Systems thinking with Theory of Constraints
Can you think about what organisations and the story of ‘the blind men and elephant’ could have in common?
Theory of Constraints (TOC) application prescribes systemic thinking — observing and studying a business as one system and not as multiple, independent parts. The approach helps managers see the deeper, underlying causal relationship between the different elements of the system. It also helps them understand how actions taken to improve one part can impact other parts of the system.
The ancient Indian parable of blind men and an elephant is a perfect example of what happens when one observes only a limited part of the system.
It is a story of a group of blind men who have never come across an elephant before. They are instructed by a wise king to describe an elephant by touching it. Each blind man gets to touch a single part of the animal’s body.. They then describe the elephant to the king based on their limited experience and exposure. The descriptions varied. They completely contradicted each other. The moral of the parable is that human beings tend to claim absolute truth based on their limited, subjective experience. Also, they tend to ignore other’s viewpoints and experiences, which may be equally true.
So when a department head is questioned by top management during a monthly review, ‘what is wrong in the business?’ He is most likely to describe the situation like one of the blind men in the above example. His version could differ from the other department head/heads. In such a scenario, he might suspect that the others are dishonest or just putting forth lame excuses in front of the bosses.
Such different perspectives of the same system often lead to unresolved conflicts between departments and a sense of distrust among the team members of these departments. TOC solutions help address the conflicts.
Thus, to manage and improve the business, the top management must understand underlying causal relationships between the interconnected parts. The cause and effect linkages between the interconnected parts might appear complex on the face of it. In reality, they are inherently simple. In such an interconnected system, the key to transformation lies in finding a leverage point.
Sometimes, people within organisations, limited as they are by the silos within which they function, are not able to see the underlying interconnectedness of the system or identify the leverage points. Quite often though, managers instinctively understand it; but more often than not, their hands are tied- after all they cannot influence the whole system since their authority is local.
Here, is where the Theory of constraints and TOC consultants come handy. Since, one of the fundamental beliefs of the Theory of constraints philosophy is that all systems, including business systems, have one or few such leverage points, TOC consultants, who are trained to observe and analyse business systems with this view, find these leverage points with relatively ease.
A common man, who might have driven a car for thousands of miles, may still struggle to make sense of what is under the car’s bonnet and how it functions. On the other hand, a wayside mechanic easily makes out what is wrong with the car. He then makes minor adjustments and makes the entire car work. Similarly, TOC solutions and thinking helps TOC consultants in laying out the path to find the leverage point of intervention. By targeted interventions only at these points, they can help a company reap rich rewards.
