A conflict that I recently encountered was that I got into an argument with my girlfriend. I was at work and made plans to hang out with my brother later that night as I finally had some free time. This upset my girlfriend, who lives with me, and she essentially stated that she didn’t want me to go with him. At first I was confused and angry at the fact she stated this, however, before this matter escalated I decided to use Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to establish what the actual problem was.
I broke it down first into three things.
1. What happened?
- An argument
2. Why?
- Because I was going out with my brother and not seeing her.
3. How to make it not happen anymore
- Spend more time with her.
From this point on I used the 5 steps of …show more content…
Instead of overreacting to the situation I was able to look at it from an unbiased standpoint and see her view. Instead of pushing her away further by arguing and becoming distant, we were able to talk and address these issues, which made her more comfortable. This is when I found out that she was feeling lonely and like I was purposefully trying to fill my time to spend it away from her. If I had not looked at this from a point of root cause analysis, I am sure that this would have escalated further and not been resolved. Instead, I was able to communicate to her that I truly was doing this to provide a better future for us. With her going to school and not working as much, I wanted to make sure that I could cover both of our bills in case something came up, and potentially even save a large amount for a ring and a house if we reached that point. I initially tried to use the “5 Why’s” method of analysis.
Problem: My girlfriend got upset with me, which led to an argument
1. Why? Because I was going to hangout with my brother instead of her.
2. Why? Because she felt like we didn’t spend enough time together
3. Why? Because I work two jobs and go to school
4. Why? Because she thought I was doing this to avoid spending time with her.
5. Why?
I broke it down first into three things.
1. What happened?
- An argument
2. Why?
- Because I was going out with my brother and not seeing her.
3. How to make it not happen anymore
- Spend more time with her.
From this point on I used the 5 steps of …show more content…
Instead of overreacting to the situation I was able to look at it from an unbiased standpoint and see her view. Instead of pushing her away further by arguing and becoming distant, we were able to talk and address these issues, which made her more comfortable. This is when I found out that she was feeling lonely and like I was purposefully trying to fill my time to spend it away from her. If I had not looked at this from a point of root cause analysis, I am sure that this would have escalated further and not been resolved. Instead, I was able to communicate to her that I truly was doing this to provide a better future for us. With her going to school and not working as much, I wanted to make sure that I could cover both of our bills in case something came up, and potentially even save a large amount for a ring and a house if we reached that point. I initially tried to use the “5 Why’s” method of analysis.
Problem: My girlfriend got upset with me, which led to an argument
1. Why? Because I was going to hangout with my brother instead of her.
2. Why? Because she felt like we didn’t spend enough time together
3. Why? Because I work two jobs and go to school
4. Why? Because she thought I was doing this to avoid spending time with her.
5. Why?