Go after root causes like you give a damn!
A root cause is not a singular gem buried within a complex problem, waiting to be unearthed, polished, and put on display for all the world to see while you soak up plaudits for your geological prowess.
And yet we often hear root causes bandied about in precisely that way. Statements like "the sales team didn't understand the product specs" or "the engineering team wasn't aware of all the use cases" might be put forth as root causes when things go awry, but rarely do statements like those about groups actually come from the groups themselves.
Why do we suggest root causes originating outside of our domains? It might feel safer than calling out our own shortcomings.We might feel as though we need to maintain our own "credibility" or "status" or "subject matter expertise" or whatever you call the corporate rendering of a be good mindset, as opposed to a get better mindset.
But does that really help things? Does attributing causes of complex problems to others actually help us make progress in addressing those problems? If we aren't actually interested in making progress on those problems, why are we talking about them?
When looking for root causes, understand that you're evaluating many options and looking for leverage points that you can impact within your action radius. Your action radius is shaped by your range of motion and your time horizon. Think about your time horizon as a spectrum; whether you have three days or three months to address a problem will change the actions you take. Neither time horizon is wrong, but being blind to the influence of the spectrurm is.
Similarly, think about your range of motion as made up of both the level of change you can effect (e.g. resources) as well as the level of risk you're willing to accept in addressing a problem (see: blast radius). The ways a front-line worker and a regional ops director work on problems will vary by their station. Again, neither is wrong, but ignoring the spectrum is.
Once you understand your action radius, use that as a lens to view the problems you face. What can you do about something? What can you do that will have the biggest impact on your problem with acceptable follow-on effects? What you start to see are the root causes that you should be addressing, and you should be addressing them because you can address them.
When viewed this way, your new lens can help ensure you're building logic chains that hang together both up and down the levels of detail. This will help you avoid the temptations of mental traps like solutioneering and pushing solutions in search of problems.
At this point you might be thinking that's all well and good, but you're facing some really big problems with some really tough root causes that are way outside your action radius no matter how you slice it, but you've still been tasked with getting it done. In that case, think about who does have an action radius that can address root causes you've identified and go talk to them. Lay out your situation, your understanding, your assumptions, etc. Ask questions. Understand the problem from their perspective. In other words, help them come along with you and go after problems together!
Grounding root causes in what you can actually do about something turns problem solving from a disassociating blame game into a meaningful set of steps you can take to move through complex environments, and in doing so you learn more about the actual obstacles holding you back from doing what you want to be doing.