Quotes that represent deep mental models

Goldratt Group (Southern Africa) © 2004

Heuristic Flow © 2007

Heuristic

FLOW

Quotes that represent deep

Mental Models

The purpose is to build a collection of

wisdom for business and life.

These quotes were collated by Arrie van Niekerk and represent

some deep insights from a wide variety of sources. Some are

from books and articles and some from extracts and quotes from

various sources.



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There is nothing as powerful as a

CONCEPT,

and nothing more dangerous than a

MISCONCEPTION.



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Einstein on Problems

“To break a mental model is harder

than splitting the atom

– Albert Einstein



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Einstein on Problems

“The significant problems we face

today cannot be solved at the

same level of thinking we were at

when we created them.”

– Albert Einstein



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Eli Goldratt: Challenging Assumptions

• When things don’t work, and all your efforts do not produce the results you expected, then there is a flaw in the thinking – we are missing something and it is probably in our faces!

“What is needed is just the courage to face inconsistencies and to avoid running from them just because “that’s the way it was always done”.… We simply need to look at reality and think logically and precisely about what we see. The key ingredient is to have the courage to face inconsistencies between what we see and deduce and the way things are done. The challenging of basic assumptions is essential to breakthroughs”.

The Goal by Dr Eliyahu M. Goldratt:



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Eli Goldratt: Operations

• “The closer you are to a balanced capacity chain, the closer you are to bankruptcy”

• “If a company tell me they have moving bottlenecks, my response is: You have NO bottlenecks and most of your resources have at least 30% spare capacity”

• “If you want to make money, most of your resources must be idle from time to time”

Dr Eliyahu M. Goldratt



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On Seeing and Blindness

“When one does not see what one does not see,

one does not even see that one is blind”

– Paul Veyne

In other words:

When you do not see what you don’t see,

you do not even see that you are blind.

Then what is the secret to seeing?



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Ed Deming on Measurements

Ed Deming used say: “97% of what matters in an organization can't be measured. Only maybe 3%

can be measured. But when you go into most organizations and look at what people are doing, they're spending all their time focusing on what

they can measure and none of their time on what really matters -- what they can't measure.

Why would we do this? We're spending all of our

time measuring what doesn't matter.”- Ed Deming

Founder of Total Quality Management (TQM)



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Thomas Johnson on Toyota Philosophy

Measurement takes what's inherently interdependent, shaped by patterns of mutual causality in nature, and turns it into something that's inherently independent and shaped by patterns of lineal causality. In creating systems whose operation can be described with quantity, we create what is mechanical and mechanizing is diametrically opposed to the natural.

So, we've destroyed the natural in our organizations, and we're very comfortable that way. I spoke earlier of Toyota. Finally, after years and years of walking the floors in that company and, on a few occasions, working on the line, I came to this simple idea. The means are the ends in the making. That's all there is. Get the means right and the ends will take care of themselves.

– Tom JohnsonAuthor of: Relevance lost: The rise and fall of Management Accounting

and “Reflections of a Recovering Management Accountant”

Few people realise that Toyota does not use

standard cost accounting for its daily operations



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Do the right things

“Do the right things …..

(organize work & flow properly)

… and the costs will take care of itself!”

– Tom JohnsonAuthor of: Relevance lost: The rise and fall of Management Accounting

and “Reflections of a Recovering Management Accountant”



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Marcus WallenbergOne of the great leaders of the family in the post-World War II period, Marcus

Wallenberg, was very close to his companies. He regularly would go visit all the companies. He was not a person who sat above the clouds and studied his companies by looking at spreadsheets. He went down to the companies,

like Scania, and when he did he invariably visited the shop floor.

“If I want to know how a company is doing, I do not look at data sheets. I go into the shop, because

that’s where what matters take place. And when I go there I listen for the music. And when I hear the music, I know everything is all right. But if I

don’t hear it, then we go to work”

– Marcus WallenbergOwner of INVESTOR, Family company holding major share blocks in Saab, ABB, Ericsson, Atlas

Copco, etc



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ExecutionLeaders fail due to an inability to reflect on reality. “The main requirement is that you as a leader have to be deeply and passionately engaged in your organisation and honest about its realities with others and yourself.” We need a process of robust dialogue to achieve this.

