July 99
To POOGI forum members,

Some of you have gone through the trauma of putting a successful TOC implementation just to see it fold after a while. The reasons that you specify have all been outlined in my previous letter. It was reassuring to see that there isn‘t an additional devastating reason. However, from your responses I get the impression that most members still believe that a proven success is bound to cause the organization to take notice and follow suit.

Let me stress again the magnitude of the core conflict. According to my observations, out of every 10 attempts to implement a TOC application, about 9 are yielding (within a short time) excellent results. Unfortunately, if we look at these implementations a few years later, a gloomier picture is revealed. Out of nine successful implementations only about one has spread to other sections or functions and about five no longer exist.

The picture is very different when we look at cases where the first step was the acceptance of TOC by all top management as the management philosophy to run their business. Almost all of them, as far as I know, have succeeded to put their company on the red curve. It is a delight to hear how every year they succeed to bring the performance of their organizations to new records.

So to increase chances of long term successful implementations (C) we should not take the easy way; we should not start by implementing a specific application of TOC (D‘). But on the other hand, in most cases it does look that in order to start at all (B) we must start with the TOC application that is desired and needed by the organization (D).

How can we break our cloud?

The direction of the solution

It looks like we have two major avenues. One is to choose to concentrate on invalidating an assumption under the CD‘ arrow. Finding a practical way that will guarantee that even though we start by implementing one TOC application in one section, nevertheless, in most cases it will lead to a red curve implementation.

The other is to choose to concentrate on invalidating an assumption under the BD arrow. Finding a practical way that will easily, in most cases, enable starting by first reaching a consensus of all top managers of the business unit to follow a strategy and tactics which are constructed according to the "throughput world".

For years I was trying to follow the first avenue. No wonder, at first (and second) glance it appears more promising.

Well, I must admit defeat.

I found out that in order to succeed at this approach, a determined, visionary, "champion" is a necessary condition. Unfortunately this is not sufficient. The difficulty of going against a deeply rooted culture (and the "cost culture" is a deeply rooted one) is immense. In most cases the champion, while succeeding to generate more and more impressive results, was also acquiring more and more the reputation of a TOC-fanatic. With every step forward, the difficulty of achieving the next step grows. In most cases the champion became so frustrated that s/he either stopped trying or simply left the company.

There were cases where, after a long while, the resistance broke. My observation is that to reach that stage the champion must be not only determined, but also charismatic. Well, how many visionary, determined and charismatic, leaders exist? By far fewer than the existing number of organizations. Can we teach a person to become a visionary, determined and charismatic, leader? Maybe, but I don‘t know how.

In desperation I turned to examine the second avenue. At least this avenue doesn‘t put the burden on the shoulders of one or two individuals. On the contrary. Right from the start it is based on a group effort - a group composed of all top management of all functions.

So, choosing this avenue, what assumption do we have to invalidate? Currently we assume that in order to increase the rate of new implementations we should start with the TOC application that is desired and needed by the organization. Why? Because our assumption is that at this early stage it is not practical to persuade all the top managers of the business unit to construct and reach a consensus on a TOC enterprise-wide implementation.

To invalidate this assumption we‘ll have to provide a reliable process to ease the task of persuading an organization to start with an enterprise-wide implementation. We want it to be much easier than even the efforts to start implementing the needed specific application. This looks like a flying pig injection*. The only thing that allowed me to even try was the realization that achieving a solution through the first avenue required an even bigger flying pig injection.

______
* Flying pig injection: Something that looks like we‘ll succeed to implement only when pigs will fly.
______

So I allowed myself to dream. What are the ideal opening conditions that will enable a person to persuade hes organization to start with an enterprise-wide implementation?

We have enough experience to answer that question. The ideal opening conditions are:

1. All top management of the organization already have a deep understanding of TOC.
They understand the TOC approach - judging the impact of any action and decision not according to the local impact but only according to the impact on the performance of the organization as a whole. They are familiar with the processes of analysis to find the core problem, breaking the cloud to find the direction of the solution, etc. And not less important, they are knowledgeable about each and every TOC application: production, measurements, project management, distribution, marketing, sales, and the MSW.

2. All top management of the organization are already convinced that TOC is the way to run their company.

3. All top management of the organization are already willing to devote the time (days) to devise the TOC strategy and tactic for their organization.

And since so many top managers, even if they are personally convinced about something are still skeptical about the chances to bring all their peers to agree, let‘s add another requirement:

4. All top management of the organization know a TOC expert personally and have trust that this expert has the facilitation skills needed to guide them.

In short: all top management have the basic knowledge, conviction, willingness to devote the time and (if needed) have trust in an expert. Under such conditions it should be "a piece of cake" to convince the organization to start by devising an enterprise-wide implementation.

So, the direction of the solution is: having a reliable method that will enable a person to bring hes organization to have all the above 4 requirements.

Talking about a flying pig injection!

Next week: The solution.