Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [515]
ii. What new ability do you have after taking the action that brings you closer to the objective and enables you to take the next action? Verbalize the new ability.
b. Verbalize the need entity.
i. What is the need to take this action?
ii. Why is this action important? In order to . . .
iii. Why take this action? In order to . . .
c. Verbalize the working assumption entity.
i. Why does the action to take satisfy the need?
ii. What do you assume when you claim that this action satisfies this need?
4. Check the validity of the causality that links each cluster.
a. As verbalized, are the need, appropriate conditions, and working assumption that point into an action to take sufficient to make the action specified the right action to be taken?
b. For any appropriate conditions that are intangible or not directly verifiable, identify and map the effects that would be verifiable indicators (“the proof”) that the appropriate condition is in place, as additional effects of the action.
5. Check for negative branches and make the appropriate modifications (modify actions or add new actions in order to prevent the undesired consequences).
In the process of creating a TRT, you may find that you initially indentified actions that really are not necessary. You may also find that you need to add actions that you had not initially thought of in order to close “sufficiency gaps.” You may also find that the sequence you initially had in mind needs some rearranging. How wonderful that you find these things out on paper in the planning stage instead of in reality! Consider how much time and effort you are saving as a result!
I will provide an example of a TRT in the next section of this chapter, to illustrate how a TRT has been used by the sales force of a company that is using TOC to build, capitalize, and sustain a decisive competitive edge (DCE).
If anything is certain, it is that change is certain. The world we are planning for today will not exist in this form tomorrow.
—Philip Crosby
The Strategy & Tactic Tree
“The people may be made to follow a path of action, but they may not be made to understand it.”
—Confucius, The Confucian Analects
If an initiative aims to significantly improve an organization’s performance, then inevitably changes would be needed to various tasks (decisions and actions) that the organization’s people are doing. If the initiative is going to stick, then not only the tasks, but the thinking behind those tasks must also change. Irrespective of an individual’s level in the organizational hierarchy, or the functional areas in which they reside, each person in the organization wants the same things—to understand how they fit in the big picture, why they are necessary to the whole, and how they contribute to making a real difference.
For each change an initiative requires people to make, they need to understand the changes that they need to make and why. If the answers to the following four questions are not effectively articulated, organized and communicated, people will be forced to make their own assumptions about the answers, and they will behave accordingly. And the likelihood decreases dramatically that the initiative would be a success.
1. For each change I need to make, why do I need to make it?
2. What will the change achieve, vis-à-vis the goal of the initiative?
3. What do I actually need to do in order to make the change?
4. Why will the actions achieve the needed change?
The various TP applications discussed in this chapter provide a robust set of tools with which we are able to fully and logically analyze and describe a core problem, the solution, the hurdles we need to overcome in order to move from the current to the new reality, and even detailed action plans to reach specific milestones and objectives. TOC also provides the recognition of the layers of resistance and an effective approach to achieving collaboration and buy-in while honoring the win-win principle (Chapter