To POOGI forum members,

How to move an organization from bottom up? I think that, at last, a solution might be within reach. But to guarantee it I need your help. So please read this letter carefully and then decide if you want to help.

To remind us where we stand in our discussion let‘s repeat the list of questions I finished my last letter with.

1. Is it advisable to start by turning your area of influence into an X?

2. If so, how would you go about initiating a local implementation?

3. How would you (if at all) approach Y?

4. How would you (if at all) approach the rest of the organization?

5. How would you (if at all) approach higher management?

Waiting anxiously to your response.

Many of you answered in details, sharing not just your valuable thoughts, but also your experience.

It is amazing that, is spite of the diversity that exists among the POOGIforum members, the vast majority of the answers were almost identical in essence. You shared your opinion that there is no choice but to start implementing in your area of influence because the alternative - to do nothing - is unacceptable to you. None of you had down played the importance, difficulties and hazards of bringing the rest of the organization on board. Almost everyone, not just the ones that were burnt but also the ones that made it, emphasized the need for endless patience and tons of diplomacy.

The sad news is that no one had offered a reliable method of bringing the other functions on board. No suggestion for a method that is relatively quick (less than several years), risk free and effective. If it is true, if there is no such method, I personally will regard it as the ultimate irony. TOC is based on the belief that for any situation there is a way to find a practical "silver bullet." Are we going to accept that, for implementing TOC itself, there is no silver bullet?

For years I was straggling with this dichotomy. And each year I come up with at least one answer. The problem was that all those answers were lousy. They were too cumbersome, demanded proficiency in the intricacies of the buy-in process and required a hefty doze of charisma. In short I was not able to come up with any satisfactory solution.

What does TOC tell us to do in such circumstances? Let me quote from my latest book: "Scott, you persuaded me that any dilemma has a simple and powerful solution. That to find it you just have to expand the scope of the area you‘re looking at. The problem is..."

The problem is that it is much easier to give such an advice than to follow it. It is counter intuitive. What it‘s seems to tell us is that if the problem is so big that we cannot find an answer than we should make it even bigger. Quite discouraging.

As was discussed in the previous letter, our difficulties stem from the fact that we clash into the huge power of conformity; the conformity with the notion that there are no silver bullets. So far we were not able to find a method to negate this power within an organization. Maybe we should expend the question to extend beyond the limits of an organization? Maybe we should ask how could we change conformity everywhere?

No, I don‘t mean changing human nature. I mean changing the thing that the community conforms with.

Imagine that we succeed to change the consensus from "there is no silver bullets," to "of course there are silver bullets! Haven‘t you implemented TOC yet?"

It will make the problem of climbing bottom-up much, much, much easier. In most companies there will be no problem to speak of especially if X already demonstrated results. But, let‘s be realistic, it is impossibility to reach such a dream situation in our lifetime.

Is it?

My starting point was the fact that it is relatively easy to implement any one of the applications of TOC. That TOC implementations do produce startling results within a short time. That there are many successful implementations in almost any type of industry. So, since companies do want to improve, it should be possible to make TOC the norm. The groundwork is already achieved, what is missing is the trigger.

What we need is that several companies, large and reputable, will push TOC in the market.

Which companies will do it?

The companies that can be rightfully persuaded that they can make huge profit from their current business provided that they would be pushing TOC.

From my previous work I knew exactly who fit this bill. My target become the companies that make their living from selling and installing computer systems, like SAP and IBM.

As a first step I wrote "necessary but not sufficient". In that book I analyzed the ERP industry and showed that the only way for such computer systems to bring significant benefits is to implement them under the umbrella of the TOC rules. In the last chapter of the book I outlined the "Mafia offer" that will be then possible to offer the market and hinted to the huge benefits it will bring to the providers.

Then the hard work started. Believe me, it was not easy to persuade these companies to adopt the paradigm shift that is described in the book. Especially in light of the fact that to make sure that the market will grab the offer I made the deal even sweeter to the potential clients. The change is that until "minimum improvement" is reached in reality only minimum money has to be paid to the providers. And the "minimum improvement" can be regarded as minimum only in the eyes of a person who knows the true power of TOC. It is a real unRefusable offer, so much so that your bosses will find it hard to believe that the ERP providers are willing to offer it.

As expected, I needed a lot of patience, diplomacy and (even if I may say so myself) charisma. Now, after eight month of constant struggle it looks like everything is almost ready. Let me report to you on some recent developments.

The companies that are already committed to deliver on this offer are:

Software companies: SAP (yes, the big giant of ERP), MAPICS (Whose traditional market is medium size companies), WDS (having the best software for defense contractors), Lilly (Whose traditional market is small size companies, and DATASUL (the largest ERP provider in Brazil).  All started the efforts to make their software compatible with TOC.

IBM: Already started to educate their people on TOC. First Jonah course started on April 3, the second Jonah course will start on the 10 April (most participants are at the director level). Starting in May many IBM consultants will go through an in depth education on the applications of TOC.

Gartner Group: The eMatrix offering of Gartner is upgraded to be openly based on the Throughput-Dollar-Day and Inventory-Dollar-Day measurements of TOC. Right now work is done to adjust the software, marketing material, and their offer.

TOC experts: AGI, CMG, C-bridge, and many (most?) independent TOC consultants agree to fully participate.

The Necessary & Sufficient offer will be explained to the market through a set of one-day seminars that I‘m going to give. ALL the above companies also agree to:
- Sent literature (including thousands of complimentary copies of Necessary but not Sufficient) to induce managers to register to the seminars.
- Educate a major portion of their sales force by myself (through interactive web based technology) on the recommended way to move companies into the seminars.
- Publicly announce their participation in the N&S offer in each of these seminars.
- Follow the sales and implementation process as I outlined.

Frankly, I‘m still pinching myself. But there is one weak spot that can ruin it all. On that weak spot I need your help.

To bring all those providers to agree I needed a real dead line. A dead line they all knew that they could not move. So already in December I fixed the schedule of the seminars. Anybody that knows the trouble of finding appropriate places to host such large seminars knows that it is unrealistic to push them out by few weeks. As you see, it did work. But, not surprisingly, most providers waited until almost the last minute to finally decide. We are dealing here with some very large companies, and large companies are not known for fast movements. No wonder that only last week I was able to start the education of their workforce and only next week I‘ll finish. As a result, their huge sales machine will start to be effective too late for the first seminars.

What do you think will happen if the first seminars will not have enough attendees? These providers may get cold foot and stop all together.

I hate to ask for your help because it may looks like I‘m using the POOGIforum for something that is self-serving. But the issue on the table is just too important for all of us. So (wait, I am still not comfortable with it), fine, here it is: can you do your best to encourage people to attend the early seminars?

The seminars are scheduled to start on April and go until the end of September. My concern is only with the seminars that are scheduled for April. These seminars are all in the US: Chicago (18), Boston (20), Atlanta (24), Dallas (26), and San Jose (30).

Only if it is important enough for you, contact the organizer:

Kari Eisenhooth
kari@expointevents.com
P 317-578-1213 x400
F 317-594-1121
Exclamation Point Events, Inc.
3925 River Crossing Parkway
Lake Level Suite
Indpls, IN 46240

Embarrassed,
Eli