Fishbone
Problem Statement
  Method
    Cause
    Cause
  People
  Materials
  Environment
    Cause
    Cause
  Equipment
  Management
  INSTRUCTIONS
A fishbone (or Ishikawa) diagram is a powerful tool for unpacking problems to better understand their root causes.
The head of the fishbone diagram is the problem itself, while each bone that connects to its spine represents a category of the potential causes of the problem. The 6 categories in this template are those most commonly used for problem-solving in quality management. But you can rename them based on your situation. Think of them as variables that may keep you from perfection.
The next step is to generate a list of causes for each category. To do so, ask yourself questions that begin with "Why?" Say for example your problem statement is "Employees are unmotivated to help the company grow." Under the category of environment, you might ask a question like, "Why is our work environment contributing to a lack of employee motivation?"
Add as many levels of detail as you need to be useful to your needs. Repeat this process for the other categories in your fishbone diagram.
For more details on how and why to use fishbone diagrams, this article from the Xmind blog is an excellent place to start:
https://xmind.app/blog/analyze-and-identify-causes-with-fishbone/
Happy idea hunting!
Chuck Frey
Visual Velocity
(formerly the Mind Mapping Software Blog)
mindmappingsoftwareblog.com
chuck@chuckfrey.com