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| Criterion |  Facilitation Mind Mapping |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Innovation Round Robin Brainstorming |  Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | 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. | With unevenly distributed speaking time, the method brings every person into the contribution one after another. It prevents early voices from setting the direction while still producing a shared idea space. This makes participation plannable and the team's diversity visible. | For a single, hard-to-explain deviation, the method exposes the causal chain behind the visible symptom. It keeps the cause open until a controllable condition emerges instead of a mere description. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 15-45 min | 1-4 h | 20-45 min | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-10 | 3-8 | 4-10 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Mind Map, Topic Clusters, Open Questions | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Idea List, Cluster, Shortlist | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | BrainstormingIdeasMappingStructureFacilitation | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | BrainstormingIdeationFacilitationInclusionCreativity | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |