If you want to change how people think, givethem a tool the use of which will lead them tothink differently.

—Buckminster Fuller (1976)

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Critical thinking means you ask the right questions;systems thinking means you see the big picture. Ifyou do that, you will have a set of skills thattranscends any particular set of technical skills,which may or may not become obsolete.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 requireseducation; to challenge it requires brains.

—Mary Pettibone Poole, 1938A Glass Eye at a Keyhole

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New approach tosolution…

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Underlying Assumption

Absence of a well-defined target...like shooting in thedark!

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dark!

“If you don’t care where you’re going, then any path will do.”

Intermediate Objectives (IO) Map

GOAL

CSF#1 CSF#4

CriticalSuccessFactor

CSF#2 CSF#3NC

NC

NC

NCNC

NCSupportingNecessaryCondition

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A Benchmark

GOAL

CSF#1

CSF#2 CSF#3

CSF#4

CSF#2 CSF#3NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

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IO Map

CurrentReality

Tree

Third-Generation TP Concept

15Evaporating

Cloud

FutureRealityTree

Future RealityTree

Third-Generation TP Concept (cont’d)

PrerequisiteTree

Critical Chain Project

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Challenge:

Evaporating Cloud alwaysEvaporating Cloud alwaysrelevant to a system’s goalrelevant to a system’s goal

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How it works…How it works…

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Create an IO Map

GOAL

CSF#1 CSF#4

Goal

CriticalSuccess

CSF#2 CSF#3NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

NC

SuccessFactors

NecessaryConditions

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“Go deep!”

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Start your Evaporating Cloud

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Relate EC elements to IO Map

Do THISCSF

Goal

DON’Tdo THISCSF

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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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