Something Fishy: Getting Leaders to Act on Issues

Joe Wynne is a versatile Project Manager experienced in delivering medium-scope projects in large organizations that improve workforce performance and business processes. He has a proven track record of delivering effective, technology-savvy solutions in a variety of industries and a unique combination of strengths in both process management and workforce management.

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Topics: Communications Management, Knowledge Management, Leadership, Lessons Learned

Leaders are visually oriented. You’ve heard this before, but what have you done to improve your charts so they have greater impact? Are they still walls of words, perhaps just organized nicely? Among other benefits, a powerful chart can...

• Make a complex point simpler
• Show that you have done plenty of work
• Show that the analysis that is being summarized has been complete and collaborative
• Illustrate that action should be taken quickly despite many other pressures to act on other things
• Focus the attention of viewers on the particular items that must be acted upon

One diagram--called the Cause & Effect Diagram among other names--is normally used for quality management, but it can be useful for you when you want to show obstacles visually and get leaders to act. If you are not familiar with this diagram, it basically uses categories to prompt meeting participants to better identify all the causes of a stated problem. Using lines like fish bones, the group keeps asking “Why?” and adding bones until a full accounting of causes is represented on the diagram.

You can find articles on our website about this diagram, but what you need to know here is that meetings are held to complete the diagram on paper, white board or for presentation on screen. The example that you can see below is the cleaned up version that has …

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