“Too many leaders fool themselves into thinking their companies are well run.”

“Most fundamentally, the three core processes (People, Strategy, Operations) were disconnected from the everyday realities of the business, and from each other. Leading these processes is the real job of running a business.”

“The operating plan is strictly a numbers exercise, with little attention paid to action plans for growth, markets, productivity or quality. People were holding the same jobs too long, and many plants were run by accountants instead of production people.”

-Larry Bossidy & Ram CharanExecution. The discipline of getting things done.



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Arie de Geus

“Companies die because their managers focus on the economic activity of producing goods and services, and they forget that their organisations’ true nature is that of a community of humans.”

Living companies have the abilities to:– Learn and adapt

– Build a community and persona for itself

– Build constructive relationships with other entities, within and outside itself

– Govern its own growth and evolution effectively

- Arie de GeusThe Living Company



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Henry Mintzberg on Management

Management is a curious phenomenon; it is generously paid, enormously influential and significantly devoid of

common sense. Management is a practice that has to blend a good deal of craft

(experience), with a certain amount of art (insight) and some science (analysis). Easy formulas and quick fixes are the

problems of management today, not the solutions.

Good managers believe that their purpose is to leave behind stronger organizations, not just higher share prices. They do not

display hubris in the name of Leadership.

Henry Mintzberg is the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies

at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.



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Complexity – The Four Types

1. Dynamic complexity: Causes and effects are far apart in space and time. Sometimes just very hard to grasp and those who see becomes impatient.

2. Detail Complexity: In technical/mechanical fields where the detail of cause and effect has to be known precisely in order to predict

3. Social Complexity: People involved see things very different, causing the problems to become polarised and stuck.

4. Generative Complexity: Unfolding in unfamiliar and unpredictable ways.



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Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS)

• Complex adaptive systems have their internal feedback loops that are extremely powerful and therefore you must adapt the culture towards increase and support the system rather than dictate it.

• It is largely self organising and self learning and will settle on certain levels of performance in certain locations, but it has the inherent ability to evolve to much higher levels than any linear system can ever achieve.

• Characteristics of CAS:– The CAS is a network of many “agents” acting in parallel.

– The CAS has many levels of organization, with agents at any level serving as the building blocks for agents at a higher level.

– All CAS anticipates and predicts the future.

– CAS have many niches, each one of which can be exploited by an agent adapted to fill that niche.



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Measurements Drift

• Measurements can help us to align the parts, but it most often do not

• Over time, the parts develop measures that they believe are good, but in reality they are not fully aligned

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• We want all the parts to contribute to the whole

• The parts must always do what is good for the whole, NOT what is good for the parts

• Look for the harmony (music) of the whole



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Example of the African Tracker

Detail Tracker (Expert Tracker)

• Objective: Follow and mark detail of the spoor

• Footprints, stride, stick and O-ring, flags

• High degree of accuracy

Trail Tracker (African Tracker)

• Objective: To catch up with the animal

• Direction, freshness, air spoor, intuitive

• Speed is essential; must track faster than animal laying the

trail

You could be an expert in both, but the objectives are different



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African Tracker & Termite Mound

• Details slow down the process and cause you

to lose the bigger picture• Strategy can not be much more than a clear direction; you

discover the detail on the track (if really needed)

• Giving only rules to a Complex Adaptive

System inhibits creative solutions• The intelligence of the agents prohibits the mechanistic

rule approach



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Dee Hock on World Views

• Machine World View: The Mechanistic, Industrial age, Separatist Command and

Control organisational model. Wholeness is assembled from replaceable parts.

WHOLE = SUM of the PARTS. Procedure takes precedence over purpose,

method more important than results. Purpose erodes into process, procedure

takes precedence over product – the doing of the doing until nothing gets done.

Where behaviour is compelled, there lies tyranny, however petty. [Local Efficiency

or COST WORLD view]

• Living System World view: The Holistic, Systemic, Modern age, Humane and

Creative organisational model. PARTS are manifestations of the WHOLE. The

essence of community is the non monetary exchange of value. All things are

simultaneously independent, interdependent and intra-dependent. Where

behaviour is educed, there lies leadership, however powerful. [FLOW or

THROUGHPUT WORLD]

• Cancers form whenever a part (a cell with the same DNA) loses its social identity

(connectedness) and grows with wild undifferentiated cell division – an empire

within the whole. Forces the system to be subordinated to its rules or measures

instead of subordinating to the core flow process.



