July 99
To POOGI forum members,

The solution

At first our direction of the solution looks like a flying pig. It looks like an impossibility to construct a method that will enable a person to bring hes organisation to have all the above 4 requirements. But when I, at last, started to seriously examine it, * the magnitude of the task started to get it‘s real proportions. You see, the four ideal conditions are not independent of each other. This is a big help because it means that achieving one requirement considerably eases the difficulty of achieving the others.
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* The systematic method used in TOC to trim the wings of flying pig injections is described in It‘s Not Luck.
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For example, start by supposing that requirement 1 (all top management of the organization have a deep understanding of TOC) is already achieved and ask yourself what is still needed in order to achieve requirement 2 (All top management of the organization are convinced that TOC is the way to run their company).

Not much. As a matter of fact, as long as the understanding of TOC includes also how all the pieces (the approach, the tools, and the individual applications) combine into a sensible whole, requirement 2 is fulfilled as a direct result of fulfilling requirement 1.

If requirements 1 and 2 are in place then it looks like requirement 3 can be achieved without a major hassle; if all top management have a deep understanding of TOC (requirement 1) and all have the conviction that it is the way to run their company (requirement 2) then what can prevent them from having requirement 3? What can block their willingness to devote the time required to devise the TOC strategy and tactic for their organization?

The only thing that I can think of is distrust; if one top manager thinks that the other top managers will never agree to TOC than s/he might not want to waste time on a ""futile effort." But this obstacle can be overcome if each top manager is involved in the debates and aware of the final positive reactions of all hes peers toward TOC. In other words, if the education (requirement 1) is done to all top managers as a group.

What about 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)? At this stage it is clear that fulfilling requirement 4 is not going to be just a direct result from fulfilling the previous requirements. But it is also clear that some connection does exist. Because having fulfilled requirement 1 will enable the top management to immediately expose a phony "expert" and will enable a real expert to guide top management to construct a good enterprise-wide implementation plan in just few days.

At this stage, it is obvious that the real challenge is to achieve requirement 1 in full.

Let‘s look again at requirement 1: "All top management of the prospect organization have a deep understanding of TOC."

Thinking about the challenge of achieving requirement 1 it becomes clear that it is composed of two very different challenges. One hides under the phrase, "a deep understanding of TOC." It deals with the ability to transfer a new, very wide, paradigm. The other challenge hides under the opening phrase, - "All top management." This one deals with the ability to reach all members of a specific group. Let‘s deal with each challenge in depth.

The first challenge is to find an effective way to educate a person to the level that s/he acquires, "a deep understanding of TOC." No, don‘t brush it off as if such a way is already in existence. It is correct that, given enough time and attention, the knowledge exists to thoroughly teach TOC - AGI does educate people to the level of Certified Associates - but what is required here is to educate on a mammoth scale. In other words, we have to find a way to deliver the paradigm shift not only as "make to order," but as a "commodity".

I was painfully aware that a ready answer does not exist. Simply whenever presidents came to me and asked, "How can I learn TOC well enough so that I will really understand the TOC approach to running a company?" I found myself without an answer. There were only partial answers, which are far from being enough when the target is to persuade people to adopt TOC as the overall strategy and tactic.

So it was obvious to me that, once again, I had to tie myself to my desk. But not in order to write another book. A book will not do since the above analysis demanded also that "the education is done to all top managers as a group."

The answer was videotape.

What should it contain? The above analysis already dictated it. It should contain enough knowledge about"... every TOC application: production, measurements, project management, distribution, marketing, sales, and the MSW." And it should lead to the conviction that "...TOC is the way to run their company."

These two prerequisites combined mean that in presenting each application the emphasis must be on the similarities between the applications, on the common threads. And the common threads are the things that typify TOC: the theme that local impact is not even an indication to the real impact, the approach of dealing with each subject according to the rigid sequence of the three questions (what to change, to what to change, etc.) and the TOC tools (the cloud and the trees). And it all should lead to the finale; "...all the pieces (the approach, the tools, and the individual applications) combine into a sensible whole."

How much time should be devoted to teach each application? Let‘s not forget that here we are educating people on topics which are not their prime interest. We educate the VP of sales about production, the VP of human resources about financial justifications and the VP of finance about projects. Less than an hour per each application may give the impression that the explanation is too shallow. More than two or three hours and we may lose their attention. So the time must be between one and three hours per topic. This represents a problem.

It cannot be a brief overview but the allotted time is insufficient to dive into the details. Can it be done? Given this ‘time straight jacket‘ can commodity education be constructed with a high chance of being successful?

I was very doubtful. I was so doubtful that for quite some time I (subconsciously?) ignored the whole issue. But I knew that it must be done. So, to force myself, I used the most powerful (and most hazardous) method. I sold the product before I had it. I announced the satellite program and launched the sales channels. Now, I had to deliver. *

To construct the "commodity" education turned out to be as difficult as I thought it would be. If not more so. So don‘t hold it against me that I should have done it long ago. Attempting to do the almost impossible should be tried only after anything else that had a chance, failed.

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* A little inside gossip (and a chance to bitch and moan). During the first two weeks of December I chained myself to the computer for a minimum of 8 hours a day. That‘s not to say that during the rest of the time my mind was not on that same topic. I tried to outline the eight sessions. I wrote at least 200 pages. The problem was that I erased the exact same number. In short, the end result was that I didn‘t think highly of myself. Had I lost the touch?

But out of that intense struggle something started to emerge. I learned what approaches led to dead ends. I started to get a feeling for the required balance. And ... I started to run out of time. To have the Viewer Notebooks ready for the facilitator program scheduled for late January I had to deliver the draft no later than the first week in January. And I‘ve already consumed the entire buffer.

To enable myself to have full concentration I formally switched to a mode of sleeping during the day and working all night. And it started to move. At last I was producing pages that survived for more than a day. By the beginning of January I started to finalize sessions. A week later and the draft of the Viewer Notebook was finished.

I felt relieved but at the same time I knew I was setting myself up for an experience that I never had before. The Viewer Notebook meant that when giving the presentations I could no longer improvise. I would have to stick to the sequence and content that the viewer held in hes notebook. Give a presentation without relying heavily on improvisations!? Is it possible at all?

Therefore the real work started. It was very similar to the type of work I do when I write a novel. Each sentence had to be in place. I was presenting in my mind, over and over, checking alternatives. Detailed alternatives. Detailed to the level of my tone of voice. This work finished only when I started to present the last session. I think that it impacted me for good. I‘m now more "inward" than ever.
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And the result? You have seen the satellite program, some of you facilitated groups of viewers, so you have formed your opinion. From my perspective I can only say that the responses that reached me were even more flattering than the responses that I get on The Goal. I‘m under the impression (which I want to check with you - see the questions below) that this part of requirement 1 is achieved for the majority of the viewers of the eight-session GSP.

Now we have to turn and deal with the second challenge: the ability to reach all top management. And then we still have to struggle to complete the solution.

But this e-mail is already too long so I will continue next week. In the meantime, I need your observations:

1. In the group that saw the Goldratt Satellite Program with you, how many started the program? How many have finished it?

2. No one can become a TOC expert from just seeing the satellite program once. But, in your group:
How many rejected the message as too simplistic?
How many claimed that "we are doing it already"?
How many were simply indifferent?
How many thought that even though it is quite a departure from tradition, it is the thing the company should adopt? How many expressed frustration with the cost world?

By the way, the POOGIforum is a two-way street so if you see any value in continuing to be a member please take the time and answer the above questions
not just by tossing back numbers. Try to give me your reading as well.

Thanks,
Eli