Goldratt's Theory of Constraints and Thinking Process

About 10-15 years ago in business I became a trained and experienced facilitator in a process to help business, non-profits, and individuals think better. It was called Goldratt's Theory of Constraints and The Thinking Process. We used it in my Fortune 50 company and increased cash flow around $50 million in a few years. We had to challenge (debate) and change many paradigms and kill sacred cows. We had to change our thinking. The author of the process was Eliyahu Goldratt, an Israeli who often came accross as arrogant but had well thought out ideas on "how to think" with clarity and accuracy. We stole his best ideas and changed many of his words to appeal to the mass market inside our company. He was a stickler for good thoughts, but did not take care to choose well marketed terms that were practical. His ideas have fallen by the wayside in the last 10 years as other better marketed (but weaker) methods are used in business like Lean Six Sigma, etc. We changed his terms like "The Thinking Process" (which offended people) to "The Communication Process" to practically help remove stumbling blocks for people who would get offended by feeling accused they did not "Think" well.

This process could be very useful in facilitating discussion on Doctrines of Grace, Calvinism, Arminianism, etc. Since there are so many thinkers here on the Baptist Board I would think some of you would enjoy learning the rules of this process. It is similar to Roberts Rules of Order for thinking and discussion around theories.

The process is challenging to facilitate online. The process requires you to build a rigorous and complex logic tree and challenge all the logic in your tree as you search for the root causes of all of your symptoms.

There are 7 rules of logic and reservations, which become a way of communicating with each other when you disagree. Instead of saying "you are wrong or other offensive statement", you say "I have a reservation. Here are the 7 Reservations of Logic. These rules of logic have been around since the times of Greek philosophers.

1. Clarity Reservation - I need more clarity, which throws it back to the person who expressed an "entity" to clarify for the person with a reservation

2. Entity Existence Reservation - I have a reservation that needs the originator to prove to me that a statement exists with supporting evidence

3. Causality Effect Reservation - I have a reservation that Entity A does not cause Entity B

4. Tautology Reservation -

5. Insufficient Cause Reservation -

6. Additional Cause Reservation

7. P....... (sorry, my memory is running out, it has been over 10 years since I facilitated working sessions on this methodology)

A good book on this subject is Bill Dettmer's book on Goldratt's Theory of Constraints, which focuses on The Thinking Process.

Reading the book is only theoretical. Experienced facilitators need 20-30 working sessions of experience facilitating groups to become proficient in helping groups understand each other clearly and resolve conflicts, dilemmas, and clean up their thinking with each others rigorous tesing of each entity mapped out on visual trees. The process builds relationships and trust as groups that formerly disliked each other finally communicate and respect each other.

I thought I would mention this process to the Baptist Board since there might be some of you that would enjoy this process.

Let me know if you have any questions about it. Since the Baptist Board has so many active members that enjoy these types of discussions I wouldn't be surprised to find others out here who have been experienced facilitators in this methodology.