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| Criterion |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |  Facilitation Alignment Mapping |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |  Facilitation Six Thinking Hats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | With limited resources, quality, speed, cost, and risk almost always compete with each other. Trade-off Analysis makes these tensions explicit and prevents decisions from producing hidden side effects. | When several people work toward one goal but hold different mental maps, Alignment Mapping makes the discrepancies visible. It arranges goals, assumptions, and priorities so shared direction becomes verifiable. | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. | When a topic gets stuck too quickly in the same thinking mode, Six Thinking Hats deliberately separates the perspectives. This means facts, risks, creativity, and emotional signals get worked through one after another instead of mixed together. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45-120 min | 1-2 h | 30-90 min | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 4-12 | 2-8 | 4-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides | Alignment Map, Open Issues, Decision Questions | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Perspective Notes, Decision Inputs, Action Items |
Tagsno overlap | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions | AlignmentStakeholdersStrategyFacilitation | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | FacilitationOptionsDecision |