Category 06 · 10 frameworks

Decision-Making & Problem-Solving

Methods for diagnosing problems and making sound calls when information is incomplete.

5 Whys

Sakichi Toyoda; developed within the Toyota Production System and popularised by Taiichi Ohno A root-cause technique that asks 'why?' repeatedly until you reach a cause you can actually fix rather than a symptom. 02

Cynefin Framework

Dave Snowden, developed at IBM around 1999; described with Mary Boone in Harvard Business Review (2007) A sense-making model that sorts situations into clear, complicated, complex and chaotic domains, each needing a different style of response. 03

Pre-Mortem

Gary Klein; described in Harvard Business Review (2007) A planning exercise where the team imagines the project has already failed and works out the most likely reasons why. 04

Inversion

Associated with mathematician Carl Gustav Jacobi ('invert, always invert'); popularised for decision-making by Charlie Munger Instead of asking how to succeed, ask what would guarantee failure, then avoid those things. 05

First Principles Thinking

No single originator; the idea of reasoning from foundational truths traces back to Aristotle and is widely used in science and engineering Break a problem down into the facts you know to be true, then rebuild a solution from those facts instead of copying existing practice. 06

Six Thinking Hats

Edward de Bono; book Six Thinking Hats (1985) A meeting method where everyone looks at an issue from the same angle at the same time, switching angles in a deliberate order. 07

OODA Loop

Colonel John Boyd, US Air Force military strategist A four-stage cycle of Observe, Orient, Decide and Act, designed to help you respond faster and more accurately than a changing situation. 08

Ishikawa (Fishbone) Diagram

Kaoru Ishikawa, Japanese quality-management pioneer A visual tool that groups the possible causes of a problem into categories, laid out like the bones of a fish. 09

WRAP Process

Chip Heath and Dan Heath; book Decisive (2013) A four-step process to counter common decision biases: Widen your options, Reality-test your assumptions, Attain distance, Prepare to be wrong. 10

10/10/10

Suzy Welch; book 10-10-10 (2009) A quick check that weighs how you will feel about a decision in ten minutes, ten months and ten years.

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