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.
Friday, January 31, 2003
• Aides for Complexity -- A proposed method to select appropriate management actions in a complex adaptive system based on the degree of certainty and level of agreement on the issue in question.
"The Edge of Chaos (The Zone of Complexity)
There is a large area on this diagram [zone 5] which lies between the anarchy region and regions of the traditional management approaches. Stacey calls this large center region the zone of complexity - others call it the edge of chaos. In the zone of complexity the traditional management approaches are not very effective but it is the zone of high creativity, innovation, and breaking with the past to create new modes of operating."
A later point in an addition to the original paper talks about using pattern recognition to try to move from the chaotic zone 4 into 5, where there's a chance of resolution. This triggered thoughts of what we under the influence of the Theory of Constraints refer to as the layers of resistance. Moving from zone 4 to 5 is similar to our analysis of disparate issues and details to identify patterns and connections to deeper root causes that can be further studied in zone 5. The tools of the TOC thinking processes -- particularly those defining current reality, and breaking through with an innovative starting point for a more desirable future reality -- seem to me to be appropriate and effective in dealing with "agenda building," "search for error," and verbalization of "intuition" necessary to move on to the more concrete realms of Stacey's zones 1, 2, and 3.
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