7 - Inside-Out versus Outside-In

We all walk around in full knowledge of the causes of our failures?

If you think about the compressor example, you’ll understand what I’m trying to say.  It’s not that we all know the whole story behind a failure.  On the contrary, most people only know a small tidbit of the whole story.  But they knew a piece of the story, and that’s the point.  Unfortunately, however, few people ever make the connection between the small tidbits they see and large problems that occur elsewhere.

Please look at the above graphic, and study it.  It is essential to acknowledge this "visibility barrier," or “cloak of the unknown.”  It prevents one “side” from seeing the perspective of another.  The operator sees the compressor shut itself down, but has no idea about why it shut down (until he begins to push back the cloak).  On the other hand, the lubricator sees the attitudes that prevail around him, and even the oil drum that is open to the atmosphere, but often sees no direct linkage between these problems and production-line issues.

Because there is no direct, visible, immediate linkage between the visible problem and invisible causes, the human brain does not "connect the dots."  We literally do not think there is a correlation between the small problems in our worlds and the big problems that suddenly emerge.  This is the "Merry-Go-Round" we talked about in a earlier articles -- the way things are, and the way we think about ourselves and our surroundings.

In the aftermath of the event, after it has been investigated, most people are aghast about what had been ignored.  Most of us even want to see some kind of retribution.  “How dare they didn’t act on that obvious problem.”  The point is that when viewing a problem from the Outside-In, we are indignant to think that we had anything to do with the incident, unless or until we take the time to try to see ourselves as part of the causes.  On the other hand, from the Inside-Out it all looks familiar.  Almost everything that goes wrong in our lives are caused by things we all experience, day in and day out – things we once knew were not right, but have learned to live with.  It’s all a matter of slowing down, and making the invisible,visible – of trying to see what is behind the visibility barrier.

Let me use another analogy.

I don’t know about you, but I like to see homes with beautiful lawns – with luscious, manicured green grass – no weeds, and no bare spots.  Imagine owning a lawn like that – or at least imagine being responsible for that way it looks.  Let’s suppose you were inspecting the lawn one day, and suddenly saw the yellow flowers of a dandelion.


This is similar to a chemical plant operator that experiences a compressor shutdown, or driving along a highway to suddenly find yourself stopped in traffic, or a helicopter pilot cruising the Arctic who suddenly spots an iceberg.  Suddenly, a “problem” or "failure" is noticed -- anything we see manifested in something, or someone else – an Outside-In problem.

Now, suppose you want to remove the dandelion (eliminate the problem).  Most of us know that dandelions are impossible to remove by simply snipping them off at the surface.  When the roots are left in the ground, its means of growth remains in tact and the dandelion stubbornly reappears. The analogy between it and our industrial problems is almost perfect. In fact, the analogy is relevant to all types of problem solving.

The key to removing the dandelion (preventing the recurrence of the problem) is to remove all its roots.
 
Unfortunately, however, this is a very time-consuming endeavor because roots are difficult to see from the Outside-In.  The visibility barrier (cloak of the unknown / Merry-Go-Round) exists.  Yes, we could get rid of the dandelions by bulldozing the whole lawn, but we'd obviously destroy the lawn along with the weeds.  Therefore, we have to "go slow," proceeding carefully - all because of the visibility barrier.  We know the roots (causes of our problems) exist, but they seem hopelessly intertwined with the roots of the grass (the remainder of our existence) - all invisible to us, "buried within the dirt."

Do you see what I mean by visibility barrier?  Please think about it.  KNOW that it exists!

Now let us change perspectives.

Consider your perspective of the lawn if you were a mole.  From this perspective, all that would exist would be a multitude of roots and dirt.  Moles are not aware of the leafy weed and yellow flower of the dandelion (visibility barrier, once again). Certainly the weeds (and grass) are there, but the moles are oblivious to them - they never see them, and never acknowledge their presence.

This is precisely what occurs in our manufacturing facilities, our homes, and in society in general.  We all know about things which "are not right" in our lives, but seldom see a direct linkage between these flaws and any particular problem.  In other words, the visibility barrier exists from the Inside-Out also.  Not only does it exist, but it seems infinitely more occluded from this direction than from the Outside-In.

So what does all this mean?  Why is this relevant?

Please understand that each of us are contributing, individually, to all sorts of problems, failures, "icebergs," and weeds every hour of every day.  But because we (and others) cannot see the direct relationship between our inadequacies and the big problems of society, we tend to ignore them.  We don't think they matter

I know you might think that I’m repeating myself too often, but this is the most essential part of this introduction to Latent Cause Analysis:  We can all see problems in our companies, departments, teams, and peers rather easily, Outside-In.  But as our focus becomes more and more personal (Inside-Out), the effect of the observed flaw on overall system performance is less and less apparent.  This phenomena is ultimately true when we think of our own "selves."

We tend to discount our own personal problems as having any negative impact on anything! Yet it is these personal flaws which cause all problems. 

Every failure can be traced to an inappropriate action made by a person - someone who knew full-well that he did something he ought not have done - caused by a flaw he already knew about, and perhaps has been living with for years!  These flaws ARE the Merry-Go-Round!

Everything we do, say, think or feel eventually manifests itself somewhere. What each of us does (or does not do) is not only important - it directly causes either success or failure.  All our flaws and shortcomings show up somewhere, eventually.

We have met the enemy, and it is us!

Important Points:

• Outside-In problems are those we see in other people or things.  They are the manifestations of life, similar to a dandelion.
• Inside-Out problems are "the way we, and our surrounds are," similar to a mole's view of a lawn.
• A barrier exists between our Inside-Out, and Outside-In view of things.
• Because of this visibility barrier, most human beings do not "connect the dots" between the two views until something tragic occurs.
• Every failure can be traced to inappropriate actions made by people -- people who knew full-well that they did something they ought not have done -- caused by a flaw they already knew about and perhaps have been living with for years.

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