Theory of Constraints

Creative Problem Solving

Umesh P. Nagarkatte, Nancy Oley

• Publisher: Productivity Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138056053
• eBook ISBN: 9781351677455
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Government & Business
• Index: Business

This book was written to assist professionals and students to become proactive in their own education, improve thinking, resolve personal and interpersonal conflicts, improve pedagogy, manage departmental affairs and guide administrative decisions. The text captures the practical experience of the authors with and formal training in TOC to address many of the issues facing today's education stakeholders.

The text is designed to teach methods for 1) "win-win" conflict resolution, 2) decision-making, 3) problem solving, and 4) analysis of systems using TOC's powerful logic-based graphical Thinking Process tools. A creative thinker can identify, plan and achieve his or her goals just knowing the Thinking Process Tools.

1Introduction

1.1Organization of the Book

This book is organized into three major sections, dictated by the three basic questions of the theory of constraints (TOC): what to change, what to change to, and how to cause the change. Within each section, there are practical examples followed by discussion of a specific thinking process (TP) tool used to answer the three basic questions, as it applies to understanding and dealing with simple problems. If the knowledge of stand-alone tools is sufficient, the reader-creative thinker or student can study those specific tools and skip some material as directed. In later chapters, the tools are used formally to solve complex system problems within the broader context of TOC. The last chapter is a review of a systems approach using tools discussed in the earlier chapters and the TOC roadmap, and mainly for department heads and administrators who are sincerely interested in the Process Of OnGoing Improvement (POOGI) and are not just interested in a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT) analysis of their department or institution for a program review or a strategic plan.

1.2Reasons for Writing This Book

1.2.1Student Empowerment

An instructor has accepted two students to do research with her during the summer. One student, Cheryl, is very responsible and hardworking. She does her homework regularly while taking care of her three children, 1, 4, and 7 years old, at home. The second student, Mary, did not respond to numerous e-mails that the instructor sent. Before the actual research began, there were several steps that had to be completed such as obtaining Institutional Review Board Certification and attending a workshop. Cheryl completed them in a timely fashion. Mary, on the other hand, came up with different excuses as to why she was unable to get certified. After talking to people in charge of the research, she was granted a 2-week extension to finish the certification. Luckily, Cheryl and Mary showed up on time at the first research meeting. The instructor warned Mary that if she did not complete the certification during the grace period, she would be out of the program. Cheryl helped Mary to register for the certification, and after 10 days, she completed the requirement.

In the meantime, the instructor met with her two students twice a week. Both came on time. However, Mary did not do her assignments most of the time, and whenever she did some work, it was all wrong. She did not follow any of the instructor’s directions. She could not concentrate during their meetings, always yawning or showing disinterest in what was going on. Whenever Mary was told that her work was unsatisfactory, she started crying. When asked if she had other issues at home bothering her, she would just nod. However, sometimes, Mary was engaged and came up with unusually good ideas regarding research. This gave the instructor some hope.

During one meeting, she told Mary that she is intelligent but behaves very irresponsibly. Mary whimpered a little. That day when Mary and Cheryl were working together in the next room, she went to see if they had completed the work. There were a couple of papers and a pen lying on the floor. Cheryl said that they belonged to Mary, but that she had been gone for some time. Cheryl mentioned that Mary had expressed disgust with her life in general and had thrown all of her papers and pen on the floor. But after a few minutes, she picked them up. When Mary returned, the instructor asked her what was really bothering her. Mary started sobbing and told her that she was not crying because of anything that the instructor had said to her.

Mary had major problems at home. Her father had passed away when she was young. Her sister was behaving badly, and her mother was seriously ill. Being the only child around her mother and being very shy, she always got blamed for all the difficulties that the family was having. The family was poor. Mary did not have enough money for public transportation to come to school more often. She did not have a computer at home and had to come to school to have access. After hearing her predicament, the instructor advised her to go to a counselor, because she herself was not an expert in handling problems of this nature. Before she left, the instructor assigned Mary homework for the next meeting 4 days later. Mary went to a counselor. Three hours later, she returned to the instructor with a happy face and gave three typed pages of the homework four days in advance of the deadline. She confirmed the instructor’s gut feeling that Mary was quite intelligent. Her work was almost perfect; only minor changes had to be made. This was the first time that she had done any satisfactory work. When asked what caused the sudden change in her attitude, Mary said that the counselor gave her some immediate steps to take and told her that anytime that she needed help, the counselor would be there. This reassurance really helped her. The instructor also reassured Mary that if she had any problems in her research, she should feel free to contact her by e-mail. She also advised Mary to spend more time in school studying in order to keep her mind off her situation at home and so she could graduate, get a job, and help her mother. Mary also mentioned how patient Cheryl had been, listening to her problems. Cheryl had also taught her how to use Microsoft Word and Excel.

This day started out to be disastrous, but ended on a very positive note. The instructor was looking at a happy young woman who was ready to handle her numerous problems. The instructor and the counselor had both undergone TOC training and had just implemented it to empower Mary.

In short, teachers should not give up on a student just because the student is not working up to expectations. The student may have nonacademic issues standing in the way of him/her giving the required time to the academic work. TOC has TP tools which can be used to address both academic and no...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Endorsements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Authors
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 What to Change? Part 1: Branch, Current Reality Tree, and Future Reality Tree
• Chapter 3 What to Change? Part 2: Evaporating Clouds
• Chapter 4 What to Change to?
• Chapter 5 How to Cause the Change? Prerequisite Tree, Project Plan, and Transition Tree
• Chapter 6 Five Focusing Steps in the Process of OnGoing Improvement (POOGI): Institutional Problem Solving
• Chapter 7 Epilogue: How Did We Do?
• Appendix: TOC for Education
• Index