About this Presentation
TOC offers a bold promise to leadership teams: it will help them FOCUS on what matters most. It tells us to focus on the Constraint. But real-world systems are messy—there are many goals, many constraints, many problems, many conflicts, and many possible solutions. So how do we find and focus on the next ONE Thing? This session introduces the ONE THING Focusing Cycle, a simple yet powerful way to cut through complexity. By combining Dr. Goldratt’s 5 Focusing Steps with his ProConCloud method, this step-by-step method helps teams and individuals identify and resolve the next 1 Goal, 1 Constraint, 1 Problem, 1 Conflict, 1 Innovation, and 1 Experiment to focus on. If you’re ready to move faster with more clarity and less overwhelm, this session is your next best step.
What Will You Learn
To help you get the most value from this session, we’ve highlighted a few key points. These takeaways capture the main ideas and practical insights from the presentation, making it easier for you to review, reflect, and apply what you’ve learned.
The session reveals why improvement efforts often stall: leaders focus on local problems instead of identifying the true system constraint that limits overall performance.
It shows how a disciplined process for discovering the single most impactful constraint enables organizations to concentrate improvement energy where it actually moves the needle.
The presentation illustrates how correctly diagnosing the constraint changes problem framing, aligns decision making, and avoids wasted effort on “symptoms” rather than root causes.
It emphasizes that solving the real constraint—not just relieving pressure—creates a cascading effect of improvement across flow, quality, and delivery time.
Instructor(s)
Dr Alan Barnard
Dr. Alan Barnard is a leading decision scientist and Theory of Constraints (TOC) expert with almost 20 years of experience working directly with Dr. Eli Goldratt, the creator of TOC. As the CEO of Goldratt Research Labs (USA), Alan focuses on using advanced technologies and decision sciences to develop Apps and Decision Support methods, enabling organizations to achieve more with less time. Under his leadership, Goldratt Research Labs has collaborated on innovation and research projects with renowned Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Cargill, BHP, Tata Steel, Amazon, and others, along with public sector organizations like Utah Governor's Office and UN WFP. Alan has held prominent roles in various organizations, including past-President of the South African Supply Chain Society SAPICS and past-President of TOCICO. His significant contributions have been recognized through prestigious awards, including inclusion in the 2020 Marquis Who's Who Global Listing, membership in the Forbes Technology Council, and the TOCICO Lifetime Achievement Award. He is an accomplished author and frequent presenter on Decision Making in a Complex World and Theory of Constraints at international conferences. Alan's latest book, "The Bottleneck - How to resolve our attention crisis," is currently in progress. As the chief architect of the award-winning HARMONY Decision Maker, Change Simulator, and Change Maker series of Decision Support Apps, Alan continues to shape the landscape of decision science and TOC. Please let me know if you need any further information or details.