This Focused Performance Weblog is a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective. TOC is noted for its applications in Project Management and Multi-Project Management (Critical Chain) and Operations Management (Drum-Buffer-Rope), as well as in Marketing, Strategic Planning and Change Management (TOC Thinking Processes). If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
It cannot be overstated how important the simple act of asking a naive question can be. It triggers the consideration of something altogether new. It deposits some speck of impurity into the mix. It opens up avenues that lead to new intersections. But it is only a receptive mind that is able to answer a naive question. You have to be open to the unexpected so that if you come upon a discovery you'll recognize it and act upon it....
The CG goes on to discuss the relationship between "playing" and "naive exploration." An alternative to the "naive question" (which is a more professional way of describing the "dumb questions" I often claim to ask -- sometimes dangerously verging on the "Socratic") is to structure the language describing the problem in "extreme" terms. For example, in one of the TOC Thinking Processes, the Evaporating Cloud, problems are translated to conflicts or dilemmas the components of which are stated "In order to A, we MUST B." The use of "must" is a sneaky way to subliminally raise the "naive" question, as it tends to beg the question of whether there is really no alternative to B to acheive A.
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