Torrance Journal for Applied Creativity

together should be arranged close to each other and kept at a distance from other
labels to form a group (or an island). Note that labels should not be grouped simply
based on similarity (i.e. similar words being used), but rather on mental association.
Labels that do not seem to be related to any other labels (called ‘lone wolves’) might
become key concepts, or be merged into another group at a higher level of label
grouping.
Fig. 2. Basic Steps of the KJ-Ho Method (Viriyayudhakorn)
Group Label Naming
After about two-thirds of the labels have been grouped, you can start making
one-line headers (summarized sentences) as titles for each grouping. You should
re-read all labels in the grouping and then think of a suitable title to describe the
essence of all labels in that grouping. It should not be too abstract, nor too specific.
Once a title is decided, you should write it on a new label, and perform this process
until all groupings have been done. Making a one-line title is a concept creation
or an abduction, which includes the meaning of all underlying labels in the group.
This process of label grouping and label naming is repeated until the number of
groupings becomes less than about 10.
Spatial Arrangement
After several label grouping steps, a bundle of final groupings are obtained,
which are to be spatially spread and arranged on a large sheet of paper. You should
consider carefully a stable, meaningful arrangement of all labels and groupings. This
process will continue until all labels and groups are placed using the same justification
recursively.
Relationships
Labels, groups, teams, and islands are often called objects. Typically, the
following relationship symbols are used in KJ-Ho chart making between objects:
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(a) Cause and effect: One is a predecessor or a cause of another.
(b) Contradiction: Objects are conflicting to each other.
(c) Interdependence: Objects are dependent on each other.
(d) Correlation: Both objects relate to one another in some way.
Relationships among objects in the
chart must be easily and clearly expressed.
Verbal or Written Explanation
The last step is to explain the
chart clearly. The explanation should
begin with a general scenario of the
problem, and then be more specific.
Usually, the verbal explanation is
given first, which could start from any
position on the chart, and then proceed
to an adjacent part until all parts are
covered. After this, the written explanation
is performed. You should write
down the verbal explanation, making
it clear, smooth and concise. This step
helps the audience to understand the
interrelationships among components
of the problem thoroughly. The written
explanation of the chart (that is called
Type A) is called the KJ-Ho Type B and
the verbal one that is preliminary is the
KJ-Ho Type B’.
3 W-shaped Problem Solving
The KJ-Ho is a creative problem-solving
methodology using creative
thinking that puts unstructured
information on a subject matter of
interest into order through divergent
and convergent thinking steps. As it was
briefly mentioned in the introduction,
the process model of the KJ-Ho (the
cumulative KJ-Ho) is called ‘W-shaped
problem-solving’ from Round 1 to
Round 9 as follows (see Figure 1).
Round 1: Presenting a given problem by
clarifying the given task. Data is collected
by recalling from memory, rather than
from external investigations.
Round 2: Understanding the status quo
of the given problem (i.e., understanding
the current situation). Data is collected
by fieldwork or observations from a 360
degree viewpoint.
Round 3: Generating hypothesis. This
round is most important because we must
find new hypotheses or ideas to solve
the given problem by the KJ-Ho. Note
that if generated sentences (hypotheses
or ideas) are in a negative form, then
it is better to restate these as positive