A Truth Demonstrated by the Domino Analogy

I'd like to discuss one of my favorite analogies – the DOMINO analogy.  Actually, this is MORE than just an analogy.  Analogies are, after all, a COMPARISON between two things to help explain or clarify a thought.  But dominos are MORE than an analogy, or comparison.  They are the ACTUAL THING ITSELF.  Let me explain.

Obviously, if line up all the dominos in a row and then push on the one on the right, EVENTUALLY the one on the left will fall down.  This is “cause and effect” in its most elementary and visible form – and it demonstrates a very important truth.

The interaction between the finger and the domino happened FIRST.  And then the interaction between the rightmost domino and the one next to it happened second, and so on, and so on, until the last domino (on the left) EVENTUALLY falls down.  

Nothing extraordinary here, right?  Well hang in there and I’ll make my point.

In the “Root Cause Analysis” world, we always start with the LAST domino – the one on the left.  It’s the event we’re investigating.  Initially, we cannot SEE the dominos on the right, but we know they are there.  Investigations uncover them, one at a time, discovering the important cause and effect relationships.

But here’s the point I’d like to make.

As the cloak is pulled back, and we reveal more and more dominos, we’re actually GOING BACK IN TIME.  Remember, the domino on the RIGHT has to fall BEFORE the dominos on the LEFT fall down.  The cause of the cause of the cause of the cause relationships reveal that NOTHING HAPPENS in our lives without causes that originated in the past.  This is ALWAYS TRUE.

Let’s say I did something that caused a major problem, and you want to know why I behaved in that manner.  Do you think you’d be able to trace some of the causes of my behavior back to my parents?  Probably.  So let’s go to my parents.  Why did they raise me the way they raised me?  Do you think you’d be able to trace some of the causes of THEIR behavior back to THEIR parents?  SURE!

The dominos are interesting because they suggest that that we (as humans) might not be responsible for ANYTHING that has happened in the PRESENT. 

Everything that happens today was really caused by people that came before us.

Now, of course, there’s a LOT MORE TO THINGS THAT GO WRONG than that.  We ARE a lot more responsible than it seems.  And I’ll certainly be talking about them in future blogs.

For now, please realize that...

..whatever you do today, and how ever you are at present is affecting the future in ways you cannot even remotely conceive.

Isn’t all this fascinating?