HOW TO FISHBONE YOUR CORPORATE PROBLEMS

Leonardo da Vinci believed that you learn about something by “turning it about and seeking the origin of each member.” He would divide his subject into separate parts in order to examine all the relationships and key factors that may influence a given situation.

Professor Kaoru Ishikawa of the University of Tokyo incorporated this strategy in his Ishikawa diagram, which is commonly known as the “fishbone” diagram because of its unique shape. The “fishbone” diagaram is a way to visually organize and examine all the factors that may influence a given situation by identifying all the possible causes that produce an effect. An effect is a desirable or undesirable result produced by a series of causes. In teaching this tool, the Japanese often use as an effect a “perfect plate of rice.” In a typical diagram, minor causes are clustered around four major cause categories. Common major cause categories in the production process are: materials, people, methods and machinery.

Suppose we want to achieve perfect organizational creativity. Following are guidelines for fishboning the situation:

           1. Our effect would be “perfect organizational creativity.”We would write this in the box on the right (the fish’s head). A straight line is drawn to the left to resemble the backbone of the fish.

           2. The next step is to brainstorm the major cause categories. What are the major causes that would produce perfect organizational creativity? You can have as many major causes as are warranted. There are typically three to six. We decide that the four major categories for organizational creativity are: people, environment, materials and policies. The major cause categories become the ribs of the fish.

           3. Minor causes are then grouped around the major causes as fish bones. E.g., “train” would be a bone attached to the “People” rib, and “stimulating” would be a bone attached to the “Environment” rib.

           4. For each minor cause, ask “How can we make this happen?” and post response as branches off the bones. E.g., “hire an outside expert to conduct the training” would be a branch off the “train” bone.

To fishbone an existing problem, you write the problem in the fish’s head, identify the major cause categories of the problem, and group minor causes around the ribs. Then for each minor cause, ask “Why does this happen?’ and post the responses as branches off of the appropriate bone. In the example below, a company’s new products had poor sales. By fishboning the effect they discovered that the causes were many including a poorly designed product that came out too late, a sales staff that was too small and poorly trained, lack of advertising money because the head of marketing did not buy in, and the failure to right distribution channels because the target market was not clearly defined. 

Once all the causes are identified and grouped around the appropriate category, brainstorm for solutions and place the solutions on the right side of the rib.

In a group brainstorming session, write the problem in the fish’s head on a large sheet of paper taped to the wall. (Use a large sheet or sheets to give participants plenty of room to diagram.) Once the ribs (major causes) are drawn, the group brainstorms causes and diagrams them on the left side of the ribs. For each cause ask “Why does this happen?” and the responses are posted.

Once all the causes have been identified, possible solutions and ideas (usually 2 or 3 per cause) are generated and placed on the right side of the rib. For easy visual distinction of solutions from causes, use a different color Post-it note for each. This technique realizes its fullest potential when the group brainstorms the diagram over more than one session.

Simply collecting ideas in a systematic way facilitates the understanding and ultimate solution of a problem. What we most need in today’s complex world are ways to know what is important and what is not, what variables to focus on and which to pay less attention to---and we need ways to do this which can help us better understand the problem.

Fishboning also allows you to:

1. See a visual representation of the total situation.

2. See the relationships between causes and effects.

3. Consider all the different parts of a situation.

4. Trigger you subconscious. Ishikawa described the process as one in which you write the problem down and let it cook overnight. When you come back to it, you’ll be amazed at the new thoughts and ideas that your subconscious has cooked up.

5. Identify those areas where you need more data or information.

Michael Michalko is one of the most highly acclaimed creativity experts in the world and author of the best sellers Thinkertoys (A Handbook of Business Creativity), ThinkPak (A Brainstorming Card Deck), Cracking Creativity (The Secrets Of Creative Genius), and Creative Thinkering (Putting Your Imagination to Work).