The Learning Initiative at AutoCo
Sidebar: What are "affinity diagrams" (K.J.'s)? |
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Affinity diagrams ("K.J.'s"), named for their inventor Jiro Kawakita,
emerged from the quality movement in Japan. A team of 5-10 people considers a
mass of issues, posts statements related to a main question on a wall, and
repeatedly groups and rephrases them. |
Over the course of several hours, a final pattern emerges: a
coherent set of themes that reveal key underlying issues.
This illustration shows half of the Epsilon team's final K.J. arrangement.
Each one of the groupings represents a key theme; the arrows show how (the team
felt) one theme influenced another.
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The diagram may look carefully considered and well-organized,
but this final snapshot does not show the hours of "messy," unfocused,
frustrating deliberations that went into it. First by conducting interviews,
and then by using the "K.J." process to sort and analyze that data, the core team
discovered a critical issue: the extent to which engineers trusted managers and
felt free to speak openly. |
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