[MUSIC] Hello, we're going to now look at brainstorming to get to our problem causes the root causes of our systems. And we're going to do it in three different levels. One is to just collect all the ideas. Then we're going to try to group, make them into little buckets or themes. And then finally, we were going to prioritize the ideas. So we're going to flow from many ideas down to a few actionable ones as we improve our process. So the role of the first level of brainstorming, is that we just want to solve a mystery. Because this is a problem solving and we need to find out some of those possible ideas, some of the suspects, like in a murder mystery. We want to identify all those suspects and then we're just going to one by one try to filter out and see which ones are really the identifying criminal in this case. So when you look at each one of those, we're then going to show a cause for each one of those. And we're going to come up with this brainstorming process in the most efficient time possible to get to the very bottom of the case. So the technique, the general technique for brainstorming, you're going to have your group together and you really need to have one person who is the facilitator, the leader of the group, to make sure that it operates properly. So whoever the person is should then tell everyone remind them what the purpose of the brainstorming is. What is the problem? Where was the area? What is the concern? That all of your ideas have to be focused on so that you can now have kind of the same path that every one wants to get to that route. And then you're going to give each one of the people an opportunity to have a little quiet time. To be looking at their experience or just brainstorming on their own and coming up with lots of ideas. Now, typically having posted notes or just something, so that you can share with the rest of the group, we tend to like smaller posted notes and like big markers so that people don't rate like their whole life story on it. Just keep it brief but put it on the posted note that's also legible to everyone else. So once everyone has had little quite time, so everyone has a at least four or five ideas, then you can start doing a round-robin. And so, as the facilitator, you're going to have each person share one of their ideas with the rest of the group. You don't want one person to kind of dump all of their ideas on everyone else, because you want the collective knowledge of the entire group. So your going to have the round-robin, one person at a time, and as those ideas come out, there should be no decisions or judging. We are just trying to get as many ideas in front of the group as possible. Now, you can have questions, but only clarifying questions. We don't want to fix it, go into a deeper dive on any of, we just want to have enough information so that everyone understands the problem. We don't want to work it in more detail at this point, at least. So the facilitator, while trying to make sure that the round-robin works, also has to step back a little bit. And encourage each team member to make sure that everyone is fully participating. Because that's where your best ideas come from when it is coming from the group rather than one or two key possibly louder individuals in your team. So just keep going until all the ideas are out in the table and everyone is exhausted, there may even be kind of a second round where everyone has one set of ideas, it may spark other ideas to come out. But once all of them are out on the table, now you want to worry about maybe collecting them and looking for themes later on after you've done all the ideas out. So in order to then take those ideas and put them into groups or themes, here's another tool, fishbone diagram, another very visual brainstorming. It's graphical because it's going to help identify the general themes or areas that you might look to focus based any of the ideas that came up in your brainstorming session. This is also known as the Cause & Effect Diagram, or an Ishikawa Diagram. It just looks kind of like a thoroughly clean fish. It has a spine, which is the backbone of the problem or key metric that we're trying to attack. And then each one of the ribs in this fishbone diagram are the themes or groupings, areas, so now we can see where any of the ideas tend to nest in one area more than another. So it's going to be better if you have a starting theme. You might be able to come up with it later. But traditionally, there are the six Ms. Man, Machine, Methods, so forth. Other people have referred to them in the parenthesis next to it right there. So it's people, and equipment, and productions, and supplies, and information. But those could be the groupings when you take those post it notes and put them on a white board or on a flip chart. You can now be grouping them as you apply them during the process of brainstorming. You could, alternatively, even use the seven wastes if you're looking at each one of the problems or ideas. You can see which one of the seven wastes that idea is addressing to improve the process. But now you're getting to the point where you're kind of filtering down into those themes. You have the option to take those and put them off to the side and come up with your own set of ribs or themes. These are just starting points if you don't have a better idea to start with. Here is an example of a fishbone diagram. You can see that has the spine, it has the individual ribs. So you could then do this either electronically or as I said with post it notes and just a flip chart. But now that you've got all the ideas and you have them thematically grouped, now you have to think about how to prioritize the improvements. Which ones of those ideas are you going to promote first, versus the other? And here's one last tool. It's multi-voting. It's a method for filtering the ideas. So it doesn't require any electronics. If you just have little sticky dots, that you can give three to each member of the team, and say, now you get to vote on which of the ideas you think, personally, are the most productive, or the best ones to go after first. So then you can then take those dots and then individually after you look at the group, you can see which, as a team, have voted to be the top few items. You're not going to throw away any of the other ideas, but you have to know which ones you want to go after first. And so this is kind of the voting process for what the team, as a group, thinks that they should do next. So the vote will then start the process, but all of the ideas are still kept on your deck and you might go through a second and third layer after you've approach those first few. Eventually, you'll be able to get through all those ideas. But now, you've got a starting point and a process for how to proceed.
