FINESSE is a fishbone (cause and effect) diagram, a mnemonic, and a mental model. FINESSE stands for Frame, Illustrate, Noise Reduction, Empathy, Structure, Synergy, and Ethics. The FINESSE fishbone diagram is peer-reviewed and battle-tested. Most importantly, it works.

Systems Thinking

As applied to effective communication, systems thinking is the cornerstone of FINESSE.

A system is a collection of interrelated or interacting parts, each of which can affect the behavior or outcomes of the whole. One defining property of a system is that it provides a function that none of the parts can accomplish by themselves. The corollary is that a system is not the sum of the parts but the product of their interactions. [Read more…]