Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1472963
July/August/September 2022 I 65 External Involvement and Empowerment The RCA team drives the majority of the efforts. However, nothing occurs in a vacuum. With top-down support from management, internal struggles should be at a minimum. Sometimes in this process, internal mediators are beneficial but that only speaks to the internal workings of a company. Quite often, outside resources are needed. These resources could be the voice of the customer, vendors, and industry experts. The RCA team needs the empower- ment to bring in those resources when their input is required. The RCA team should know any relationships, chains of command, or pecking orders so that efforts remain respectful. The team should involve business development folks and others that could be stakeholders in the conversation as long as it does not knock the exercise off track. It is vital to understand the sphere of influence and temper input based on that knowledge. For instance, people take pride in their decisions. Other factors include friendships, underlying circumstances, commissions, and account protection. Influence is one area where the 5 Whys are particularly beneficial. • Why was this solution picked? • Why do no other solutions do the same? • Why are the other solutions not being used? • Why have the other solutions not been tried? • Why are these the only solutions? At this point, the team starts to see the sphere of influence on the purchasing decision-maker. If a late project triggers this RCA, and a sole vendor is determined to be the root cause, the outcome may be to find others. CONCLUSION The RCA exercises can be a critical success factor for businesses. While the term "cause" seems to imply some- thing punitive, these exercises are anything but punitive. With the correct input, companies can benefit from the scrutiny, improvements, and innovations gleaned from these exercises, especially in the more complex environ- ment of smart building technologies. Proper internal and external support, candor, objectivity, and diversity of thought are paramount to success. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: Carrie Goetz, RCDD, NTS, PSP, CNID, CDCP, AWS CCP, is the principal and CTO of StrategITcom. She personifies over 40 years of global experience designing, running and auditing, data centers, IT departments, and intelligent buildings. She is an international keynote speaker and is published in 69 countries in over 250 publications. She holds an honorary doctorate in Mission Critical Operations with 40-plus certifications throughout her career. Carrie is on the Women in Critical Operations (WiMCO) national education committee and a long-time participant in 7x24 Exchange, AFCOM, and Data Center Institute board of advisors, Mission Critical Advisory Board, Women in Data Centers, Cnet Technical Curriculum Advisory Board, Vice Chair of Women in BICSI, and an Education Com- mittee member. She champions STEM education through outreach projects and her podcast series. Carrie is fractional CTO to multiple companies. She holds one telecommunications patent and one physical security patent. She was recently named in the top 30 Most Influential Business Leaders 2021, 2021 Top 10 Women in Mission Critical, 2020 Most Influential Women in Technology 2020 by Analytics Insight, honored as a Network Computing Inspiration Award finalist 2020, IMason 100 Finalist, and Comptia Women in Leadership Spotlight Finalist. Carrie can be reached at carrieg@StrategITcom.com. Negligence and dereliction should not receive the same treatment as lack of knowledge.