Let’s walk through this step by step.
This diagram is called a “fishbone” or “Ishikawa” diagram. It helps us find the root causes of a problem — like detective work for why something went wrong.
The big circle on the right says “Problem.” That’s the effect — what happened that we’re trying to fix.
On the left, under “CAUSE,” there are six main categories (the blue diamonds):
- Tools
- Procedure
- Team
- Supplies
- Situation
- Supervision
Each of these has arrows pointing toward the center line, which leads to the Problem. Some arrows are labeled “Main cause” and some “Lesser cause.”
That means: not all causes are equally important. We need to figure out which ones had the biggest impact.
In real life, when you investigate an incident (like a machine breaking, a project failing, or even a game being lost), you ask:
→ What tools were used? Were they broken or missing?
→ Was the procedure followed correctly? Or was it unclear?
→ Did the team communicate well? Were people trained?
→ Were supplies available and good quality?
→ What was the situation? Rushed? Noisy? Too hot?
→ Was supervision helpful? Did someone check in?
You don’t just guess — you look at each category and ask: “Did this contribute to the problem?” Then you mark whether it was a main cause (big reason) or lesser cause (smaller reason).
For example:
If a cake didn’t rise, maybe:
- Main cause: Forgot baking powder (Supplies)
- Lesser cause: Oven wasn’t preheated (Situation)
So, solving this task means understanding that every problem has multiple possible causes, grouped into categories, and we sort them by how much they mattered.
Final Answer:
To solve an incident investigation using this fishbone diagram, identify potential causes under each category (Tools, Procedure, Team, Supplies, Situation, Supervision), then determine which are main causes (major contributors) and which are lesser causes (minor contributors) leading to the Problem.
Parent Tip: Review the logic above to help your child master the concept of root cause analysis worksheet.
