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| Criterion |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Systems Thinking Current Reality Tree |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Operations 8D Problem Solving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | Plans often contain assumptions that were never openly stated and remain dangerous precisely because of that. Assumption Surfacing makes these silent premises visible and prioritizes which of them carry the initiative or could sink it. | A Current Reality Tree condenses many symptoms into a few causal chains. The method makes visible which core problems drive several negative effects at once. | When a problem keeps recurring and the cause stays unclear, the method exposes the underlying mechanism. It separates symptom, guess, and robust explanation from one another. | For an acute quality or delivery problem, the method structures immediate protection and root cause work together. It keeps the situation stable while the actual cause is investigated cleanly. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | High | Medium | High |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 2-6 h | 1-4 h | 1-6 Wochen |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 3-8 | 3-8 | 4-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Current Reality Tree, Core Problems, Intervention Ideas | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | 8D Report, Containment Plan, Root Cause Evidence, Corrective Action Plan |
Tagsno overlap | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | Systems thinkingRoot causeConstraintsCausality | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | QualityProblem solvingRoot cause |