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.
Sunday, July 13, 2003
Reframing Obstacles -- One of the core TOC Thinking Processes is the PreRequisite Tree (PRT), for which the starting point is a collection of obstacles. Too often, as is observed in this link by Esther Derby, those obstacles are in the simplistic terms of "we lack..." or "we don't know..." that are difficult to replace with anything other than "we have..." and "we know..." Esther offers a list of trigger words to help people reframe such obstacles. As she summarizes...
"Lack of funds" might become "Unrealistic funding for the current project." "Lack of organizational support" might become "Conflicting priorities," or "Overlapping sphere of control."
Working through unrealistic funding for the current project, conflicting priorities and overlapping spheres of control aren't a piece of cake to deal with. But it's easier than trying to get some funding or whip up some organizational support.
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