Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [545]
The goal of TOC is to challenge our way of thinking, behaving, and making decisions. The paradox lies in the logic that in order to motivate change, one needs to prove that there is a need to change. For a thinking skills program, this implies that existing thinking is flawed or suboptimal. (Anyone who has tried to correct their spouse, even with the noble motivation of improving their relationship, will empathize with this task!) Without accepting or understanding that there is a need to change, this creates resistance, fear, and distrust. Before we can market something new, we need to prove that their existing approach may not be optimal and complete this task in a nonconfrontational and nonthreatening manner.
The Buy-in Process
The marketing process contained five steps:
1. Communication. The first step of the marketing process was to find a way to communicate with our target audience in a manner that they could easily relate to and understand. As buy-in was critical to program success, we needed to ensure our message was clear and relevant to their needs. In addition to the internal focus group sessions conducted with officers and inmates within Singapore Prison Services, we consulted with a number of ex-inmates and their families, counselors, employers, prison fellowship church groups, and charitable organizations involved with prison rehabilitation to gain a wider and deeper understanding of their personal, home, and work environment viewed from the eyes of different interest groups. Again, one of the most effective ways to gain considerable insight was through the simplified use of the TOC PRT framework of identifying obstacles through informal conversation.
2. Customization. The next task was to customize the buy-in in relation to overcoming constraints in the workplace because our ultimate measure of success was job retention upon release. The significance of the workshop title, Reintegration, with regard to both family and society, was selected to engage their interest as pre-release inmates. Although it was obvious from our research that it needed to be a personal paradigm shift, refocusing the course title on work rather than self allowed them to concentrate on the process rather than worry about how they would be viewed by others. Conceptually, the learning process was the same but it would be less intimidating and raise less negativity during the buy-in process.
3. Validation. In the course of buy-in, a number of directed activities and exercises were designed to challenge their thinking by disproving their logic in a nonthreatening manner. Linking the activities together was the ongoing need to ask the underlying question “Why?” which is also the lowest denominator of the TOC TP. As to be expected, the practice of questioning every action in daily prison life is not high on the list of skills encouraged in a correctional facility, and to reawaken this questioning ability after years of incarceration was like trying to crank a car engine that had been left in the garage for years. Once started, however, it was raring to go and difficult to switch off again.
Indirectly, the aim was to prompt and question the logic and clarity of one’s own thinking process and belief system. Learning to question self, though, can lead to harsh realities. The key was to downplay the underlying self-directed activities under a common reintegration theme, which eventually led to an open discussion as to the validity of their own thoughts, words, and actions in a reflective and yet fun-filled and collaborative manner. The training bonus was the resultant vivid transformation of a group of wary individuals to a bonded team who could openly laugh at themselves and at each other without a sense of embarrassment or loss of face.
4. Secure Environment. By creating a secure and safe learning environment for the inmate audience, we could encourage and maintain open dialog without fear of mockery, judgment, or reprimand within a closed confidential