The RCA Interview Method That Builds Trust and Gets Honest Answers

The role of a trusted advisor is similar, whether you serve as the lead for a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) team or advise an executive. In all forms of communication where complexity and uncertainty are issues, a specific strategy and some standards need to be consistent and effective.

Ken, Mark, and I (the Latino brothers) provided some suggestions to help you become a more effective interviewer in our book, Root Cause Analysis: Improving Performance for Bottom-Line Results.  

Traditionally, RCA interviews can be perceived as very stressful, especially in organizations where a ‘blame culture’ exists.  Under such conditions, interviewees will always be suspicious of the interviewer’s motives.  To break this paradigm of ‘RCA = Blame’ (which unfortunately is very prevalent these days), here is a bit of advice:

The first time you have an opportunity to blame someone… in a very public manner, DON’T!

If we operate in a blame culture and want to shift away from it, we must demonstrate this desire through actions, not just words.  We must earn the trust of the field so that we can demonstrate our genuine interest in changing our ways. 

If a bad outcome occurred where we would typically find someone to blame, then DON’T automatically seek a scapegoat. Use the failure as a learning opportunity to show the company’s desire to change. 

Consider using the tips below to demonstrate that leadership is aware of its responsibility in providing adequate management systems to help employees make better decisions. When those systems are flawed, they influence the decisions of well-intended decision-makers. 

In progressive organizations, leadership will acknowledge when their actions or inactions have contributed to an undesirable outcome.  They express their desire to become part of the solution and are earning the trust of their workforce.

Here are some suggested RCA interviewing tips:

1. PREPARE LEAD IN QUESTIONS. Be careful to ask the exact same lead questions to each of the interviewees, and then their answers will direct you to other meaningful pathways. Here are just a few examples of lead questions to start a conversation, not an interrogation:
   1. On that day, in hindsight, what would RIGHT have looked like?
   2. What makes your work hard to do? Those things that get in the way, and the things you must adapt your behavior to get around barriers in your way (i.e., workarounds).
   3. How do you feel this Event could have been prevented?
2. CREATE ENVIRONMENT FOR CANDOR. Ensure that participants understand you are interested in candor, and they can be assured that these conversations are taking place in a psychologically safe environment.
   1. Typically, under such conditions, people get anxious in such interviews because they are likely related to a bad outcome. They may fear being disciplined if they are honest.  They need to be reassured that they are the only ones who have the power to prevent a recurrence.  Without their help, the event cannot be prevented.
   2. NOTE: If the organization goes back on their promise not to discipline people for being honest, they will set back their investigative efforts for years and likely lose good people for the distrust that has been created!
3. DESIRE TO CLEARLY UNDERSTAND INTENT. Allow the interviewees to see your notes so they are more at ease about what you are writing. Show them your notes and ask them if you are correctly reflecting their responses.
   1. RCA interviews can be stressful for both parties, but they don’t need to be an adversarial meeting. To demonstrate your desire to record their responses as intended accurately, show them your notes and ask if you got it right. If not, let them correct it.
4. TAKE ME TO THE FIELD AND SHOW ME. If we do not understand what a person is telling us (we may not be as technically competent as they are), let them use a pen to draw a simple process flow diagram of the event for further understanding, or better yet, take us to the field and show us.
   1. Interviewees need to know they have been clearly understood. In addition to the verbal communication in #3, if the interviewer still does not clearly understand what the interviewee is trying to say, have them sketch it out for the interviewer. 
   2. If still unclear, ask them to take you to the field and show you. This will strengthen their trust that you are making a genuine effort to ensure their intended message is conveyed correctly and received.
5. NEVER ARGUE. Never argue with an interviewee, even if you know the response is inaccurate.
   1. Doing so will destroy their trust, as well as that of their peers in the field, and they will likely not participate voluntarily in the future. When debriefing, seek to find other forms of validation and try to understand why the response may have been untrue. 
   2. Just because a response may not have been true, does not mean they didn’t believe it to be true! We need to understand why their decision made sense to them at the time of the failure.  We must understand the conditions and environment they were working under.
6. KNOW YOUR INTERVIEWEES’ NAMES. Always be aware of the interviewees’ names.
   1. People don’t like being viewed as a ‘number’. Before your interview(s), make sure you know every interviewee’s name and address them consistently by their name.
7. DRAW OUT QUIET INTERVIEWEES. It is essential to develop a strategy to draw out quiet participants, as they often possess a great deal of valuable knowledge to contribute.
   1. Whether interviewing several people or just one, there will always be those who are either naturally introverted or are resistant to participating. When you come across such situations, especially with a group, switch your interviewing style to what’s called ‘nominal group technique’.  This is where we go around to each person and ask for their opinions so that everyone is heard.  This forces the quiet folks to respond in a non-threatening manner, and they are not being selectively called out just for not participating.
8. UNDERSTANDING BODY LANGUAGE. Be aware of body language in interviewees.
   1. Studies have shown that approximately 55%-60% of all communication is conveyed through body language. Approximately 30% is conveyed through tone of voice, and only about 15% is expressed through the spoken word.  Be acutely aware of involuntary body language and cues that may be coming through.  There are numerous books and videos available to learn more about these cues.
9. INTERVIEW PREP. Remember to use the undesirable event Problem Statement and process flow diagram to keep interviewees on track if they begin to wander off the subject.
   1. People respond better to visual communication as opposed to reading a bunch of text. Having a concise Problem Statement and a basic Process Flow Diagram of the Event makes it much easier to follow the purpose of the RCA and the flow of the process in play.
10. RESPECT PEOPLE’S TIME. We should strive to keep interview sessions relatively short.
    1. Interviews should be conducted in a setting where the interviewees feel most comfortable. This means NOT in the ‘Ivory Tower’ of Leadership, but in the breakrooms, shops, and control rooms where the interviewees work.
    2. The interviewees are busy people, and such interviews are taking up their time; therefore, a backlog is building up in their minds. Respect their time and be prepared for the interview.  Inefficiency and lack of proper prep will be viewed as a sign of disrespect.

This is a brief list of the basics, but I hope you can find value in learning how to prepare properly for any interview situation.

As I always end with:

‘We NEVER seem to have the time and budget to do things right, but we ALWAYS seem to have the time and budget to do them again!’  This holds true when replacing ‘things’ with ‘interviews’ 😊!