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.
"In 1978, 31 creative scholars were called to Sigtuna, Sweden, for an odd semimar. The aim was to learn how inventive minds worked. They talked and wrote personally and self-revealingly. They free-associated. The seminar organizers, and they themselves, looked for commonality in the way they worked. Finally, they listed five stages in the creative process:
"First, the arrival of a new idea.
"Second, sharing the idea.
Exposing it to criticism by trusted friends.
"Third, the hard work of analysis.
Fleshing out and testing the idea.
"Fourth, creating a language of exposition.
Learning to teach the idea to others.
"Fifth, going public with the developed idea."
These stages map nicely to the TOC Thinking Processes and the layers of resistance that they address.
The "new idea" in the TP is related to the initial injection that addresses a dilemma or conflict associated with the task at hand. There are several opportunities for exposure to criticism, or scrutiny, as we refer to it in TOC Land. The Future Reality Tree is our tool for fleshing out and testing. Learning to teach to others is construction; going public is communication.
Some people will say "nothing new under the sun." Others will say "old wine in new bottles." I'll say "Great minds think alike." (In more ways than one.)
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