According to official statistics, the root cause of most accidents that befall us at home, on the road, or at the workplace is “distraction.”

However, if we were walking around in Mr. Ishikawa’s skin, we would immediately say that distraction is itself an effect of a number of causes. And if we were to depict them all, our fishbone diagram would resemble more of a “whalebone” diagram.

We must not ignore the fact that distraction is a main cause of quality mishaps, too. There are some traditional approaches to detecting causes of distraction, although all of them seem to stop short of preventing their effects.

Which workplace elements produce distraction? Some of them are listed below.
• Urgency
• Lack of time
• Too much to do
• Worries
• Diverting attraction(s)
• Available resources

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