If you want to change how people think, give them a tool the use of

If you want to change how people think, give
them a tool the use of which will lead them to
think differently.
—Buckminster Fuller (1976)
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Critical thinking means you ask the right questions;
systems thinking means you see the big picture. If
you do that, you will have a set of skills that
transcends any particular set of technical skills,
which may or may not become obsolete.
—Michael Hammer, 1997
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The Evaporating Cloud
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The problem…
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The Easy Part…
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The More Difficult Part…
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A little history…
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The Original Thinking Process Concept
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Second-Generation TP Concept
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To repeat what others have said requires
education; to challenge it requires brains.
—Mary Pettibone Poole, 1938
A Glass Eye at a Keyhole
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New approach to
solution…
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Underlying Assumption
Absence of a welldefined target...
like shooting in the
dark!
“If you don’t care where you’re going, then any path will do.”
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Intermediate Objectives (IO) Map
GOAL
Critical
Success
Factor
CSF#1
CSF#4
CSF#2
CSF#3
NC
Supporting
Necessary
Condition
NC
NC
NC
NC
NC
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A Benchmark
GOAL
CSF#1
CSF#4
CSF#2
CSF#3
NC
NC
NC
NC
NC
NC
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Third-Generation TP Concept
IO Map
Current
Reality
Tree
Future
Reality
Tree
Evaporating
Cloud
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Third-Generation TP Concept (cont’d)
Future Reality
Tree
Prerequisite
Tree
Critical Chain Project
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Challenge:
Evaporating Cloud always
relevant to a system’s goal
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How it works…
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Create an IO Map
Goal
Critical
Success
Factors
GOAL
CSF#1
CSF#4
CSF#2
CSF#3
NC
NC
NC
Necessary
Conditions
NC
NC
NC
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“Go deep!”
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Start your Evaporating Cloud
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Relate EC elements to IO Map
CSF
Do THIS
CSF
DON’T
do THIS
Goal
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Conflict within a single branch
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Conflict at a lower level
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The key…find a convergence point
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Example…
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Example (cont’d)
Intermediate Objectives Map
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Example (cont’d)
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In summary…
• Establish a “benchmark”
• Articulate the conflict
• Find the appropriate IO Map branches
• Go upward to a convergence point
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