Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [516]
But as more TOC implementations focused on holistic organizational transformation rather than single-function improvement programs, it became clear that the standard collection of excellent TOC tools were insufficient to obtain the synchronization and communication required for a major, holistic organizational transformation initiative to achieve and sustain the intended improvements. And they did not provide the means by which anybody in the organization could readily answer the four questions above.
A well written S&T is the TP tool that organizes the full analysis in a way that the answers to the four questions are provided for each function across the organization, to the degree of detail needed at each level up and down the hierarchy, in a single logical map.
The First Step: The Goal
When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.
—Albert Einstein, The World as I See It.
FIGURE 25-34 Cost-and-Effect relationship of Strategy, Tactic, and Parallel Assumption.
Imagine trying to answer any of the four questions for everyone in the organization without first having a clear definition of the goal—the purpose—of the initiative. I can’t either. Therefore, defining the goal of the initiative is the starting point of the S&T. For example, the goal of a Viable Vision initiative is stated as follows (with permission from Goldratt Consulting):
The company is an Ever Flourishing Company; continuously and significantly increasing value21 to stakeholders—employees, clients and shareholders.
But this high-level statement of the goal does not provide enough information to align and synchronize the specific changes that the organization must make throughout its various levels and functions. We also need a high-level understanding of how the company is going to become ever flourishing. In an S&T, the purpose of the initiative is thus always described with the following three elements:
1. The Strategy—The “What” of the Initiative
The purpose of the initiative—the goal the organization is intending to achieve as a result of the implementation.
2. The Parallel Assumptions—The “Why” of the Tactic
The conditions that exist in reality that lead us to a specific course of action that would achieve the strategy; the logical connection between the tactic and the strategy; a well written set of parallel assumptions explains why the tactic is the course of action that leads to attainment of the strategy.
3. The Tactic—The “How” of the Initiative
What needs to be done in order for the implementation to achieve the goal.
If you were to model the S&T step using the cause-and-effect mapping process described in this chapter, it would look like Fig. 25-34.
Table 25-7 contains the strategy, parallel assumptions and tactic that comprise the first S&T step for every company that embarks on a Viable Vision implementation:22
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
—Sun Tzu
Branching into Layers of Detail
Once the initiative has been defined at the highest level, we can derive the details that are necessary to implement it. Let’s imagine your company is just beginning a Viable Vision initiative, and the CEO has just completed reading to you the strategy, parallel assumptions, and tactic of Step 1 of the Viable Vision S&T. What is the next set of information that is needed in order to determine the specific tasks that people must carry out to implement the initiative?
TABLE 25-7 Strategy, Parallel Assumptions, Tactic and Sufficiency Assumptions.
Certainly, the first thing we need is the definition of the company’s decisive competitive edge. What is it, and why is it appropriate for your company? What makes it different from the way your company has competed in the past? Once this is understood, the next level of detail must provide the guidance for building it and capitalizing on the decisive competitive edge.