Fishbone Diagram
Description and Rationale
Also known as an Ishikawa Diagram or a Cause-and-Effect Diagram, Fishbone helps teams look for potential causes of the effects they are seeing. It provides a simplified system’s view of interdependent areas and helps to identify possible places to look for quality improvement potential.
Time Needed
30–60 minutes, depending on team size and focus of the problem complexity.
Facilitator Guide
In this activity, the team seeks factors that may cause, contribute to, or affect a problem or situation. They use the diagram to organize their ideas and theories about causes.
After they’ve made an informed guess about which may be the likely causes, they can look for ways they can make small changes or influence ...
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