Affinity Diagrams
Below is an article that I published in http://businesstips.com/ I hope you like it!
When we brainstorm to generate new ideas, a jumble of thoughts float around in our heads, all of which have the potential to become useful but little opportunity to actually do so in this blurry fashion. In order to, in a sense, capture this process on paper, Jiro Kawakita developed the affinity diagram in the 1960s. Creating such a diagram works best for teams performing in the areas of innovation, management, and support.
When sorting through such vast quantities of data, concrete methods become crucial to preventing ideas from slipping through the cracks. Using a flip chart, blank cards, and lots of ideas, an affinity chart prevents the disappearance of spontaneous thoughts and codes them based on likeness. The process will help any team assess the necessary steps for enacting future plans to fix a problem within their department, and it can point out how parts of the problem and potential solutions that seemed formerly disparate actually tie together quite neatly.
Affinity diagrams begin with a current problem written on a flip chart, with no explanation pointing towards any particular solution. This gives the diverse team of six to eight participants a chance at the utmost creativity. Each participant then receives blank cards on which to record ideas, one on each card. The optimal time often used for recording ideas is about fifteen minutes, which grants participants plenty of time to think without exhausting their store of ideas, which they’ll need to access later in the process.
Moving in complete silence, the team members will start sorting the cards, which have been spread out at random on a table or posted on a wall. As the name of the diagram suggests, sorting is determined by likeness. “Loner” cards, which do not fit in the same category as any of the other provided ideas, get placed by themselves. Otherwise, team members review the groups, deciding together whether the cards have been organized appropriately. Each group gets a “header” card, the idea that seems to envelop all others in its category. If no such card exists, participants must come up with one to maintain a consistent organizational method throughout the diagram.
To make sure all participants provide their full share of ideas, they begin the process a second time (and can perform even more repetitions after that if deemed necessary). Then, it becomes time for making the diagram itself. Completed by arranging the groups, the affinity diagram should have similar groups sitting (or posted) next to one another, each one including outlines and corresponding headers. Participants should then draw double-sided arrows to indicate interrelated groupings, while marking cause and effect with a single-pointed arrow. The result should bring new perspective to the team on how to solve a problem through steps that are more closely related than they may have originally imagined.