 It's raining so clearly we're not in Bangalore We're in Melbourne where I live now, and it's far more frequently raining than it is apparent here And so this diagram says if it is raining then I get wet and I consider that undesirable Does anyone have a problem with that? Are there any assumptions? Very good. Okay, so the diagram It's you're able to understand what the person means and Challenge the assumption you did it very naturally you looked at that and said I Don't think so that conclusion does not follow But just because it's raining I get wet because I could be in here and looking outside so When you challenge the assumption you uncover more information So this diagram says It's still a precondition. I can't stop it raining But if I take this action that I go outside and Both of those things happen, but if it's raining and I go outside, then I get wet That's a bit better Bit better anymore There you go. Oh, we're gonna get quick You are kidding okay If it's raining and I go outside and I forgot my umbrella, then I get wet. Okay, you get the idea Okay, so when anyone says something to you such as if you use agile everything will be fantastic If you don't use agile you'll whatever bad things you say culturally we say you go to hell then What you should do is beware of naive assertions. This is what this tool can help you do So you go to this conference for three days you get all excited about agile You learn all the stuff your brain's exploding and you go back to work and says Because people naturally Can tell a naive assertion and watch out Don't say things like that. It's naive definition of agile One of the things I think is Very important aspect of being agile is to be contextual specific your organization Might cannot just go from A to B and suddenly go from not being able to bring a job So beware of naive assertions and cuts both ways And let's move on a quick shout out to the tool that these diagrams are built with As far as I know, it's the only tool specifically built To draw these diagrams So what we just talked about if then diagrams There's three types of those in the TOC thinking processes. I'm going to speed this up Organization met them out and you work out the causes and you uncover the assumptions And you get to the real causes and that's how you fix them The future reality tree is the opposite you start with the desirable effects you'd like to see and Then work out what needs to happen to cause that Nice future reality. So you represent your current reality with its undesirable effects You represent the future reality with its desirable effects and Then you create a transition tree to take you from A to B and that would normally be something We'd spend two hours doing on a real example and we don't have time Oops, I didn't mean to do that Okay, there's another type which is a bit hard to understand so we'll Take you through some examples and that is where you know how I said the arrow means if then Sometimes it means if not then not which just means without that I can't have the other so That's called necessary condition thinking and I won't bother trying to explain that we'll just get some examples going So there's three types you can see them there and download the slides So here we go with an example how to plan anything in one hour So that includes world domination the Agile India conference your wedding anything Hopefully you'll use it for making your businesses more productive And that is called an intermediate objectives map. It has a very simple for that goal And for each critical critical success factor you have a network of necessary conditions and we'll take an example It'll make more sense. So let's say your goal is to run a great conference. So we've been E-mailing with Naresh who run to organize this conference because we're sponsoring it and You know, he's done a great job and it's really really complex. So That you might not have had to organize a conference, but you can imagine how complex it is So that's your goal They start with that Then you say what are the critical success factors that without if we fail Without all of them if we don't have these we're dead So here's just a couple of examples. This is heavily simplified But you have to provide a great program a great great program of speakers a great amount of content You probably all agree that for a conference to be successful it needs to provide a great program It also needs to provide a great experience for the attendees. Would we all agree? Okay, so that's just there would be more than that right it has to not Hemorrhage cash right it has to not kill the volunteer committee, you know, there's more right but Simple example Then you keep working your way down now So Elements of creating a great experience. What are the necessary conditions for that to be true? Again a simple example anything that must be true To have ticked off if provided a great experience The attendees love the venue That's something that's a necessary condition of having a great experience. Would you agree? So this is a great venue. Do we all think it's a great venue? So we're happy our experience is good because we this is a great place and foods great services great We love the venue This one's a bit harder attendees know what's going on all at all times It's a bit harder, but it's a necessary condition when you've got 750 people are all making their own way through the conference and trying to maximize the value Having them know what's going on at all times is a challenge They're two examples of conditions that are necessary to provide that great experience We've also got Breaking down a great program providing a great program. What's true of that? Well, there's got to be something for everyone So you can see in the design of the program for this conference There's things for the introductory level expert level practicing level on a whole different range of topics People leadership all that vast number of tracks they've got for different levels So they're clearly demonstrating they want to provide something for everyone And a good mix of local and international speakers So I think you'd agree that they've done that at this conference and that's good So planning this way The key tip is to plan top down from the goal down But to execute bottom up And the question comes up always when do you stop planning And you stop planning when the things at the bottom look like things you can do Do or delegate So these programs get more complex than this clearly But they map perfectly well to accountability for outcomes So you designate someone to construct a great program You designate someone to provide the great experience So it maps perfectly well So top down planning, bottom up execution Reach any goal including world domination Good luck with that So here's another great thing you can do with the thinking processes Which is resolve any conflict That's a big claim isn't it? But it's true At least it's a technique to allow you to work out how to do it And get the people to do it Different thing So it's a type of thinking process called a conflict resolution diagram It used to be called an evaporating cloud Dr. Goldbrat who invented it Considered what he was doing was making conflict disappear in a pop of smoke So I'll go through the structure with an example So this is a semi real example Imagine the people who run your company are considering an acquisition So there's this company XYZ And some of the bosses want to buy it