the 5 WHY? priciple

recently i attended a seminar on project management...the class was a let down for me as many of the topics discussed went like a rocket above my head...too fast and too high...i sat there puzzled for sometime..thinking where i went wrong??? when choosing the seminar or when choosing this industry for my career...i was not at all interested in the class and was giving deaf ears to the instructor...but one thing she said caught my attention..The Principle of 5 Why's.....she was illustrating how to cut down the defects in code...the idea was simple...just find the root cause...yes..4 any problem u face, if we find the root cause we can eliminate the prob..wondered wats new in this..everyone knows it...but none would be knowing how to narrow down ourself to the cause...the answer is simple but effective...ask yourself 5 WHY? ie, question the defect 5times n u ll naturally end up in the root cause..i thought for a while..if it can give the root cause of detects..then y cant it find the root cause of our problems??? as said by the greats, prevention is better than cure..and if we can find the cause, that ll aid in finding a way to prevent it too...i asked myself the 5why's, and surprisingly i got the answer for at least few of the issues i was facing..dono how far that will help in reducing the problem one face...but its certain to an extend that we can find the cause of the problem...