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Dee Hock on Management Systems

• The Holistic, Systemic, Modern age, Humane and Creative organisational model.

• All things are simultaneously independent, interdependent and intra-dependent.

• The essence of community is the non monetary exchange of value.

• Where behaviour is educed, there lies leadership, however powerful.

• The Mechanistic, Industrial age, Separatist, Command and Control organisational model

• Procedure takes precedence over purpose, method more important than results

• Purpose erodes into process, procedure takes precedence over outcome – the doing of the doing until nothing gets done.

• Where behaviour is compelled, there lies tyranny, however petty

The World of Purpose, Principle and People

The World of Rules and Regulation



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Dee Hock Quotes

• An organization, no matter how well designed, is

only as good as the people who live and work in it.

• If you don't understand that you work for your

mislabelled 'subordinates,' then you know nothing of

leadership. You know only tyranny.

• The closest thing to a law of nature in business is

that form has an affinity for expense, while

substance has an affinity for income.



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Dee Hock

• Key measures for a great company leader:

– Abandon tradition

– Throw detail planning to the wind (Co-insides with Clem

Sunter’s process of no paperwork)

– Rely on a clear sense of direction

– A few basic principles

– Common sense

– Trust in the ingenuity of people

– Let the answers emerge (have a way to allow it to happen)



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Dee Hock on Leadership

• People are not "things" to be manipulated, labeled, boxed, bought, and sold. Above all else, they are not "human resources." They are entire human beings, containing the whole of the evolving universe, limitless until we start limiting them. We must examine the concept of leading and following with new eyes. We must examine the concept of superior and subordinate with increasing skepticism. We must examine the concept of management and labor with new beliefs. And we must examine the nature of organizations that demand such distinctions with an entirely different consciousness.

• It is true leadership; leadership by everyone; leadership in, up, around, and down this world so badly needs, and dominator management it so sadly gets.



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Dee Hock on Leadership

• Here is the very heart and soul of the matter. If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself --your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers. Use the remainder to induce those you "work for" to understand and practice the theory. I use the terms "work for" advisedly, for if you don't understand that you should be working for your mislabeled "subordinates," you haven't understood anything. Lead yourself, lead your superiors, lead your peers, and free your people to do the same. All else is trivia.



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Dee Hock on Compensation

Compensation:

• Money motivates neither the best people, nor the best in people. It can move the body and influence the mind, but it cannot touch the heart or move the spirit; that is reserved for belief, principle, and morality. As Napoleon observed, "No amount of money will induce someone to lay down their life, but they will gladly do so for a bit of yellow ribbon."



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Dee Hock on Employment

Associates:

• Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second, motivation; third, capacity; fourth, understanding; fifth, knowledge; and last and least, experience. Without integrity, motivation is dangerous; without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind. Experience is easy to provide and quickly put to good use by people with all the other qualities.

Employing Yourself:

• Never hire or promote in your own image. It is foolish to replicate your strength. It is idiotic to replicate your weakness. It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.



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Dee Hock

• The governing structure must not be a chain of command, but rather a framework for dialogue, deliberation, and coordination among equals.– Authority, in other words, comes from the bottom up, not

the top down. The U. S. federal system is designed so authority rises from the people to local, state, and federal governments; in Visa, which contains elements of the federal system, the member banks send representatives to a system of national, regional, and international boards. While the system appears to be hierarchical, the Visa hierarchy is not a chain of command. Instead, each board is supposed to serve as a forum for members to raise common issues, debate them, and reach some kind of consensus and resolution.



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Dee Hock

• The real basics of what you need in order to

get agreement (Relationships cannot be much

more than this – organisational, marriage, etc):

– Intent (Vision)

– Clear sense of direction (Knowing where you are

going & roughly the road you will be taking)

– Few Basic Principles (The fundamental building

blocks that you will base it upon)



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Dee Hock

• Heaven is – Purpose, Principle & People

• Purgatory is– Policy and Procedure

• Hell is– Rule and regulation



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Freedom

• Freedom is the length of the chain

between the range of your imagination

and the stake of reality.

