Customer Reviews

Apollo Root Cause Analysis: A New Way of Thinking

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I teach root cause analysis and have been a practicing failure analyst for nearly 15 years. I've had the priviledge of working with some very expert people in this field. Dean Gano does a great job taking what can be a very confusing and intimidating task and making it clear and understandable.

Dean Gano has been honing his craft for many years and is well respected in the failure analysis community. The only criticism I have is that the process is more geared to providing supporting evidence for possible causes of events. There needs to be more discussion of the need for refuting evidence.

Cause analysis at its best is a structured application of scientific principles (referred to as the scientific method). What the scientific method requires is that you pose a hypothesis (a possible explanation for what has happened) and then gather evidence to support or refute the hypothesis.

I recommend that anyone interested in a better understanding of how refuting evidence is used read "The Rational Manager" by Chuck Kepner and Ben Tregoe. It's the foundational work that provides a complete solution for resolving concerns (problems, decisions, etc). The "Rational Manager" has you break things down and deal with them separately. Dean Gano's book helps you see the larger picture. The other book I use as required reading for our root cause analysts is "Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents" by James Reason. Together, these three references will help you to significantly improve your ability to resolve problems and will be the three books you will refer to over and over again.

What bothers me more than the blatant plugs for his software and his training courses are his blatantly contradictory statements.

He says, for example, that Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas were idiots because in their philosophies of cause and effect, they tried to classify causes and effects into different categories. And categorizing causes is bad because it is not helpful at all in finding the cause. Therefore, he says, he will not categorize causes. He then proceeds on the next page to do exactly that: (action vs. conditional causes).

In another example of contradicting himself, he states in chapter 1 that the problem with most RCA methodologies is that they decide things based on majority vote instead of the evidence. This implies that he believes that people's opinions about the cause can simply be wrong. That there are objective causes outside people's opinions about them. But then in chapter 2, he then develops a rather weak treatise about how all truth is relative; that there is no right and wrong. That everyone's opinion is to be accepted. So which is it? Are there objective truths or is all truth relative? Never mind that the statement "all truth is relative" is a self-contradictory statement.

And I'll just give one more: he states that the idea that there is a "root cause" is a myth, yet that term is part of the name of his methodology and the title of his book.

If he contradicts himself so many times in just the first two chapters, why should I believe his assertion that his methodology always works?

Apollo Root Cause Analysis is the right process for anyone interested in successful problem solving. This book is easy to read and describes a problem solving method that is practical and highly effective. Dean Gano's chapter "Set Up To Fail" provides a great explanation of why many of the conventional problem solving tools do not result in workable solutions. The cause and effect principle (Chapter 2) is a powerful concept and the important step of supporting each "caused by" with evidence makes this methodology unique. Chapter 4 discusses "Identifying Effective Solutions". Gano's definition of an effective solution is one that prevents recurrence, is within the control of stakeholders (those that have the authority and responsibility to implement the solution) and that meets goals and objectives. A considerable amount of information packed into 184 pages. The author provides new tools that allow the problem solver to develop creative solutions. The Apollo process works! I strongly recommend this book to environmental, health and safety professionals and others that want to improve their problem solving skills. I have provided copies of this book to my entire EHS team.

This book provides a clear & logical guide to understanding & solving problems of all kinds. It is very accessible, provides a good understanding at a first reading and becomes an excellent 'refresher' at second & subsequent readings. I highly recommend it to promote a new way of thinking about problems. It is appropriate for all sorts of problems, including Health & Safety, Maintenance, Reliability, Customer Service Issues, Quality, etc.

Apollo is the name given by the author to his unique approach to root cause analysis. I'm assuming this (Apollo) explains why there is a naked man on the cover, either that or this is the most unique author photo I have ever seen. The book focuses on causal relationships, emphasizing that there are often many causes (factors) contributing to an undesirable outcome. The author's insights on casual relationships and human behavior are extraordinary, it is obvious he is passionate about this topic and has had extensive experience with it. In addition to explaining " A new way of thinking", the author details specific tools (his own version of a cause-and-effect chart) that are the core of the Apollo method. And just when I started thinking that it would be great if there was software available to do this, he mentions that he has such a product available.
There were a few things I didn't like about the book. In fact, after receiving the book, the combination of the naked dude on the cover (which still creeps me out) and the opening paragraph in the "How to read this book" section which you just have to say "Duh!" to, almost convinced me to not read the book at all. In addition, the branding of "Apollo" throughout the book ( frequent references to "the Apollo method", "the Apollo process", "Apollo tools") made some sections read like scripts from an infomercial. These are minor gripes though, and I'm glad I got by them and took the time to read this excellent book

