Origin pattern

Start from a single anchor node and expand outward.

Purpose

Give the group one place to start. A single anchor node goes on the board, and 3 questions expand outward from it: what causes it, what it causes, and what would make it go away.

Every node the pattern produces is tied to a problem the group already cares about. The board fills with a connected neighborhood instead of scattered observations.

When to use it

At the start of Seed, when the session begins from a single problem statement instead of a pre-seeded board.
When a group finds a blank board paralyzing.
In the middle of a session, in an area of the board that has stayed thin while the rest filled up.

A board pre-seeded with problems and outcomes usually does not need this pattern. See Prepare.

Timing

The pattern runs inside Seed and uses its time. Each of the 3 questions takes a few minutes. Once nodes arrive without prompting, stop asking and let Seed run.

Steps

Choose the anchor: a known, important root / problem, or a high-level desired state / outcome. Ideally it's one that nobody in the room would dispute.
Place it alone on the board, and name it.

We know this is a problem. Let's start here.
Ask what causes it.

What causes it?

Answers go below the anchor, toward the roots.
Ask what it causes.

What else does it cause?

Answers go above the anchor, toward the outcomes.
Ask what would make it go away.

What would need to be true for it to go away?

The answers are outcomes, and often the actions and artifacts that lead to them.
Draw an arrow between each answer and the anchor as it arrives. The question already says which way it points.
Ask the same questions about the new nodes. When the answers stop pointing back at the anchor, move to the open questions of Seed.

Tips

A problem named in the invitation is already agreed. Nobody has to defend it before the session can start.
A new node can stay white when its type is in doubt, as in any Seed. Only the anchor needs a color.
Give each question its own moment. Asked together, the 3 questions get one answer. Asked one at a time, each may fill its side of the anchor.
Use the pattern in the middle of a session, on a cluster that has stayed thin. The renewals session did this.

Traps

Anchoring on a solution. "We need a new helpdesk tool" is not an anchor. The 3 questions would only produce reasons to buy it. See solution-dumping.
Staying on the anchor. A tree that grows from one node maps that node's neighborhood and nothing else. Open up once the board has momentum. If one node is all the group wants to map, that is a deep dive: see the zoom pattern.
Choosing the anchor to steer. The anchor decides where the tree starts. If you facilitate a problem you own, take the anchor from the agreed scope, not from your own view of the causes. See the facilitator's role.

Variations

Start from what the group wants, and turn the questions around: "What does this depend on? What stands in its way?"
When a pre-seeded board goes quiet, point at one of its nodes and ask the 3 questions about it.

Example

The renewals session did not open with the origin pattern. Its board was pre-seeded with problems and outcomes, and Seed filled it quickly.

One cluster stayed thin: incident communication. No function in the room owns it, so nobody had seeded around its one known problem, "Customers hear about outages from their technicians." During Connect, the challenge pattern showed that this problem mattered more than anyone had thought. The facilitator made it an anchor:

We know customers hear about outages from their technicians. What causes it?

Step 1 of 3. Start from one anchor: a problem everyone already knows.

Step 2 of 3. What causes it? Outages, and a cause nobody had written down: no one owns customer updates.

Step 3 of 3. What would need to be true for it to go away? An action, an artifact, and the outcome they serve.

Diagram as text: The origin pattern on the renewals board

Steps:

Step 1: Start from one anchor: a problem everyone already knows.
Step 2: What causes it? Outages, and a cause nobody had written down: no one owns customer updates. Changes: added "Outages hit during the morning dispatch rush", "No one owns customer updates during incidents". new arrows: "Outages hit during the morning dispatch rush" influences "Customers hear about outages from their technicians"; "No one owns customer updates during incidents" influences "Customers hear about outages from their technicians".
Step 3: What would need to be true for it to go away? An action, an artifact, and the outcome they serve. Changes: added "Public status page", "Name a communications lead for every incident", "Customers hear about incidents from us first". new arrows: "Customers hear about outages from their technicians" influences "Name a communications lead for every incident"; "No one owns customer updates during incidents" influences "Name a communications lead for every incident"; "Name a communications lead for every incident" influences "Customers hear about incidents from us first"; "Public status page" influences "Customers hear about incidents from us first"; "Public status page" attacks "Customers hear about outages from their technicians".

After the last step:

Nodes:

Root / Problem: "Outages hit during the morning dispatch rush"
Root / Problem: "No one owns customer updates during incidents"
Root / Problem: "Customers hear about outages from their technicians"
Action / Intervention: "Name a communications lead for every incident"
Desired State / Outcome: "Customers hear about incidents from us first"
Artifact / Deliverable: "Public status page"

Arrows:

"Outages hit during the morning dispatch rush" influences "Customers hear about outages from their technicians"
"No one owns customer updates during incidents" influences "Customers hear about outages from their technicians"
"Customers hear about outages from their technicians" influences "Name a communications lead for every incident"
"No one owns customer updates during incidents" influences "Name a communications lead for every incident"
"Name a communications lead for every incident" influences "Customers hear about incidents from us first"
"Public status page" influences "Customers hear about incidents from us first"
"Public status page" attacks "Customers hear about outages from their technicians"

The first question produced the cause nobody had written down: no one owns customer updates during incidents. The third produced an action, an artifact, and an outcome the board did not have. In a few minutes, the thinnest cluster on the board had 4 new nodes, each one connected to the anchor or to its cause.