There are plenty of job descriptions that make you scratch your head, wondering what they are really looking to hire. The classic is the job requirements for "good at multitasking" when that can be exactly the wrong trait. I came across one that throws Theory of Constraints and cost reductions into the same set of requirements.
I came across the video from the University of Texas 2014 Commencement address by Admiral William H McRaven in which he describes his training and draws ten life lessons. The story is engaging, and while the lessons out of context sound odd, they make sense in the way he puts it together.
"The CIO's Guide to Breakthrough Project Portfolio Performance: Applying the Best of Critical Chain, Agile, and Lean" by Michael Hannan, Wolfram Muller, and Hilbert Robinson is a good, short description of how to take ideas from several disciplines and apply them to an overall portfolio management approach.
Arthur Shelley posted his 12 Principles of Knowledge Leadership to a KM mailing list - turns out he wrote this a year and a half ago. Good reference material! He even channels Gandhi.
Henry Camp has created a nice two-page summary of Theory of Constraints and made it available for all to use. I have grabbed a copy (with permission) and it is available from my website too.
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry has a nice piece on TOC and how valuable it is. And he mentions that Jeff Bezos has all his Amazon executives read The Goal. What I'd love to see is an article that describes HOW a company like Amazon is using TOC within the business.
Is the goal of a for-profit company to "make more money, now and in the future"? I suppose it depends on how you define the terms.
I hope your 2014 has been exciting and challenging. And I hope that your 2015 brings new adventure and new learnings.
I've come across several recent articles in the press from India that talk about Theory of Constraints and the application at a number of companies.
"Pride and Joy" by Alex Knight is a Theory of Constraints business novel about a hospital in chaos and a way of thinking that can help move beyond the chaos to a truly patient-centric, high quality environment.
There is an InnoCentive challenge to describe a KM approach to "Capturing Institutional Memory and Knowledge." Open through 14 October 2014.
Freek Vermeulen's "Business Exposed" is a great read that debunk a lot of common practice and common beliefs within business. He brings in a variety of business research to back up his sometimes surprising observations.
Rather than describe the solution - a description that is always going to be lacking - understand what problem the customer is trying to solve. What limitation or barrier do they need to overcome? And why do they want to do that?
Clarke Ching has posted a chapter of his ever-in-beta book on Agile / TOC in software developmetnt. His comments ring true and remind me of things that Dave Snowden talks about frequently.
"Knowledge is a treasure chest and its keys are questioning." -Ibn Shihab
Big Visible posted a great photo / poster a few weeks ago with their article Velocity Is Like A Helium Balloon. While their focus is Agile development, the thinking behind it can be applied to just about any area of improvement. "Velocity is like a helium balloon. It will rise on its own, if nothing is holding it down!"
One of the many people I follow on Twitter, Richard Cushing, has been interviewed and the results posted as "Where Does Your ERP Selection Fit with Your Continuous Improvement Efforts?"
Off topic for this blog, but if you get annoyed by trying to find administrative tools in Windows 7, this is inforamtion on setting password policies. The trick is to "run as administrator" - yes, even if your profile has you as administrator.
Yishai Ashlag's new book, TOC Thinking: Removing Constraints for Business Growth, is a good overview of the Theory of Constraints approach to thinking about running organizations.
Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business has a lot of familiar material in it. Duhigg puts it together in a compelling story that talks about why we get stuck in ruts - in personal life and in business life - and the paths to breaking out of the rut.