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Root cause with 5 Whys + guardrails

Move from symptom to cause without blaming an individual, then propose system fixes.

How it works

## Why it works\nLLMs are good at branching cause trees. Adding the "systems not people" rule and an actionability stop condition prevents both blame and analysis paralysis.\n\n## Structure\n1. State the symptom precisely (with numbers where possible).\n2. Constrain the analysis (systems focus, actionable stop).\n3. Require tiered interventions.\n4. Ask how to test each intervention.\n\n## Pair with\nFeed the output into a "risk register" prompt for the intervention you choose.

Example prompt

Act as an operations coach. Given the symptom below, run a 5 Whys analysis. Rules: focus on systems not people; stop at a why that is actionable at YMCA association level; end with 3 candidate interventions (small, medium, structural) and how you would test each. Symptom: <<<>>>