Your constraint is ...

I spent this last week with Dr Eliyahu Goldratt. As many of you know I used to work for him as his Global Marketing Director. He invited me to come and check out what he’s been working on. So, here’s my take on it …

One of the key differences in his thinking is that management attention is the constraint.


While your bottleneck may move around, the only reason it moves or that you even have an internal bottleneck is because either 1) you’re not paying attention; and/or 2) you’re not focused on dealing with it; and/or 3) you’re not taking the right actions.


So the issue is one of focus (at least initially). Most management teams are not working on the right things and waste a lot of time doing what really doesn’t make a difference, most of which doesn’t need to be done.


A management team will be effective if they do the things that need to be done and don’t waste time doing what doesn’t need to be done, shouldn’t be done or multi-tasking between too many things. Doing the latter is what consumes all your time and leaves you little or no time to do what should be and needs to be done.

That is all really easy to say, but harder to execute.

Let’s say that we ARE paying attention and that we ARE focused. Now all we have to do is to take the right actions. Piece of cake, right?

No.

… because the action that you think is the right action typically is not. If you’ve been studying Theory of Constraints for a while or reading my stuff for a while you know that our intuition about what specifically to go and do is often WRONG.

Here are just 4 examples:

So, here’s my advice.


1. Understand what you need to be focused on to meet your goals. I’m assuming that you ARE clear on your goal.


2. Focus on that and nothing else (stop multi-tasking and stop your people from multi-tasking).


3. Get’er done, one tactic at time.


If you are not sure of any or all of these – get yourself one of those TOC consultant types. A good TOC expert can get you focused, help you figure out how to stay focused, and get you set up with the right strategy and tactics (specific actions to take) to achieve the results you’re after.


And the return on this investment should be fast and substantial. If you are not sure what your next step should be, contact me for a free 1 hour strategy session. There’s no charge, we’ll see if we can get you pointed in the right direction.



Wishing you success,


Dr Lisa


President, Science of Business, and your favorite TOC Consultant type!

P.S. FOR CUSTOM JOB SHOPS ONLY: The next Velocity Scheduling System Coaching Program starting soon!


P.P.S. Ready to increase sales? You need a Mafia Offer? The ON-LINE Mafia Offer Boot Camp is open for registration!
 
2011 Copyright, Science of Business.  All rights reserved.

The Fastest Way to Increase Cash Flow using Theory of Constraints & Throughput Accounting

This week I have a new video for you. This video was taken during the 2009 TOCICO conference in Tacoma and this is the first time I'm making it available.


Many of you listed Throughput Accounting as one of your interests. So I dug this video out and uploaded it for your review. Prior to today, this video was only available if your purchased it through the TOCICO.

It's called "The Fastest Way to Increase Cash Flow" and it's 48 minutes long. Please let me know what you think of it, by leaving a comment on this post. 

Let me know what you think, by leaving a comment on this post.
Wishing you success,


Dr Lisa


President, Science of Business


P.S. FOR CUSTOM JOB SHOPS ONLY: The next Velocity Scheduling System Coaching Program is starting soon!

P.P.S. Ready to increase sales? Need a Mafia Offer? The ON-LINE Mafia Offer Boot Camp is open for registration!

Copyright 2011 Science of Business

Theory of Constraints Lesson on Evaluating an Idea

This text is from a county emergency manager in Minot, North Dakota

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here in the Northern part of North Dakota we just recovered from a Historic event --- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 25’ of snow and winds to 50 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10 ' s of thousands.

FYI:

Obama did not come.

FEMA did nothing.

No one howled for the government.

No one blamed the government.

No one even uttered an expletive on TV.

Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.

Our Mayors did not blame Obama or anyone else.

Our Governor did not blame Obama or anyone else either.

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC did not visit - or even report on this category 5 snow storm.

Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.

No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.

No one looted.

Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.

Nobody expected the government to do anything either.

No Larry King, No Bill O ' Reilly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.

No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Streisand, No Brad Pitts, No Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water.

Sent out caravans of SUV 's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.

The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn’t ' t ask for a penny.

Local restaurants made food, and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snow bound families..

Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.

We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.

We put on an extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".

We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for ' sitting at home ' checks.

Even though a Category 5 blizzard of this scale is not usual, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

I hope this gets passed on.

Maybe ......

SOME people will get the message ......

The world does Not owe you a living.

12/29/10

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Isn’t this interesting?  I don't know if it's really true, that it was sent by an emergency manager in North Dakota, but I love the message.


Now for the Theory of Constraints lesson …


If you were in charge of emergency management for your county how would you prepare?


In Theory of Constraints, one of the things we use to prepare is the phenomenal human ability to find anything and everything wrong with an idea. We call it the “yes, but”.


Whenever we are presented with an idea or solution that did not originate in our own heads, we think and sometimes say “yes, but …”.


We are saying yes to part of the solution, BUT we have a concern about another part of the solution or about a negative that we think could result.


And in some cases the “yes, but” could be the result of our misunderstanding of the solution.


But in any case, and in many company cultures saying it out loud is frowned upon, at least depending on whose idea it was. So many “yes, buts …” never get verbalized.


What a shame and what a missed opportunity!


We use the “yes, buts” technique in the Velocity Scheduling System and our Mafia Offer Boot Camp.


“Yes, buts” can clear up miss understandings, improve already good solutions and help you to find a solution for what seems like an impossible situation.


So if you were in charge of emergency management, would you encourage “yes, buts”? Would you follow every potential negative to see where it leads and determine if it’s worth being prepared for?


I think you would. So why not do that as you're making decisions in your company? Why not make voicing “yes, buts” a positive thing?


Let me know what you think, by leaving a comment on this post.   


And you may also want to check out this related article:
http://drlisamaxprofit.blogspot.com/2009/12/theory-of-constraints-poogi-part-53-yes.html


Dr Lisa Lang
President, Science of Business
 
2011 Copyright, Science of Business.  All rights reserved.