About this Presentation
In Introduction to the Theory of Constraints: Strategy & Tactics — From ONE Goal to Everyone’s ONE Thing, Dr. Alan Barnard explains the origin, logic, and evolution of the TOC Strategy & Tactic Tree. Beginning with Eli Goldratt’s 1985 struggle to communicate change effectively inside his own organization, Alan shows how the 1:1 pairing of strategy and tactic emerged as a way to connect the objective of a change with the best way to achieve it. He then traces the method through its revival in Viable Vision implementations, where S&T Trees were used to prevent errors of omission, commission, and sequencing. The session moves from history into application, showing how each change can be defined through its assumptions, measurable objective, tactic, and implementation logic. Alan then introduces the simplified One Plan Method, which integrates design, stakeholder validation, Critical Chain planning, execution monitoring, and audit into one learning system. The result is a practical framework for aligning an organization around one goal, identifying the critical constraint at each level, and turning strategy into focused, executable action.
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.
Dr. Alan Barnard traces the Strategy & Tactic Tree back to a very practical leadership problem: communicating both the “what for” and the “how to.” He explains how Eli Goldratt’s frustration with repeated misunderstandings inside his own company led to the 1985 breakthrough of pairing every strategy with one tactic, so people understand both the objective and the intended way to achieve it.
Alan shows why the 1:1 Strategy–Tactic pairing matters for focus. Instead of treating strategy as one high-level idea with many disconnected tactics beneath it, the S&T structure forces leaders to distinguish the trivial many from the vital few and then identify the critical one that must be done first.
The session turns the S&T Tree into a practical execution system. Each change answers five questions: when is the change needed, what measurable objective should it achieve, why is it viable, how will it be implemented, and why more detail may still be required. Performance and compliance measures then show whether the expected result was achieved and whether the agreed tactic was actually executed.
Alan extends the original S&T concept into the “One Plan Method,” linking strategy, validation, project execution, and learning. The five-step method—Design, Validate, Plan, Execute, and Audit—turns the plan into a living learning system, with Critical Chain used for implementation and audits feeding new learning back into the design.
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.
Billy Soulis
Billy Soulis - Instructor, Black Belt in Thinking
Ian Heptinstall
Ian is an Associate Professor of Project Management at the University of Birmingham (UK).
He is a late-career academic, joining the University after 35 years of working in project management, procurement and management consulting.
His project & procurement experience primarily in the capex, construction & engineering fields.
He has been a regular TOCICO Conference attendee since 2011, and in 2020 he helped set up the annual Critical Chain virtual conference, to share CC real world experience with project management practitioners who have little or no knowledge of TOC or critical chain.
In 2016 he published “The Executive Guide to Breakthrough Project Management” about overcoming obstacles to using critical chain on capital/construction projects, in collaboration with Robert Bolton, and he supported Rene Nibbelke in producing the APM’s “Senior Managers’ and Project Managers’ Guide to Critical Chain” (2024