Teamwork Exercise: Creating a Fishbone Diagram

Exercise Purpose

This exercise will help group members to create a diagram that depicts the underlying causes of the problem the team is addressing. As a result of conducting this exercise, the group will be left with a visual depiction of their problem and its major causes. The fishbone diagram allows team members to better understand, visually assess, and target interventions to address the factors that are causing their problems.

Exercise Instructions

• Discuss as a group a major problem or issue you are facing.
• Create a fishbone diagram on a flipchart.
• List the problem/issue to be studied on the "head” of the fish.
• Label each “bone” of the fish. The major categories typically utilized are:
  • The 4 M’s: Methods, Machines, Materials, Manpower
  • The 4 P’s: Place, Procedure, People, Policies
  • The 4 S’s: Surroundings, Suppliers, Systems, Skills

    Note: You may use one of the examples suggested above, combine them, or make up your own. The categories are listed simply to help you organize your ideas.

• As a team, brainstorm a list of the factors within each category that may be affecting the problem or issue you are addressing. As possible causes are identified, the group should decide where to place them on the fishbone diagram. It is possible that a causal factor will be listed under more than one category.
• Team members should then agree that a sufficient amount of detail has been provided for each major category.
• As a team, review all of the ideas and circle the ones that are the most likely causes of the problem. Teams should pay special attention to those items that appear in more than one category.
• For those items identified as the most likely or influential causes of the team’s identified problem, use consensus to list those items in priority order with the first item being the most probable or influential cause.
• As a team, develop a plan to address those cause(s) and work toward resolution of your problem.

Adapted from http://quality.enr.state.nc.us/tools/fishbone.htm.