theory+of+constraints category archives
Dilbert cannot possibly focus on 25 things. Neither can you!
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Are you starting your change effort with a focus on evolution or on revolution? How does this impact your way of thinking about the change you need to create? How does it impact your thinking about other change efforts?
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Bill Dettmer has a new article on how management tools fit into the Cynefin framework. This builds on ideas I've heard directly from Dave Snowden as well as those discussed elsewhere by people interested in Cynefin as applied to various approaches.
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Trying to make a decision and feel stuck between two options? Or is your organization struggling with the classic don't spend money but then overspend to "hit the numbers." Evaporating clouds to the rescue.
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Follow the cash. Other accounting practices don't help with decision-making.
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Pay attention to what you are doing. Think beforehand, and then take action. And of course, check that your actions are taking you in the right direction and correct course as needed.
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I attended Kanban training last week and very much enjoyed it. I've used the concept in some consulting engagements, and this training is helping me solidify my understanding and see areas for improvement.
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I read Tom DeMarco's _Slack_. Short review: read the book, even if it is ten years old. Long review: read this entry.
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Recent research suggests that (IT) projects are ticking time bombs, but does it have to be this way? CCPM can help.
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The Power of the 2x2 Matrix by Alex Lowy and Phil Hood gives some excellent material around problem solving and analytical thinking that goes into 2x2 matrices. Read the first two sections in detail and save the examples in Part 3 for reference material.
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To get your collaborative culture, focus on the behaviors you want to see, not on the culture.
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Rob Newbold's "The Billion Dollar Solution" is a good buy for anyone who is interested in doing CCPM - either as an implementer / consultant or as the company for which CCPM is the way to run projects.
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Classic problem of builders and buyers. People don't automatically know how to use the new widget or work in a new environment. Change leaders have to help people see and create the answers.
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Overview of Larry Leach's "Lead Project Leadership" in which he blends CCPM with other improvement perspectives and straight up Project Management skills.
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Just because you think it won't work here doesn't mean that is true. What do you see instead?
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Andreas Scherer's business novel, Be Fast or Be Gone, was a very fast read for me. I thought it did a great job of describing how Critical Chain Project Management might be introduced to an organization without going into the gory detail of what-is-CCPM.
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Eli Goldratt has died. He was the father of Theory of Constraints.
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If you or your business are trying to get more done, focus on the mechanisms for getting things done and getting them done quickly. Don't simply push more into the system.
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Geoffrey Moore talks about reaching your escape velocity in a Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders podcast. I took away another version of the dangers of multitasking - at the team level.
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In your efforts to improve processes and make your organization more like a well-oiled machine, don't forget the people who run the machine. Given the opportunity, it is the people who will be continually making things better.
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A Goldratt discussion on TOC for startups reminds me of the importance of subordination and synchronization.
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A great paper from 1988 by Jonathan Grudin reminds us to pay attention to all the points of view when brining new technologies to bear in an organization.
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Some thoughts about Systems Thinking resources from my perspective from Theory of Constraints and other experiences.
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Eli Goldratt: "We do not see the obvious because we don't think globally." Goldratt has published a video based on his Power of Cause and Effect thinking from 2009 and 2010.
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Some thoughts about recent discussions of Agile and Kanban on the Critical Chain mailing list. There are a lot of useful places where they work together.
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Wrestling projects is no fun. Instead of patching more and more policies on top of the project environment, deal with the source of the problems: variability and communication.
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I did a podcast interview with Joe Dager of the Business901 podcast on the intersection of knowledge management and Theory of Constraints.
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Steve Denning has been talking about his book _Radical Management_ for a while, but something new stood out for me at a talk this week. Continuous improvement.
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Wired did an interview with Fred Brooks in connection with his book on design. He's got a familiar comment about your constraint - it isn't always what you think.
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Interesting to read Womack and Jones' _Lean Thinking_ and see where there are similarities and differences with Theory of Constraints. I am always learning something new.
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I just finished David Anderson's _Kanban_, and I really enjoyed it for its sensible combination of ideas into something that really seems to work. And while he doesn't discuss it, I see application in many other areas than software development.
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My current consulting gig is ending, and I am looking for something new. Here are some thoughts about that something new.
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Practice makes progress, not pefection. Keep taking action to move you toward your goal - don't wait until you think one set of actions will get you there. Besides, your idea of perfect is going to change.
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When can waiting get you to the finish faster? When you wait until everything is ready, and then move quickly. Thanks to Rudi Burkhard and Boaz Ronen for inspiring these thoughts.
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I am picking up some more knowledge about Lean Thinking and the Toyota Production System (TPS). But I am also seeing a lot of partial information and downright incorrect information out there. So I asked Twitter what they know.
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I have heard a number of references to the "Rules of OPT" by people in the Theory of Constraints community. The Rules of OPT are a familiar set of guidelines and principles, rather than a process to follow. Here they are.
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I came across this short piece by Joy Goltz in the NY Times, Why Cash Is NOT King. And I couldn't help think of the connection to one of the core tenets of Theory of Constraints thinking and consulting practice.
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Dave Snowden gets me to thinking quite often, but this time he hits on something I see quite often when I talk about Theory of Constraints.
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I've been growing interested in how to use Kanban in the context of knowledge work and projects, so I took a quick scan through _Kanban Made Simple_ by John M. Gross and Kenneth R. McInnis.
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This may be familiar to those who are familiar with SPIN Selling or related concepts, but I see it showing up over and over again. Sellers (taken broadly) focus on features and techniques, and then they are disappointed / upset that customers don't find these things interesting. Or worse, customers reject the effort entirely.
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I've talked about complexity vs. complicated and simplicity before. It all depends on your point of view, and this Eric Berlow TED talk (3 minutes) highlights that beautifully. If you can take a different view on your situation, you can often take something that seems overwhelming and home in on the areas that can really influence the question at hand.
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Tim Sullivan of CIRAS has a piece on "TOC and Lean" that compares TOC and Lean: where are they similar and where do they differ. He clearly leans toward TOC. He also suggests that the practice of TOC and Lean is beginning to grow and learn from one another.
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I stumbled upon this story from the University of Texas' McCombs School of Business, describing a class that took an interesting set of field trips along a supply chain from Austin, TX to China.
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Joe Dager's Business901 podcast this week has an interesting interview on Creating Flow with Don Reinertsen. While I enjoyed the entire podcast, the thing that piqued my interest in particular was around using these ideas in managing flow. Real execution advice.
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I seem to be on a kick of late. This is my third book from John Kotter. This time, it is "Buy-In: saving your good idea from getting shot down" that just came out this fall. I read a copy from the library, but I have also decided to purchase a copy for use as reference - that's probably a recommendation already.
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Well, that was fun. As I mentioned yesterday, I spoke today at the Boston KM Forum meeting as a follow-on to the symposium a couple weeks ago. Here are some thoughts about the discussion, the picture of the mind map that we didn't get anywhere close to finishing, and some links that I mentioned. I threw in references from Theory of Constraints, change management, decision making, and some knowledge management of course.
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Theory of Constraints and Lean should not be thought of as "in contention" with one another, despite what some people say.
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Steve Jackson has a nice pair of articles in Business Review Canada on applying Theory of Constraints at a small manufacturer (furniture).
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A review of the TOC Handbook chapters on project management. It's good stuff but very dense. This is close reading and re-reading material, not something to read when you are tired.
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In the latest McKinsey Quarterly, Eric Matson and Laurence Prusak have a brief article on Boosting the productivity of knowledge workers. They highlight five key barriers that come out of their research on knowledge workers and their interactions: physical, temporal, social / cultural, contextual, and temporal.
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