Theory of Constraints and its Thinking Processes

Overcoming Resistance to Change

TOC has developed a process based on the psychology of change that acknowledges and systematically addresses the questions people intuitively ask when evaluating a change.

1. Is the right problem being addressed - mine?

2. Is the general direction that the solution is heading a good one?

3. Will the solution really work to solve the problems and what’s in it for me?

4. What could go wrong? Who might get hurt?

5. How the heck are we going to implement this thing?

6. Are we really up to this? Do we have the leadership and the commitment to pull this change off successfully?

If these questions aren’t answered frankly and effectively with both the people who must implement the change and those who will be affected by it, the proposed change will not have the buy-in and support to succeed. Like most changes, no matter how great the idea or tremendous the value, the strategy and tactics are doomed from the outset.

The three questions, What to Change?, What to Change to?, and How to Cause the Change?, provide the framework for what’s called the TOC Thinking Processes. The Thinking Processes are a set of tools and processes that allows an individual or group to solve a problem and/or develop an integrated strategy using the rigor and logic of cause-and-effect, beginning with the symptoms and ending with a detailed action plan that coordinates the activities of all those involved in implementing the solution.

As a result of applying TOC’s Thinking Processes to countless organizations over three decades, generic TOC solutions have emerged that have applicability across all organizations, both for-profit or not-for-profit. To this day these applications continue to evolve, resulting in more and more significant and sustainable overall and bottom line performance improvements where implemented.