error is really the start, not the end

Listen in and better understand how to get to the roots of your compliance challenges.