Root Cause Analysis Journey: A Blessing and a Burden

It’s been quite a while since I’ve last written.  Quite frankly, I’ve simply been too busy.  A lot has been going on with Failsafe Network.  We have some bold new plans, are working with some stimulating new people, and we’re finally seeing some visible signs of progress.  

Maybe all worthwhile endeavors of life are like journeys into the wilderness.  We sense a need to go there, but we don’t know what we’ll find as we travel.  Dangers abound.  Rock slides, earthquakes, windstorms, snakes -- even bandits exist along the way to rob us of vital supplies.  Certainly, one of the things that any sane person must wonder as they encounter these dangers is “have I ventured into territory I ought not have ventured?”

It’s uncanny how life seems to provide answers to these fundamental questions if we’re willing to ask.

Last week, I met with the company I’ve been working with to help Failsafe through its journey.  Although I’ve been working with them since January, they brought in some new folks to help with some of the problems that had arisen and we needed to get to know one another.  As I was driving to the meeting -- a 2 hour drive -- I had some time to think about what I needed to convey.  I only had an hour or so to get across the essence of “who I am and what I feel compelled to do.”

I found myself telling them the following:

I consider myself blessed beyond all expectations.  

When I look back at my life and see how it played out, I can’t help but be in awe.  Not awe about myself -- that’s the point.  I had little or nothing to do with it.  If I told you my whole story you would understand:

It seems like I was put on a path.

I know that others feel the same about their lives -- not all others, but some.  Most of us would share the same experience.  I would never have been able to predict where this path was going 30 years ago.  But looking back, every step along the way, every choice I thought I was making has taken me where I am today.  I realize that I have already been on a journey into the wilderness, and here’s where its lead me so far:

I’ve learned a way to help people take what might be the single most important step in their lives:  to slow down, to acknowledge the truth of what they see around them, and then to realize there's something about them that needs to change.   

It might not be the first step, and it definitely will not be the final step.  But as far as I can tell, it's the vital one.  

I’ve learned this through dealing with things that have gone wrong, both in my own life and in other lives.  I’ve learned that unexpected, unplanned pain is not what we think.  It is the only thing that can change us in the profoundest of ways.  This pain comes as we travel through the wilderness as we veer off “the path.”  But there’s a caveat: these things that go wrong will not change us until we are willing to learn something about ourselves.  This is true for all of us, everywhere, no exceptions.  

As I write this article I am coming-up on my 67th birthday.  My body is beginning to ache, and I don’t like leaving my wife alone as I go out, week after week.  I can keep up this pace for a while, I suppose, but not too long.  With this in mind, when I was in the meeting with the new folks last week, I also remember saying:

But the Blessing is also a Burden

Virtually no-one in the “root cause analysis” world has a message or underlying purpose that is even remotely similar to what I have been led to imbed within Failsafe.  As more and more people are exposed to our 4-day Latent Cause Experience, the word seems to be spreading -- interest is increasing.  VP’s want their people to go through this experience.  The hands-on folks want their VP’s to go through it.  I often hear “I wish my wife (son, mother-in-law, etc.) could have gone through this.”  “Have you considered offering this as a college class?”  “Is health care aware of this, or how about banking?”  “I wish you’d come to our church!”

So what should I do about all this interest, in the midst of the looming dangers in my wilderness journey?

Should I simply close shop, tell my clients I’m retiring, and forget about this blessing I seem to have been given?  

No.  I cannot simply stop.  Blessings come with burdens.  I think that’s always true.

My “burden” is to make sure that “the way I have learned to help others” will continue after my tenure ends.

Along these lines, the people that are helping me are pushing me to blog on a regular basis. Initially, I resisted this thought -- why write when I don’t have something to say?  But then I realized that the experience of working with others to take Failsafe to another level is loaded with applicable thoughts and lessons.  That’s what you’ll be reading on this blog.  It should be interesting.  

So if anything I have said even remotely interests you, I have three suggestions:

• Look at Failsafe’s new website.  Let me know what you think.  It’s a work in progress, but I think you’ll like it.  

• Download our first eBook:  4 Significant Problems with Root Cause Analysis and 1 Life-Changing Alternative.  Again, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks, and stay tuned.