Round+5-+Root+Cause+Mapping

= Round 5-Root Cause Map = === During the synchronous face to face meeting that took place in the elementary school at Evart on June 26, 2008, the stakeholders constructed a relational map displaying the influences among factors of higher relative importance, as determined from the voting results of Round 4. This "Root Cause Map" draws distinctions between factors that exert strong leverage, appearing at the roots of the relational tree (map), and factors that are less influential, appearing at the branches of the tree. Drawing these distinctions among important factors is critical in the design of a solution to the Drop Out issue. Without diagnosing the roots of the issue, the stakeholders run the risk of allocating resources to the symptoms and not the causes of the problem. ===

[[file:Figure 2.pdf]]
==== **//__Summary of Figure 2:__//** This figure should be read from the bottom up. The two factors located at Level I at the top do not exert any leverage on other factors, because no arrows originate from those two factors. On the other hand, because enhancement propagates upwards, those factors that are located deeper in the tree-like figure are stronger in terms of exerting enhancement leverage on other factors located at the higher levels. When an arrow connects two factors it implies that the factor at the beginning of the arrow will enhance the capacity to address the other factor at the end of the arrow. ==== ===When two or more factors are in a box with bullets in front of them, such as Factors #30 and 15 at Level III, it means that these factors are in a cycle of mutual enhancement, i.e., making progress in addressing one will enhance the capacity to address the other, and vice versa. ===

[[image:evart_voting.jpg width="397" height="266"]]
===The Root Cause Map completes the diagnostic phase of the group work. The Map becomes the foundation for the stakeholders engaging in another disciplined dialogue for designing a collaborative action plan for dealing with the Drop Out rate situation confronting the Evart community.===