Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [400]
Layer 5. “Yes, but...” The solution has negative ramifications
Once we agree on the solution and believe we have covered all its angles, we are eager to start talking about the implementation steps. This is why we have to take a deep breath when we hear the next expected response—the “yes, but” concerns. “Yes it all sounds good, but you do realize that if we go ahead with this we will end up suffering from…,” they say. I have yet to see one buy-in effort where the initiator did not spend a considerable amount of energy dealing with this Layer. If the other party feels our solution might cause damage, there is little chance they will be willing to collaborate. We must take the time to understand what their concern is and why they claim it is an unavoidable result of our suggested solution. If their concern holds water, we had better address it, and if it does not we should clarify why that is. The TOC tool that is designed to help at this stage is the Negative Branch (NBR).
The other party may bring up more than one negative ramification they suspect the change will have. The bigger the change and the more people involved, the more “vulnerable” we are to objections at this Layer. In our haste to complete the buy-in effort, we might look into and address one concern, assume that one small adjustment is enough to overcome this Layer, and move on. This is a grave mistake. If we have not addressed every objection raised at this stage, the solution will seem harmful and woefully inadequate to the task of solving the problem. Needless to say, the other party will not buy it. There is no getting around it: We must spend as much time and effort as it takes on this Layer until everyone agrees that the solution does not have any significant negative ramifications.
Speaking of negative ramifications, the other party may bring up another type of “Yes, but…” at this point. In this scenario, they may claim that implementing our solution will require them to give up something positive that they already have. Wary Will may realize that by joining us in climbing the cliff, he will have to leave his beloved mermaid behind. No one said a win-win solution was perfect. Sometimes in order to gain new benefits we need to give up ones we have previously enjoyed. At this point in the process, we probably will have already resolved this issue with ourselves and decided that the advantages of the solution are worth giving up some positives. But we cannot make that decision for the other party. Thus, if we truly need them on our side we must convince the other party that the advantages of our solution are worth the price they will pay.
At this point, we already agreed with the other party on what the problem is, and we agreed that the solution we proposed is a good solution. According to TOC, a good solution is defined as one that adequately solves the problem without creating new significant problems. In Layers 3 and 4, we verified that our solution will properly address the problem and Layer 5 took care of the negative ramifications. Only now does it make sense to move forward to discuss the implementation.
Disagreement on the Implementation
Layer 6: Yes, but… we can’t implement the solution
“Yes, but you’ll never make it,” “It is all fine and dandy but impossible to implement,” “It’s a terrible solution, you’ll never get past x, y, or z.” At first it is difficult to tell Layer 6 from Layer 5 because they both sound the same. However, the objections in those two Layers are very