And some of the bosses don't want to buy it That's a conflict in the theory of constraint sense Because it represents two states that cannot both exist You cannot both buy the company and not buy the company So that is a conflict I'm talking about a conflict where I pushed him in the pool Two states of being that cannot both exist So somebody has a want to buy the company Someone has a want to not buy the company So the trick is to work out why they want that So let's say we do that And then it's called working out what they actually need So those who are lobbying to buy that company Are wanting to maximize the growth of the business Which is a good thing Those who want to not buy the company Are trying to maintain product focus That's a good thing too So Dr. Goldrat who invented this Said something startling that I admit I still struggle with But I haven't disproved it So it's one of those I'm still working on an objective I'll just pause for a year or two while you process that It'll take a while, it'll take a while Just let it be You can't have a conflict unless you have a common objective So because if you didn't have a common objective You could just go your separate ways And do your own thing That's the fundamental reason why And I keep looking for examples where it's not true and haven't found them So let's assume it's true for the moment until disproven So the next step is to work out what the common objective of the people with the conflict is So in this simple example They share the common objective to run a successful business So the people involved in the conflict would probably both agree That running a successful business is a good thing And you need both to maximize growth and to maintain focus to do that Both, you need both of these to succeed So what we're trying to do is make the conflict disappear without compromising what they need We will have to compromise what they want I don't know if you guys are familiar with the Rolling Stones Yeah, you can't always get what you want Is that a song that you guys know? You can't always get what you want Which might get what you need, which is more important So who can think of something that we could do Let me ask the Java... Have we got any Java programmers in the room? I'm a Java programmer or used to be They don't let me code anymore Only a few Because in Java you have the concept of an interface You have it in other programming languages as well And you might have a general purpose interface like a list And then you have different implementations of that So you have a linked list or an array list And some programmers work at the level of the interface And some tend to work at the level of the implementation And get wedded to their implementation So what this is talking about is You have to unlock the hold that people have on their implementation So the person lobbying for this wants to grow the business That's what they want That's what they need to grow the business But the implementation of that at this moment that they're focused on Is buying that company and that's all they can see But you have to lift their eyes and say That is one implementation of growing the business There are an infinite number of alternate strategies for growing the business Like can anyone help these guys resolve this conflict? I've got a pre-canned one But if you're in this situation trying to resolve this conflict What might you suggest? Buy a company at ABC That would still violate keeping focus No? There you go Maybe set up a separate division Focus on that There you go That was kind of what I came up with So I said you might establish a global reseller network Maybe you're selling your product in one region So you take that money And keep your product focus But expand the number of customers you sell it to as an example So that's the basic way you resolve any conflict Now where it comes unstuck To the road is that people will not let go of their implementation They're focused and they want to buy that company And they've invested a lot in it And you can't get them to let go of it So you just have to shoot them That was a joke That was an Australian style joke So you don't shoot them You try and get them to look at why they want to do it And why the other party wants to do what they want to do And work out how you can give them everybody what they need Without compromising It's not about getting one party to lose And the other to win So you can try that at home To resolve the next conflict you come across So what's your example Okay Okay So let me just try and take that example So you've already got a dam and the debate is whether to get rid of it Okay I've never heard of that example Fair enough In Australia We debate about whether to build them or not You guys It's a debate about whether to knock it down Yep Okay That is a good example You can't both knock it down and not knock it down So that is a theory of constraints conflict So Why do the people want to knock it down Okay So what they want Is the people to be safe Right And what do the people who want to keep it What are the No no it can It can I'm not sure that in the two minutes we have left But I'm very Their common objective This is similar to Israel, Palestine and all those sorts of things The common The common objective From someone who's not an Israeli or a Palestinian It's When you look at that conflict Those two peoples are very very similar They have very very Very strong traditions Very strong family values And their common objective is to Have a good life with their families That's the common objective They all want that And one person having that doesn't stop someone else having it They are wedded to their implementation of that That's the problem And the only way to resolve it Is to get to alternate implementations of that So there is a common objective Sorry The people there would say it But they stopped bombing each other Was it resolved There you go Yeah So I have no view on that I have no view But very happy You know you can have really great conversations about this stuff And I'm just a messenger Don't shoot me If you don't like it I didn't make it up So what can you do with this agile thinking These real tools Examine the root cause of your problems With the current reality tree And the undesirable effects of what's causing it You can plot a course to a better future By imagining the positive desirable effects you want And working out what needs to be true to cause that And uncover the assumptions that people have That are incorrect When you're doing the planning You can plan very quickly And thoroughly I can't emphasize thoroughly enough When you plan top down from a goal And ask all the stakeholders what's critical to them Some people who are always about the money Some people who are always about the time Some people who are always about the features And if you plan holistically You'll get a better result And you can resolve conflicts Without compromise At least in theory So we're hiring We're agile We're cool Come and work for us There you go Jimmy just 68 Unless you didn't like it And you can download this from tinyurl.com Slash agile thinking Okay so we're out of time I have to run the test Who knows more about TOC thinking processes Than they did half an hour ago Okay tick Who thinks they might actually be able To derive something useful From the last half an hour they invested Excellent Who enjoyed themselves That's my definition of done Thank you very much