Many CEOs know that their organization has the potential to multiply its results but they are stuck in a bind: they must expand but they must also control and manage risk in the way they operate. Result: the company is unable to express its full capabilities. Moreover, it is harder than ever to compete. There […]
Is the Theory of Constraints Systems Thinking?
Someone reading our business novel ‘The Human Constraint’ asked us if the Theory of Constraints is different from Systems Thinking so we would like to address that in this post. It is a particularly relevant question this week when an Italian physicist, Giorgio Parisi, was awarded the Noble Prize for his work on complex systems. […]
Changing the Conversation with the Customer to Achieve Win-Win Sales Part 2
One of the greatest opportunities that businesses have today lies in changing the conversation with their customer to alter the perception the customer has of them in a positive way. This sounds like a good idea but how can you actually do that? Fortunately, there is a highly effective and structured way that we can […]
Changing the Conversation with the Customer to Achieve Win-Win Sales Part 1
Nothing sells itself, not even the best of products or solutions. In today’s global marketplace it is critical to be able to sell successfully. Many are struggling. They may even have a sensational product or service that’s exactly what customers need and yet they still can’t sell enough of it. Why? Buying is a process […]
How to Accelerate a Reliable Supply Chain the Systems Science Way
No matter what a company does, it is inevitably part of a supply chain. It receives inputs and has to transform these inputs into something to pass on to a customer reliably. It’s an ongoing process, and like every process it can be improved. Today change is happening fast, threatening the survival of companies that can’t keep up. […]
The Throughput Revolution that Beats Cutting Costs
Today’s post is by Dr. Giovanni Siepe. The Theory of Constraints is a management methodology developed by the physicist Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt in the late 1970s. There is little doubt about how radically effective TOC is and that remarkable results have been achieved with it in all kinds of sectors, from healthcare to steel foundries […]
A Digital Tool for Human Interaction with a Common Goal: Ess3ntial
We’ve been getting ready to release something exciting and the time has now come. This week, our friend at NASA, David Meza, an early reader of Domenico Lepore’s book ‘Deming and Goldratt: The Decalogue’, and a brave advocate of systems thinking in a highly siloed organization, mentions in an article that he “wants to tackle questions […]
Managing Change Effectively with a Systemic Framework and Method
Whenever we think about managing change, it can’t just be abstract. We need some kind of framework and method. It is highly useful to consider three phases that happen when we introduce change, as identified in the Theory of Constraints (TOC): what to change what to change to how to make the change happen For […]
Effective Decision-Making? Understand Your Driver Needs First
When it comes to change, we find ourselves in a fundamental conflict. On the one hand, we don’t want to change because we want to protect a deep need for “control”. On the other hand, we want to change because we want to protect a deep need connected with “vision” or growth. Both needs are […]
Why Is Managing Change So Hard and How Can We Make it Easier?
Nothing in our world today is quite the same as it was just a year ago. Many people have had to change completely the way they work and live and many will never “return to normal”. Managing change is something that all of us must become familiar with and it has become a fundamental element […]