Jonah Program^®

Often chronic, strategic problems need a unique, robust solution that must be created by people in the organization. This is the case when determining the strategy of a company and in solving a host of problems where no “standard” solution exists and critical thinking is required.

The critical thinking process for creating these unique, robust solutions is taught and applied in the Jonah Program^® to an important real world problem of each student’s choosing. The problems they choose must extend beyond their immediate area of control and yet remain within their area of influence.

The combination of each participant’s intuition coupled with the Thinking Process Tools helps them create powerful solutions with implementable roadmaps that solve their real world problems. Equally important, participants completing their Jonah Program^® certification will be better prepared for dealing with new and unique problems that appear in all aspects of their lives.

Getting the approval, collaboration and buy-in for major changes is essential. In the Jonah Program^® participants invest time internalizing the Theory of Constraints (TOC) Six Steps to Buy-in. These steps form a systematic process that enables each person to circumvent resistance to change by building the understanding, ownership and consensus of the people who need to embrace the vision and work on the deployment plan.

Key Topics / Objectives:

• Participants learn to create and communicate through the use of “cause and effect” (if…then…logic).
• Using this logic participants construct an analysis of the As-Is state called the Current Reality Tree and find the underlying conflict, the core conflict, which is holding their problems in place.
• They do this by acquiring the ability to represent a conflict using the Conflict Cloud while at the same time learning to expose the hidden assumptions which provide the keys to resolving the conflict in a win-win way.
• Participants next use cause and effect logic to construct a complete solution for their real world problem, one that solves all of its inherent problems and doesn’t create any new problems in the process. This is called the Future Reality Tree and defines their Vision of the future.
• Next the participants create a robust implementation roadmap that charts the milestones that must be achieved to ensure that their Vision of the future is actually realized.
• Participants must also learn how to address the realities of creating a “system change” that often changes the status quo. The tactics for accomplishing this change are defined by mapping out the major implementation obstacles and identifying the key intermediate points and actions necessary to overcome those obstacles. This is accomplished through the use of the TOC Thinking Process Tools called the Prerequisite Tree and the Transition Tree.
• Participants are now ready to create buy-in presentations that will help them get the approvals they need while ensuring that others are on board with the change. This will enable their implementations to proceed.

The Jonah Program^® agenda includes:

Week 1

• Introduction to the Jonah Program^® and the TOC Thinking Processes.
• Discussions and exercises for participants to help them choose the real world problem they will address during the Jonah Program^®.
• Focusing on the As-Is state and answering the first question – “What to Change.”
  • Discussion and exercises for identifying undesirable effects (i.e., the inherent problems) for each participant’s real world problem.
  • The first exercise for using cause and effect logic – Understanding the interdependencies between the undesirable effects.
  • Discussion and exercises for understanding the conflicts underlying key undesirable effects.
  • Discussions and exercises for identifying the Core Conflict that keeps the undesirable effects in place.
  • Using cause and effect logic to connect the Core Conflict to the undesirable effects of each student’s real world problem.
  • Understanding the techniques used to scrutinize cause and effect logic and ensure that the connections are clear and solid.
  • Discussion and hands on exercises that enable participants to finalize the Current Reality Tree and to clearly answer the question of “What to Change.”
• Focusing on the To-Be state and answering the second question – “What to Change to.”
  • Discussions and exercises on revisiting the Core Conflict and determining ways to break out of the Core Conflict once and for all.
  • Discussions and exercises on determining the desired effects – the desirable targets for the future state.
  • Discussions and exercises on using cause and effect logic to build the Future Reality Tree to ensure that the desired effects can be achieved, thus defining the changes that must be put into place (i.e., injections).
  • Discussion and application of effective ways to scrutinize the Future Reality Tree.
  • Ensuring that the Future State is robust – discussions and exercises to ensure that there are no negative side effects in the future state.
  • Ensuring that all of the future state injections are implementable.

Week 2

• Continuing to focus on the To-Be state and answering the question – “What to change to.”
  • Future Reality Tree review and student process check.
  • Completing the Future Reality Tree and ensuring that it is robust and implementable.
• Focusing on implementing the To-Be state and answering the third question – “How to Cause the Change.”
  • Discussion and exercises for creating an implementable roadmap for the change.
  • Discussion and exercises for using the Pre-requisite Tree to map out what must be accomplished to overcome the obstacles to implementation.
  • Discussion and exercises for using Transition Trees to map out detailed action steps.
  • Discussions on the Buy-in Process and effective ways to create buy-in presentations.
  • Participants present and discuss each other’s buy-in presentations.
  • Participants submit all required materials for Jonah Program^® certification.

Target Audience: Business Analysts, Organizational Leaders, persons charged with alleviating chronic problems, persons charged with identifying, solving and executing strategy or strategic elements.