Example
A CRT begins with a list of problems, known as undesirable effects (UDEs.) These are assumed to be symptoms of a deeper common cause. To take a somewhat frivolous example, a car owner may have the following UDEs:
- the car's engine will not start.
- the air conditioning is not working.
- the car's radio sounds distorted.
The CRT depicts a chain of cause-and-effect reasoning (IF...AND...THEN) in graphical form, where ellipses or circles represent an "AND". The graphic is constructed by:
- attempting to link any two UDEs using cause-and-effect reasoning. For example, IF the engine needs fuel in order to run AND fuel is not getting to the engine, THEN the car's engine will not start.
- elaborating the reasoning to ensure it is sound and plausible. For example, IF the air intake is full of water THEN air conditioning is not working. Elaboration (because air is not able to circulate) gets added as in-between step.
- linking each of the remaining UDEs to the existing tree by repeating the previous steps.
This approach tends to converge on a single root cause. In the illustrated case, the root cause of the above UDEs is seen as being a faulty handbrake.
Read more about this topic: Current Reality Tree (TOC)
Famous quotes containing the word example:
“Our intellect is not the most subtle, the most powerful, the most appropriate, instrument for revealing the truth. It is life that, little by little, example by example, permits us to see that what is most important to our heart, or to our mind, is learned not by reasoning but through other agencies. Then it is that the intellect, observing their superiority, abdicates its control to them upon reasoned grounds and agrees to become their collaborator and lackey.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)