Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Welcome Mario
to the Mind Tools Club™!
Interrelationship Diagrams
Identifying Cause and Effect Relationships
Also known as Relations Diagrams
When you have a problem to solve, it's often useful to identify all of its possible
causes, and then to address each of these.
This will be fine in many situations.
Sometimes, though, this can be time-consuming and costly, particularly if some of the
possible causes will be expensive to deal with.
This is where it's helpful to use an Interrelationship Diagram.
Use this technique to unrav el the causes and ef f ects
These simple diagrams help you map out the relationships between all of the possible of a problem.
causes of the problem. From this, you can identify the most significant causes, so that © iStockphoto/FredFroese
http://www.mindtools.com/community/pages/article/interrelationship-diagrams.php 1/5
4/4/2014 Interrelationship Diagrams - Identifying Cause and Effect Relationships
Explore using tools such as Brainstorming, Cause and Effect Analysis, Root Cause Analysis, CATWOE, and the
5 Whys to identify as many of the issues related to your problem as possible.
Example
Janet's team members come up with the following issues that they believe might be causing low morale:
A recruitment freeze.
Falling sales.
No training opportunities.
No promotion opportunities.
Staff under pressure from management.
Negative attitudes.
Pay freezes.
People working long hours.
Dreary workspaces.
Miscommunication, resulting in rumors.
She adds these to her Interrelationship Diagram, as shown in figure 1 below.
Figure 1 – Step 2 of Janet's Interrelationship Diagram
http://www.mindtools.com/community/pages/article/interrelationship-diagrams.php 2/5
4/4/2014 Interrelationship Diagrams - Identifying Cause and Effect Relationships
Note:
Avoid drawing two-headed arrows – for the purposes of these diagrams, a relationship shouldn't be both a cause and an
effect.
http://www.mindtools.com/community/pages/article/interrelationship-diagrams.php 3/5
4/4/2014 Interrelationship Diagrams - Identifying Cause and Effect Relationships
Recruitment freeze. 0 4
Falling sales. 5 1
No training opportunities. 0 2
No promotion opportunities. 0 1
Negative attitudes. 8 0
Pay freezes. 0 1
Dreary workspace. 0 2
She can now see that the recruitment freeze is likely the most significant cause of her problem, as this is contributing
to four other issues.
Miscommunication, a dreary workspace, and lack of training opportunities are also causes of several issues (without
having causes themselves).
Tip:
If you want to, you can identify the strength of each relationship by using a solid or dotted arrow: solid arrows represent
strong relationships, and dotted arrows represent weaker relationships.
Then score each issue appropriately when you tally up the arrows in and out, using, say, 0.5 for a dotted arrow and 1 for
a solid arrow.
Key Points
Interrelationship Diagrams are useful tools that help you identify the root causes of problems.
There are five steps in using an Interrelationship Diagram:
1. Define your problem.
2. Brainstorm possible causes.
3. Identify cause and effect relationships.
4. Identify causes and effects.
5. Deal with the root causes.
http://www.mindtools.com/community/pages/article/interrelationship-diagrams.php 4/5
4/4/2014 Interrelationship Diagrams - Identifying Cause and Effect Relationships
It's best to use this technique alongside other problem-solving and decision-making tools.
View
© Mind Tools Ltd, 1996-2014 All rights reserved. Click here for permissions information.
http://www.mindtools.com/community/pages/article/interrelationship-diagrams.php 5/5