The first brainstorming sessions on a project can yield lots of ideas to pick and choose from. But sooner or later, you’ll have to organize that big bulk of ideas into smaller, more manageable chunks. How do you move from the “idea pool” to the planning stage in record time? Enter the affinity diagram (also known as KJ method, after its author, Kawakita Jiro).
The affinity diagram was developed to discover meaningful groups of ideas within a raw list. In doing so, it is important to use the right side of the brain and let the groupings emerge naturally, rather than according to preordained categories. Thus, affinity diagrams allow us to identify and organize relationships between similar ideas in a fast and intuitive way, without sweating over individual details. The main thing is to quickly establish groups of broadly related concepts, which can be fine-tuned or broken down into more specific groups if necessary.
According to Kaoru Ishikawa, author of the book “Guide to Quality Control,” the affinity diagram should be used when facts or thoughts are uncertain and need to be organized, when pre-existing ideas or paradigms need to be overcome, when ideas need to be clarified, and when unity within a team needs to be created. Sounds a lot like our day-by-day challenge, doesn’t it?
