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| Criterion | ![]() Systems Thinking Rich Picture | ![]() Operations Scatter Diagram | ![]() Systems Thinking Current Reality Tree | ![]() Operations Causal Factor 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 the question is whether two measures are related, the method makes patterns in the data picture visible. It separates felt correlations from relationships that actually show up in the data. | A Current Reality Tree condenses many symptoms into a few causal chains. The method makes visible which core problems drive several negative effects at once. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | High | High |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 30-90 min | 2-6 h | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-10 | 1-4 | 3-8 | 3-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Rich Picture, Problem Framing Notes | Scatter Plot, Korrelationsnotiz, Hypothesenliste | Current Reality Tree, Core Problems, Intervention Ideas | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions |
Tagsno overlap | Systems thinkingSoft systemsFramingVisualization | Root causeQualityVisualization | Systems thinkingRoot causeConstraintsCausality | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline |



