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| Criterion |  Systems Thinking Evaporating Cloud |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Systems Thinking Current Reality Tree |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | The method makes visible why two seemingly incompatible demands arise and which assumption must be tested to resolve the conflict. | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. | 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. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Medium | High |
Timedifferent | 60-120 min | 30-90 min | 1-4 h | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 2-8 | 3-8 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Conflict Cloud, Assumption List, Breakthrough Ideas, Next Experiments | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Current Reality Tree, Core Problems, Intervention Ideas |
Tagsno overlap | Theory of ConstraintsAssumptionsSystems thinking | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | Systems thinkingRoot causeConstraintsCausality |