Stories that Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive Presentations

Brainstorming the Changes

The field of “root cause analysis” took a huge leap forward in 1968 when Kaoru Ishikawa, one of the key influencers of the development of quality-control science in post-war Japan, described a method for discovering the causes for complex system failures. By creating a visual model of “the reasons for failure,” he created an easy-to-use tool to help people structure their thinking and explore the commonly repeated reasons for failure. His model, called an Ishikawa diagram (or a fishbone diagram), has been a core part of quality control ever since.

In effect, Ishikawa's visualization “went viral.” He took a simple concept of “brainstorming by category” and put it in a visual diagram that anyone can understand. Although his life and accomplishments are the stuff of quality-control legend, he is best known around the world for this single image and the body of knowledge that led to it.

The method behind the Ishikawa diagram is what is interesting in the context of visual stories. The method, as used today, is a mechanism to encourage creative investigation and, to some extent, brainstorming. We take this method and reuse it specifically for investigating the possible elements that must be changed to address the reasons “Why” that you identified in Chapter 4.

Use this approach if you're having a problem filling in the Elements of Change matrix. If you still find it difficult to work out what to include, that might indicate you still need to do some work ...