Fishbone Diagram

Description

Participants are invited to brainstorm the possible causes of a symptomatic problem they face within their team/organization by working with their peers. Using Fishbone diagram as root cause analysis tool enables participants to focus on real causes rather than on symptoms.

Flow

Introduction

• The facilitator writes down the problem to be solved on a sticky note and places it over the fish’s head

Work

• Participants are invited to use MyBoard to silently write down 3 possible causes (one cause/sticky note) – 3-4 min
• Participants place the sticky notes on the fishbone board, under the most suitable category: measurements, people, environment, machines, methods, materials.
• After participants present their own list of causes, the group is invited to deduplicate it.
• Continue to ask “Why did that happen?” and generate deeper levels of causes. Layers of branches indicate causal relationships.
• Participants are invited to dot vote on their “preferred” cause using 3 points (no more than 2 points on a cause).
• Address each cause (or top X) – brainstorm for solutions, within the big group or in smaller teams (using a separate board/activity).

Debrief (suggested)

• The facilitator may ask the following questions:
  • Prior to completing the diagram, what were teams’ assumptions concerning the root cause for the stated problem?
  • How did assumptions change after completing the diagram?
  • How did teams identify the root cause(s) on which to focus?

Variations

Different problems to be solved can be addressed:

• why are the projects delayed in our organization;
• why are we constantly missing our deadlines;
• why didn’t we meet the sales targets;
• why NPS dropped, et cetera

Additional info

This activity follows activity type guide from CARTA

Play in Colltrain

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