Depicting Interrelated Problems
Get the Tool |
Using This Tool: Key Questions
Who should use this tool?
Workforce practitioners seeking to understand a “mess,” or set of interrelated problems.
What does this tool help you achieve?
Break down a large mess into smaller components, enabling you to consider how they are connected. Solving individual problems is not the goal.
When should you use this tool?
Additional Reading
- Reference: Read about how managers manage messes in “Systemic Decision Making” by Hester and Adams (2017).
- Reference: Messes and Social Messes (from Wikipedia entry, updated July 28, 2021, accessed Aug. 26, 2021).
Explore Related Tools
Cultivate Influence in Your Community
Get tactics for boosting your influence and impact.
Go to Cultivate Influence in Your CommunityAnalyze a System From Multiple Perspectives
Access the 5Rs framework, which highlights five key dimensions of systems: results, roles, relationships, rules, and resources.
Go to Analyze a System From Multiple PerspectivesUnderstand the Problem
Review how to organize your objectives, understand the relationship among those objectives, and separate objectives from means.
Go to Understand the ProblemMove in the Right Direction
Review fundamental elements of systems change before undertaking a change initiative.
Go to Move in the Right DirectionDevelop a Strategy
Outline the strategy development process to advance workforce equity.
Go to Develop a StrategyAnalyze Stakeholders
Understand more about analyzing stakeholders to determine who needs to be at the table and map stakeholders by decision-maker, influencer, and connector.
Go to Analyze Stakeholders