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| Criterion |  Facilitation Mind Mapping |  Operations Process Mapping |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a topic is still unclear and too many thoughts surface at once, Mind Mapping creates an open surface for ordering them. It makes connections, subtopics, and starting points visible without fixing them too early. | With a confusing workflow that has many handoffs, the method makes the actual process visible. It shows where work is passed on, delayed, or duplicated, so improvement targets the right spots. | 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. | When a problem has several possible contributing factors, the method sorts causes by cause areas. It prevents an initial hunch from blocking the view of other plausible drivers. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 15-45 min | 1-3 h | 1-4 h | 30-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-10 | 3-10 | 3-8 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Mind Map, Topic Clusters, Open Questions | Process Map, Handoff List, Improvement Backlog | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | BrainstormingIdeasMappingStructureFacilitation | ProcessOperationsImprovement | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | Root causeQualityOperations |