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| Criterion |  Systems Thinking Rich Picture |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Operations Barrier Analysis |  Operations Root Cause Tree 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 keeps recurring and the cause stays unclear, the method exposes the underlying mechanism. It separates symptom, guess, and robust explanation from one another. | 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. | For a problem with several suspected causes, the method builds a causal structure instead of a mere list. It makes visible how causes connect and where the strongest points of leverage lie. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 1-4 h | 2-4 h | 1-3 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-10 | 3-8 | 2-6 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Rich Picture, Problem Framing Notes | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Barrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog | Cause Tree, Evidence Notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | Systems thinkingSoft systemsFramingVisualization | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | Root causeSafetyIncident | Root causeTreeIncidentQuality |