When something goes wrong, we usually fix what is broken right now and move on. The bug is patched, the incident is closed, the meeting is rescheduled. But many errors are caused by other, earlier errors. What we see is often just a symptom.

Behind the visible problem there is often a root cause—the original error. This is the first actionable mistake in the chain of events. It might be a decision, a missing check, a wrong assumption, or something we forgot to do. If we find and fix that original error, we often solve many problems at once and prevent new ones from appearing.

In practice, we often don’t do this. Time pressure, habits, and routines push us to focus on the immediate problem. We close the ticket and move on to the next task. As a result, the same types of errors keep coming back in slightly different forms, and we end up firefighting instead of improving.

The original error is also where we can learn the most and get better. It is the point in the chain where we can ask: what should we have done differently? Which assumption was wrong? What was missing in our way of working? This gives a real basis for change and improvement, instead of vague ideas like “we should be more careful”.

Original error analysis is a simple method for doing this. You start by describing the visible error clearly: what happened, when, and who or what was affected. Then you repeatedly ask “what caused this?” until you reach the earliest point where a realistic action could have prevented the problem. That point is a good candidate for the original error.

It is important to check that this is actually an original error, and not just another symptom. A useful test is: if we fix this, will it significantly reduce the chance of similar errors in the future? If the answer is yes, you have probably gone deep enough. You do not need to go all the way to abstract causes you cannot change.

Once you have identified the original error, you can decide what to change. That might be a small adjustment to a process, clearer communication, a checklist, a review step, or some simple automation. The goal is to change the conditions that allowed the original error to happen, so that you avoid a whole class of future errors.

This way of thinking is also useful for “wicked problems” – complex, messy problems that are hard to define and hard to solve. You may not find a single clean root cause, but original error analysis can still help you see earlier decisions and structures that shaped the situation, and where you still have room to act.

Original error analysis works best when it becomes a habit. After something goes wrong, take a few minutes to ask: what was the first mistake in this chain? What can we change so this does not happen again? Over time, this shifts focus from firefighting to learning and improvement, and helps prevent many errors from occurring in the first place.