Converging Causes Diagram
A convergence diagram — several causes funnelling into one hub and out to its effects — governed by the rule that keeps such a diagram true rather than merely tidy. Six fields.
We made two examples: what drives pattern reuse, and for Harbour Row what decides the morning sailings. Each has four causes, one of them uncertain and drawn as uncertain, all meeting at a single point. Different subjects, identical grammar.
Every node is a plain noun and the direction of each effect is shown only by the connector's shape, which carries no words. The uncertain path is dashed and every path ends on the same merge point. Do not name nodes as decreases and then join them with inhibition bars, or you get a double negative that means the opposite. Phrase the fields as nouns rather than questions, or one may end up printed as a title, and check that no connector stops short.
Generated for this library
Input
Explains what raises the chance a pattern gets reused
Upstream examples shown per template · clarity of the field
names · time to first result · template length
Hub reuse rate
Directions examples shown raises · field clarity raises · time
to first result lowers · template length uncertain
Outputs patterns copied · templates edited · work shipped
Palette low-saturation blue, teal, amber, violet on white
Returned 1 diagram · 1:1 · white ground, flat, no shadow
nodes four quantities across the top, each a noun with no
verb in it, one colour per column
paths two solid arrows, one T-bar, one dashed - direction
carried only by the connector
merge a single convergence point above the hub, all four
paths entering it separately without overlapping
hub reuse rate, larger than the nodes, no glow
outputs three below the hub on plain arrows
legend raises, lowers, uncertain - defined once at the footYou fill in 6 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1What the diagram explains
- 2The four upstream nodes
- 3The hub
- 4Which way each path acts
- 5What the hub drives
- 6The palette
Converging Causes Diagram
What this makes
A convergence diagram — several causes funnelling into one hub and out to its effects — governed by the rule that keeps such a diagram true rather than merely tidy. Six fields.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Replace the six FIELDS lines. Name every node as a plain quantity with no verb in it, then put every rise and fall in the fourth field.
- Mark anything you are not sure of as uncertain. It will be drawn dashed and labelled, which is more useful than a confident line.
- Paste it into any image-capable agent or model, in one message. One run returns the diagram.
- Read it back as sentences before shipping: 'X raises Y', 'X lowers Y'. If any sentence comes out as a double negative, the direction got stated twice.
What you swap
- What the diagram explains
- what raises the chance a pattern gets reused
- The four upstream nodes
- examples shown per template · clarity of the field names · time to first result · template length
- The hub
- reuse rate
- Which way each path acts
- examples shown raises · field clarity raises · time to first result lowers · template length uncertain, drawn dashed
- What the hub drives
- patterns copied · templates edited · work shipped
- The palette
- low-saturation blue, teal, amber and violet on white
Before it runs
- Nodes you can name as quantities. 'Waiting time' is a node; 'waiting time falls' is a node and an arrow crushed together, and that is the failure this template exists to prevent.
- A direction for every path, including the ones you are unsure of. Unsure is an answer here and it has its own line style.
- A model you are willing to own. This draws what you assert; it does not check whether it is true.
When to reach for it
When several things act on one thing: what drives a metric, what determines an outcome, what feeds a bottleneck. Templates in this style define their arrow types carefully and then let the direction of an effect be stated twice, which turns a clear diagram into a double negative.
What changes
- One publication-grade diagram: several upstream causes converging on a single hub, and the hub driving its outputs.
- Direction lives in the connector and nowhere else, so the diagram cannot contradict itself.
- Three connector types with fixed meanings — raises, lowers, uncertain — and a legend that defines them.
- One convergence point, so several causes read as one mechanism rather than three unrelated merges.
- Nothing asserted that was not supplied: no invented magnitudes, no invented certainty, and uncertainty drawn as uncertainty.
Pairs with
- Concentric Capability ModelA concentric capability model — one subject, three rings, four sectors — where depth means prerequisite rather than decoration. Six fields.
- Exploded Axonometric DiagramAn exploded axonometric that pulls one site apart into stacked transparent layers — kept on white and kept analytical, because the temptation is to render it dramatic and lose the drawing. Six fields.
- Iceberg Analysis DiagramAn iceberg diagram — visible symptoms above the waterline, the causes that produce them below — where every symptom is traced to a named cause instead of the two halves being separate lists. Six fields.