THE QUESTION
Why has housing become so expensive in this town?
Propose what to do, then judge whether each action would move each root.
Sealed 10 days ago: this room no longer knows who sat in it; only its steward is still named. What it concluded stays.
30 at the table (29 simulated) · 3 actions proposed against 6 root causes. Add one, then judge whether each action moves each cause.
Viewing as guest. Enter a handle to join and take part.
Some claims influence each other in a circle
↺ A small site is as expensive to permit as a la → Bringing an old building back costs twice new → Two regulators disagree about the same wall → Building anything takes years of permissions → …
A circle can be a real finding — a cycle that feeds itself — or a link whose direction was never really settled. The map treats the group as one node, so nothing inside it is a root on its own. If it is the second, the pair is worth putting back to the room.Score the roots first
why
The method's own practice, before any action is proposed: each root cause is scored 1–5 on how feasible it is to address, how much impact addressing it would have, and how likely it is to resolve by itself with no intervention. Priority goes to roots with high impact, high feasibility and low likelihood of fixing themselves — priority = impact + feasibility − likelihood. Scores are averaged across the group and shown with how many scored.
1 = low, 5 = high. Your own scores; the group's averages beside them.
| root cause | feasible | impact | fixes itself | priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The bank wants pre-sales before it lends | – | – | – | – |
| The archaeology survey took nine months and found nothing | – | – | – | – |
| Nobody insures a small builder for a tall building | – | – | – | – |
| Nobody in the council can read a build programme | – | – | – | – |
| We cannot compete for land against a firm that can wait | – | – | – | – |
| Empty flats are worth more than let ones to some owners | – | – | – | – |
Would each action move each root cause?
Down the side: the actions people proposed. Across the top: the root causes the map found. Every square is one vote on one question — would this action significantly reduce that cause? One side has to reach 75% of the votes cast to settle it; short of that the square stays split. Each square shows how its votes fell — yes / worse / no — and a square is settled when one of those reaches three quarters of them.
why
Answered at 75% of votes cast, like every other question here. Split means people voted and neither side reached that bar — it is a result, not a queue, and it stays split until enough people change their minds. A square nobody settles stays undecided; it never turns into a no. Judging each pair on its own is what stops a popular action being credited with fixing things it does not touch.
| ACTION | ROOT CAUSES · does the action on the left reduce it? | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The bank wants pre-sales before it lends | The archaeology survey took nine months and found nothing | Nobody insures a small builder for a tall building | Nobody in the council can read a build programme | We cannot compete for land against a firm that can wait | Empty flats are worth more than let ones to some owners | |
| A statutory deadline on every consultee discuss | ✗ no, it does not 3 yes / 0 worse / 26 no | ✗ no, it does not 3 yes / 0 worse / 26 no | not decided yet | ✗ no, it does not 5 yes / 0 worse / 24 no | not decided yet | not decided yet |
| One regulator for one wall discuss | ✓ yes, it reduces this 26 yes / 0 worse / 3 no | ✓ yes, it reduces this 24 yes / 0 worse / 5 no | not decided yet | ✗ no, it does not 2 yes / 0 worse / 27 no | not decided yet | not decided yet |
| Permit small sites on a shorter route discuss | ✗ no, it does not 3 yes / 0 worse / 26 no | ✗ no, it does not 4 yes / 0 worse / 25 no | not decided yet | ✓ yes, it reduces this 25 yes / 0 worse / 4 no | not decided yet | not decided yet |
Highest leverage so far
One regulator for one wall reduces 2 of 6 root causes
Permit small sites on a shorter route reduces 1 of 6 root causes
THE ACTIONS ON THE MAP
Showing every action the room judged: it acts directly on 3 of the 6 root causes. It does not act directly on 3.
Read from the squares the room settled at Actions, nothing else. A root in green is reduced by at least one of the shown actions; in grey, none of them acts on it directly; a red outline means one of them makes it worse.
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Each number on the map marks a root cause that action reduces.
① A statutory deadline on every consultee
② One regulator for one wall
③ Permit small sites on a shorter route
FROM ACTIONS TO A PLAN
The grid judged each action on its own. A plan is a set of them the room would carry out together.
Members put plans together from the actions that reduce a root cause, and the room compares the plans two at a time, at three quarters of the votes cast, as it judged everything else. Each plan shows which root causes it acts on directly, which it does not, and which it makes worse.
The steward can open a plan comparison.
What we expect to follow
Predictions about the actions: what each should change, how to measure it, and when to check. On the date, someone who was in the room writes what actually happened beside it.
why
A map says which actions move which causes. It does not say whether anyone did them, or whether anything changed. An entry here is a prediction with a date and something to measure, written after the map settled. When the date comes, what actually happened is written beside it and the prediction stays as it was: a wrong one is the useful kind. Nobody voted on any of this and it changes nothing the room found.
due 22 Jun 2027
actionA statutory deadline on every consultee
we expecta small builder can tell how long a decision will take
measured bymedian weeks from application to decision
guessesthe room: 27 (median of 15, spread 16 to 40)