• Freedom is the length of the chain between

your imagination and the stake in the ground.



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Russel Ackoff on Management

• The characteristic way of management that we have

taught in the Western world is [to] take a complex

system, divide it into parts and then try to manage

each part as well as possible.

• And if that’s done, the system as a whole will behave

well.

• That’s absolutely false, because it’s possible to

improve the performance of each part taken

separately and destroy the system at the same time.



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Russel Ackoff on Understanding

• Dr. Ackoff explains that analysis has been the

dominant mode of thought in the Western world for

400 years. Analysis explains how the pieces of a

system work. Synthesis is needed to understand the

why of a system and the interactions between its

parts as they work together.

• Understanding the implications of seeing the

organization as a system leads to the conclusion that

cooperation is more effective than internal

competition in leading any organization to work more

effectively.



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On Marriage

Marriage hath in it less of beauty but more of

safety, than the single life; it hath more care,

but less danger, it is more merry, and more

sad; it is fuller of sorrows, and fuller of joys;

it lies under more burdens, but it is

supported by all the strengths of love and

charity, and those burdens are delightful.

Bishop Jeremy Taylor

http://www.saidwhat.co.uk/quotes/favourite/bishop_jeremy_taylor



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Inspiration & Enjoyment

• The best way to inspire people to superior

performance is to convince them by everything you

do and by your everyday attitude that you are

wholeheartedly supporting them.

- Harold Geneen

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to

work a day in your life.

- Confucius

http://www.saidwhat.co.uk/quotes/business/harold_geneen

http://www.saidwhat.co.uk/quotes/famous/confucius



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Andy Stanley

• The Vision must be firm and unmoving.

Vision generates Clarity and Clarity

trumps uncertainty.

• We must be flexible in our Plans, but not

in our Vision.

• Models always trump Vision.

• When things are tough, look back and

derive energy from seeing the progress.



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The Five Cancers of the Soul

1. Arrogance - (I am right)

2. Unforgiveness / Blame shifting

3. Pride that comes at the expense of others

4. Selfishness / Selfcenteredness / Ego

5. Love of Money



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The 5 Super-memes of Modern Society

1. Irrational Opposition – Just say “No”

– Criticism, Presenting only one side of the conflict cloud

2. Personalisation of Blame – Requiring a “head”

– Find a personal scapegoat for a systemic problem

3. Counterfeit Correlation – Common False Clichés

– Using statistical correlation without logical cause & effect

4. Silo Thinking – Compartmented thinking & behaviour

– Fragmentation of the big picture in more palatable pieces

5. Extreme economics – Money replacing hearts

– Simplified principles of business replace other society values

– Pursuit of profit, efficiency and productivity

The Watchman’s Rattle by Rebecca D Costa



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Insight Process

Prerequisites for Insight Process to be Activated:

• Exhausted left brain logical, problem solving and left brain conceptual

thinking approaches (Regular thinking does not work)

• Reached a state where you are stuck – no obvious solution available

(Requires new Connections in the Brain)

• Your Thinking must be free from super-memes (Clean Slate)

– No Irrational Opposition

– No Personalisation of Blame

– No False Correlations

– No Silo Thinking

– No Economic Consideration

• Unlock the Brain’s way of finding solutions in extreme complexity



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True InsightConditions Conducive for Cognition:

• Group of 3-9 People. Group Size trumps Resources

• Relaxed atmosphere & Regular breaks – Even half asleep

• Slow the train down (Cannot force it)

• Regular physical exercises followed by relaxing & letting the brain wander

• Good, Upbeat mood, Enough Sleep (7 hours), No chemicals.

• Brain Fitness & Nourishment (Proteins, Antioxidants, Omega 3 & Vit B)

Distractions towards Insight

• Brain must shut down internal and external distractions

• Must become free of preconceived solutions

• Clear, deep focus on the problem, followed by relaxation

• You cannot see the picture if you are in it. Get out of the picture!



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New Insight

• It’s never enough just to tell people about

some new insight. Rather, you have to get

them to experience it in a new way that

evokes its power and possibility.

• Instead of pouring knowledge into people’s

heads, you need to help them grind a new set

of eyeglasses so they can see the world in a

new way. – John Seely Brown, Seeing Differently: Insights on Innovation

Business

Quotes that represent deep mental models