Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Affinity Diagrams

What is the Affinity Diagram?

Affinity Diagram
The Affinity Diagram is a tool for generating ideas, sorting them into related groups, and labeling the groups in a way that displays the essential nature of a problem.

Using the Affinity Diagrams helps to:

  • identify missing information about problems and their causes
  • define complex problems, issues, and situations
  • identify common themes

To complete an Affinity Diagram, a team should:

  1.     Determine the problem to be discussed.
  2.     Brainstorm all of the possible ideas, writing each on index cards or self-sticking notes.
  3.     Group the causes together with those sharing a common theme.
  4.     Create a header card or self-sticking note to summarize each set.

Assume that a Customer Service team was grappling with the following issue:
• poor customer perceptions of product technical support

After much deliberation, the Customer Service team brainstormed the following possible causes:

  •     technical support is not up-to-date on new developments
  •     the telephone system is insufficient for the demand
  •     technical support staff show their frustration to the customers
  •     technical support stall have not been properly trained in communication skills
  •     technical support personnel view the Marketing department as promising more than it can deliver
  •     the product has so many glitches
  •     the reference guide is hard to use
  •     customers call and blame technical support personnel for customer service issues
  •     technical support personnel arc not rewarded based on customer satisfaction
  •     no internet-based technical support available
  •     once technical support personnel start to become effective, they leave
  •     customer expectations continually change

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