We are witnessing many breakthroughs that would seem miraculous to previous generations. It is a thing of wonder to ask chat GPT for something it might take us hours or days to do and to receive the response instantaneously. It will take our human minds some time to adjust to this new reality.
The oldest person in the world, Tomiko Itooka, was born in 1908, the same year as the mass production of automobiles began and five years after the first ever airplane. Tomiko has witnessed two world wars that changed the way people lived forever, the first mission to the moon and the development of space travel, with all the fallout technology that accompanies it. If you ask ChatGPT about innovations in her lifetime, the list of innovations, technological and industrial, medical, social and economic is breathtaking. Electrification, television, nuclear power, computers, the internet, digital technology, antibiotics and vaccines, mass education, women’s rights, globalization, quantum computing, AI…the list goes on.
The scientific breakthroughs achieved by using the scientific method in the “modern era” (1880 to 1950) laid the foundations for the greatest innovations of the twentieth century. The power of computing and AI will accelerate the creation of new technologies that are difficult to imagine.
Limiting beliefs
We live within limits that are real and imagined. So far, the fastest a human has run is about 44.72 km/h (Usain Bolt). Our two-legged physiology has intrinsic limits. Our non-physical limitations are another matter. We all grow up within social environments that have their own set of beliefs. Part of this has to do with the country and region we are born in, where behaviours are regulated by laws and customs. Our family environment will provide us with a unique set of beliefs that may or may not reinforce those of the surrounding society. These beliefs may be empowering and they may be limiting. Once we become aware that we operate within a set of beliefs, we are free to challenge them.
The sky is not the limit
This phrase is often connected with Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt who developed the Theory of Constraints. It may seem odd that someone whose theory is directly connected with constraints that are “limitations” should say such a thing. It is the opposite. Many people confuse a bottleneck with a constraint. While a bottleneck is something we will always want to eliminate because it interrupts flow, a constraint (when you know how to manage it) becomes the means through which we achieve more than we would otherwise be able to do. An organization can strategically choose a constraint as a focus point and organize all its activities to make sure the constraint always performs. This not only radically simplifies management, it ensures much higher performance operationally and economically. This may sound too good to be true. The issue becomes something else: the human constraint.
The Human Constraint
As humans, we necessarily base our actions every day on a set of beliefs or assumptions. For example, we assume that when we get out of bed, our feet will find a floor to stand up and walk on. Without such basic and valid assumptions, we would not be able to operate every day. All of our thoughts, speech and actions reflect a myriad of beliefs and assumptions. The problem is that they are not all valid. Some assumptions may simply be present because we have never actively challenged them, and yet they still affect our behaviour and our decisions.
Dr. Goldratt has provided the world with a powerful and highly effective method to become aware of some of our assumptions that may be limiting us in achieving our goals, both personally and organizationally. Starting from what is not working in the current reality, an organization is able to verbalize clearly for the first time ever what their situation of blockage is, what a realistic goal for the organization is that they want to achieve, the assumptions and limiting beliefs that keep them stuck where they are, the breakthrough solutions that will get them to achieve their goal, and what a solid plan to transition to the new reality looks like.
The alternative to using a robust and tested method is to attempt progress through trial and error. This may also get results. However, using the Thinking Processes developed by Dr. Goldratt ensures a level of clarity and precision to accelerate action towards an agreed-upon goal that provides a real solution.
Continuous breakthrough
This process to get to breakthrough is not a one and done activity. Any company that has embraced Quality in its most profound sense is familiar with the idea of continuous improvement. The Deming Cycle of Plan, Do, Study, Act embeds the scientific method into the day-to-day to ensure that the company is always satisfying the customer’s needs. With the pace of change today, it is no longer sufficient to continuously improve. Companies need to be able to continuously innovate.
A true innovation is not just a good idea. It is, as Dr. Goldratt said, something that removes an existing limitation. As humans, we do possess the ability to continuously review any beliefs and assumptions for their validity and challenge the ones that limit us in what we achieve. Some may think that it is just too burdensome to go through all the amount of change that is necessary. This is another limiting belief. What is required is not change the way most people think of it. It’s about unveiling and making emerge something much better that already exists but that we are covering up with faulty assumptions and artificial barriers. Having a method to do this work of unveiling in a consistent matter is what allows organizations to stay competitive and grow.
What can you do to overcome limiting beliefs?
General Montgomery is credited with saying “Difficult is done at once, the impossible takes a little longer.”
At Intelligent Management, it has been our privilege to help dozens of organizations adopt the method for developing breakthrough solutions that Dr. Goldratt introduced. We have seen how time and again it leads to results that did not seem possible. We have dedicated years of study and practice to deepen our understanding of the method so we can transfer it to others more effectively. This method is central to our most recent book ‘The Human Constraint’ and we have created specific programs to transfer the ability to develop breakthrough solutions. We look forward to accompanying many more organizations on their discovery of new, uncharted possibilities and continuous innovation.
To find out more about ten guided steps to a systemic leap in performance for your company, contact Angela Montgomery at: intelligentmanagement@sechel.ws
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Intelligent Management works with decision makers with the authority and responsibility to make meaningful change to optimize your company for the digital age. We have helped dozens of organizations to adopt a systemic approach to manage complexity and radically improve performance and growth for over 25 years through our Decalogue management methodology. The Network of Projects organization design we developed is supported by our Ess3ntial software for multi-project finite scheduling based on the Critical Chain algorithm.
See our latest books: The Human Constraint from Routledge; From Silos to Networks: A New Kind of Science for Management from Springer; Moving the Chains: An Operational Solution for Embracing Complexity in the Digital Age by our Founder Dr. Domenico Lepore, and ‘Quality, Involvement, Flow: The Systemic Organization’ from CRC Press, New York by Dr. Domenico Lepore, Dr. Angela Montgomery and Dr. Giovanni Siepe.
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