"My intent with this book was to provide you with a user friendly set of guidelines to the Thinking Processes"
Lisa has succeeded brilliantly in accomplishing this goal! Goldratt, through his business novels, "The Goal", "It's Not Luck", "Critical Chain", and "Necessary But Not Sufficient" laid a foundation which enables anyone to ease into an understanding of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and the Thinking Processes (TP).
"Thinking for a Change" is one of a number of books which build on Dr. Goldratt's work. The Thinking Processes are explained and illustrated in layman's terms. The situations (dilemmas) used to illustrate Thinking Process applications include scenarios from both the business world and everyday family issues.
Upon reading this book, you will gain an understanding of the following:
Current Reality Tree - Used to examine cause and effect relationships that bring about the present situation.
Prerequisite Tree - A road map of obstacles to overcome, and specifically how they will be overcome.
Transition Tree - Used to identify and understand specific objectives and actions that will lead to a change (Future Reality)
Future Reality Tree - A tool for visualizing and understanding the desired change and how specific actions will affect that future reality.
Evaporating Cloud - A simple tool used to identify and resolve conflicting assumptions.
If you are familiar with and believe in TOC methodologies, this book is a must have. The best introductory materials are Dr. Goldratt's novels mentioned above. "Thinking For a Change" is one step up. It's more in depth, and more easily understood with at least minimal familiarity with TOC. If you've read this and are looking for hardcore TOC material, check out William Dettmers' "Goldratt's Theory of Constraints"
With the release of "Thinking for a Change", Lisa has provided the "Thinking Processes" tools in a very accessible format. The everyday examples show us the power and the wide validity of these breakthrough problem solving tools. For veteran "Jonahs", the book provides tips on coaching others in the "Thinking Processes", and insight into the development of the tools that I've not found anywhere else.
For those with no introduction to the Theory of Constraints (TOC's) "Thinking Processes", they represent a paradigm shift in problem solving. A root cause analysis can be developed using the effect-cause-effect logic adopted from the scientific method. The old paradigm was if you don't understand something, collect more data. The new paradigm is that to understand something, you form effect-cause-effect logic and test it. The rules used to test the validity of the logic are presented in Lisa's book with everyday, yet compelling examples.
The validity of these "Thinking Processes" have been proven in application to organizational science, management science, as well as in the technical fields. The proof can be seen in the Profit and Loss statements of those companies who have adopted TOC as a overall management philosophy.
If you have found the writing of Senge, Wheatley, Covey, Gleich, and/or Pragiogini compelling, don't stop exploring until you have given TOC's "Thinking Processes", as outlined in Lisa's book a chance.
Scott Button, P.E., MSME, Jonah; Senior Specialist Engineer; Manufacturing R&D (in a major aerospace company.)