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| Criterion |  Systems Thinking Rich Picture |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Operations Kepner-Tregoe |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | A Rich Picture brings an unclear situation onto a shared drawing. It captures actors, tensions, information flows, and blind spots before the team jumps to solutions too early. | 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. | For a disturbance that's hard to pin down, the method cleanly separates problem, cause, and decision. It reduces mixing when symptoms allow several interpretations. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | High | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 30-60 min | 2-8 h | 1-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-10 | 2-8 | 2-8 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Rich Picture, Problem Framing Notes | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan |
Tagsno overlap | Systems thinkingSoft systemsFramingVisualization | Root causeQualityOperations | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident |