Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [709]
James F. Cox III and John G. Schleier, Jr.
Introduction: A Status Report
Some people are very effective at their jobs and in their personal lives, while others never seem to be able to keep up in either. There are literally thousands of self-help books and articles discussing how to speed read; organize your home, your office, and your life; how to remember names and faces, numbers, etc. For almost every aspect of your life, there are books on how to improve. There is an awful lot of data and little information of value for the individual. We have this personal productivity chapter positioned in the complexity system section of this handbook for this reason. In keeping with the tenants of Theory of Constraints (TOC), we want to identify a few control points in managing your personal productivity that we hope will have significant impact on your ability to achieve your life goals and have a happy and fulfilling life.
The purposes of this chapter are to provide guidance in using the Evaporating Cloud (EC) technique to resolve chronic conflicts in managing both internal and external conflicts to achieve life’s goals; understanding the differences between necessary conditions and goals; establishing personal life goals and supporting objectives; understanding how to measure your progress toward these supporting objectives and ultimately the goals; knowing how to record and analyze how you use your time; understanding how to use priority planning, capacity planning, priority control, and capacity control to achieve your supporting objectives; and knowing how to use Buffer Management (BM) to improve your execution effectiveness. We also provide an in-depth application of using the Thinking Processes (TP) to achieve your life goal. We also feel that using the tools to plan and to control personal lives is fundamental to learning how to apply them in other environments.
Copyright © 2010 by James F. Cox, III and John G. Schleier, Jr.
Resolving Chronic Conflicts and Developing Win-Win Solutions
Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt has developed the EC thinking technique to assist in identifying and solving both day-to-day and chronic conflicts in businesses (Goldratt, 1993; 1994; 1995). At a Jonah Upgrade Workshop, Effrat Goldratt and Lamor Winter (1996) describe the use of the three-cloud approach to building a Current Reality Tree (CRT) as it applies to individuals. They had invented this approach, testing it out in workshops, and later proposing that it be used in organizations. Resolving personal external and internal conflicts/dilemmas is a major factor in improving personal productivity.2 You cannot focus your efforts if you do not know what the problem is that is blocking you from achieving your goal(s). While most books and chapters on personal productivity ignore conflict problems as topics, we feel that acquiring skills to solve these problems provides the foundation for both personal and white-collar productivity, managing many thought activities, and overall managing the organizational improvement processes. Personal and white-collar productivity requires focus, concentration, and motivation. The elimination of conflict problems that block or inhibit applying these factors to a problem is a necessary condition to being productive.
Most improvement books discuss “to-do” lists, but few discuss linking daily activities to short-term objectives to life goals. Moreover, fewer discuss developing detailed plans to change your life. The Negative Branch Reservation (NBR) is useful in testing the impact of actions in a good solution. The Prerequisite Tree (PRT) is useful in identifying and overcoming obstacles in implementing your solutions. Each of Dr. Goldratt’s techniques provides a graphic display of the logical relationships surrounding a problem. In Chapters 24 and 25 of this handbook, Oded Cohen and Lisa Scheinkopf describe the procedures for both constructing and communicating these applications. We will not duplicate their efforts. In this chapter on personal productivity, we will present