If you’re watching college football bowls or the NFL playoffs, it’s hard not to see this commercial from DirecTV. It’s not exactly the reverse of the “5 Whys” (as popularized in Lean and the Lean Startup methods), but it made me laugh.
After the video, I’ll show what the 5 whys would be (working backward from the sequence in the commercial).
Why did the guy end up in the ditch?
Because he was beaten up by a gang
Why did the gang beat him up?
Because they wanted to see how tough he was
Why did he look tough?
Because he had an eye patch and that makes you look tough
Why did he have an eye patch?
Because he got hit in the eye playing racquetball
Why did he get hit in the eye?
Because he was blowing off steam and, when you’re blowing off steam, accidents happen
Why was he blowing off steam?
Because he was angry
Why was he angry?
He was being kept on hold a long time by his cable company
Why did the cable company put him on hold?
—–
It’s said for any effective 5 Whys that you should be able to work backward and have it be a logical chain of causation. I guess that’s true in the video?
So you’d better switch to DirecTV if you don’t want to end up in a ditch? I’m a happy DirecTV customer and I’ve never been beaten up and left in a ditch.
That’s what Lisa Simpson called “specious thinking” in an episode where Homer was convinced his “Bear Patrol” was successful because no bears had been seen (to which Homer replied “Thank you.”
A better solution might be anger management classes for the guy? Or protective goggles?
About LeanBlog.org: Mark Graban is a consultant, author, and speaker in the “lean healthcare” methodology. Mark is author of the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen. Learn more about Mark’s on-site and public workshops. He is also the Chief Improvement Officer for the technology company KaiNexus.