About this Presentation
This working session continues the Druid problem-solving sequence from mapping a recurring loop to deciding what to change to. Once a recurring problem has been expressed as a Druid loop, participants examine the cause-and-effect connections that keep the cycle active rather than jumping directly to a compromise or familiar fix. Peter Cronin guides participants to surface the assumptions supporting each connection, identify the weakest link in the logic, and use that leverage point to develop injections that can break the cycle. The session is designed around a real problem rather than an abstract example: participants may bring forward a Druid created in the earlier workshop or use a recurring problem from their own context. The emphasis is on testing the reasoning behind the proposed intervention so that the solution does more than reduce one side of the conflict while strengthening the other. Participants leave with a viable, logic-tested solution and a clearer method for moving from a mapped recurring problem to an intervention aimed at changing the underlying system. No prior TOC experience is required.
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.
How to move from a completed Druid loop to the next TOC question: what to change to.
How to surface and test the assumptions supporting the cause-and-effect connections that keep a recurring problem active.
How to identify the weakest link in the loop so effort is focused on the point with the greatest leverage rather than on every symptom.
How to develop and logic-test injections intended to break the cycle rather than compromise between the two recurring behaviors.
Instructor(s)
Peter Cronin
Peter is the head instructor of the Black Belt in Thinking (Thinking Process training course). Even after a decade of teaching others how to use these critical thinking tools, he is still endlessly fascinated by the innovative ways people think and learn. Whether they are leaders, business owners, entrepreneurs, or individuals, Peter’s passion is seeing and helping people create real solutions to what they thought were ‘unbreakable’ problems.
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