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| Criterion |  Facilitation Lean Coffee |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Operations Causal Factor Analysis |  Operations Barrier Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a group without a fixed agenda needs to get into useful conversations quickly, Lean Coffee structures the start around interests rather than a presentation. The group itself negotiates which topics get time first and which wait. | 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 event with a complicated course, the method breaks down the contributing factors along the timeline. It shows how conditions, decisions, and reactions together produce a course of events. | For a risk that can only be managed through multiple layers of protection, the method examines the effectiveness of each barrier. It shows where safeguards are missing, too weak, or fail under real conditions. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | High | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 1-4 h | 2-6 h | 2-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 3-20 | 3-8 | 3-10 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Prioritized Topics, Discussion Notes, Action Items | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions | Barrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | FacilitationAutonomyDialogue | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline | Root causeSafetyIncident |