It's hard to believe anyone gave this book 4 or 5 stars. I needed another RCA book to flesh out a presentation I was doing. I rush ordered this book because it had some good ratings. One description that the author gives of himself is "philosopher." This is your first clue that he is going to throw in a lot of contemplative meandering that doesn't really get you anywhere. The writing style is so juvenile and annoying that it is strangely amusing: "ARCA provides the methodology and RealityCharting provides the tool to allow you to see ***a reality that was previously beyond your comprehension***" ; "Variables exist in the infinitum, I explained. He understood what I said, but it **destroyed his illusion of the perfect world** where everything is known and right answers always exist." ; and lastly: "Groovenation is a term I created to describe the process of justifying our beliefs. To be **groovenated** is to hold strong biases and prejudices." Gagh me-- So I ended up using my copy of the Six Sigma Fieldbook to finish up my presentation slides. This is a book that I don't even want to have on my bookshelf. I'll probably throw it away.

Am doing a bunch of problem solving, and looking for a better way. Bought this book, looking for some insights into how I could organize a team's efforts better.

Not much there, IMO.

Dean's method, in essence, is a structured form of the 5 why's, which allow a much more complexity than a typical 5 why's, but same concepts.

Most interesting thing thing is the treatise on how different people interpret things differently; interesting but not so helpful.

The only thing annoying in this book, as another reviewer said, is the blatant self promotion of Apollo's software / training.

Overall, not a time waster to read through, but not something that will change your life, nor help you especially well.

I received a copy of this book as part of a training session in Apollo Root Cause Analysis given by Dean Gano's organization. This was refresher training for me since I have more than 14 years of Root Cause experience and have developed and delivered training on several methods myself. Of all the methods of root cause analysis I have studied, this is the least useful. The process is drawn out and artificially includes all kinds of detail that is not necessary or appropriate to include. For example, during the stage one might call "brain-storming" rather than seeing this as an opportunity to find all potential causes of a problem, Appollo calls all identified scenarios "causes" and then demands that one follow each stream of cause to some ridiculous end even if we are unable to control the cause (e.g., weather, outside temperatures, lightening strikes). Further, the writings and trainers insist there is no difference between causes and effects ("All causes are effects and all effects are causes"). Most disturbing is the proposition that correlation equals causation. This body of work asserts that if things happen together in time there can be no coincidence, but instead the events must be connected. I agree that sometimes things that happen during the same period in the same general vicinity are connected, but sometimes things just happen at the same time without an external effect that connects the events.

For all the faults of the "philosophy" perhaps the most disturbing element of this traing is the shameless self-promotion of this method and the related software. In my opinion this method has very limited usefulness in the field. I am confident a variety of methods have been developed elsewhere to address the huge variety of problems one may face and the corresponding level of severity of consequences that must be considered when approaching a problem. Some problems need much more, others much less attention and analysis, but one cannot even have a conversation with the proponents of this method because they're sure their way is the only way. Their fervor reaches a pitch normally reserved for only the most committed religious fanatics. I couldn't be less impressed. I will not use this method beyond the training session. My advice is skip this book altogether and look for one that will present several methods of problem solving rather than committing to this single myopic and ill-conceived approach.

If you are looking to develop expertise in root cause analysis, I highly recommend taking a training course in the Apollo method. Apollo is oriented toward understanding all the causes surrounding an issue, and is at least an order of magnitude more complex than 5 Why's or other popularized root cause analysis methods. Apollo teachers have an almost religious belief in the methodology, and with good reason, it avoids the trap of helping you find the answer you assume you will find, and actually will lead you to understand that most problems have many causes, and one that is the most effective to fix.

But I got that from the class. The book alone, when i read it before I took the class, wasn't an effective teacher.

Great methodology, but not a great book.

First it is difficult to fully understand the concepts when at least 15 pages were blank (unprinted). Out of the 8 books ordered only one had all the pages. My requests to the seller to replace have gone unanswered. Also I was not aware that this is mainly a how to use the author's software for RCA. If you have Apollo then this might be for you (if it had all the pages).