TOCICO

We all want our TOC initiatives to bear fruit. TOC initiative seeds sown by the various consulting, academic and industrial organizations differ little although the fruit that they bear may vary a lot. Why is that? Ponder a fruit orchard. What we want is more juicy fruit. What determines the quality and quantity of fruit from the tree? It is the soil. Who is the one that determines the added nutrients and the amount of water, etc for the soil? The farmer. So – let’s use the analogy that the farmer is the leader who nurtures the soil and that the soil is the culture in which our ideas of improvement grow. The better the leadership, the better the soil thus the more fruit we get from our efforts. This presentation focused on improving leadership. We discussed there were two pathways we could take – an attribute model or a self-awareness model. The attribute model is one where we measure key attributes for proven leaders then measured those same attributes of the person we were trying to develop. We would then do a gap analysis and this person would be sent off to do work to narrow the gaps. That does not make a lot of sense. The self-awareness model is one where the person learns how their leadership behavior impacts others with the idea of adapting their style when needed. The presentation then discussed how dogs were a wonderful mirror one could use in a self-awareness model because they gave you instant feedback and that dogs must have a leader. So – if you are not providing adequate leadership, the dog will quickly let you know. The presentation focused on “trust” and its importance in relationships, leadership and information flow. There were some practical pointers on how to view trust with your employees/co-workers.