I've never taken the 5 Whys literally. It's obvious to me that all root causes are not '5 Deep', therefore, this can't be a literal objective. I see it as a met

I've never taken the 5 Whys literally. It's obvious to me that all root causes are not '5 Deep', therefore, this can't be a literal objective. I see it as a metaphor for being an effective problem solver, as a reminder to second guess the cause I've identified and ask myself or my team, "Is there a deeper, underlying cause?".