Customer Reviews

Thinking for a Change: Putting the TOC Thinking Processes to Use (The CRC Press Series on Constraints Management)

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At the end of the book, the author states

"My intent with this book was to provide you with a user friendly set of guidelines to the Thinking Processes"

Lisa has succeeded brilliantly in accomplishing this goal! Goldratt, through his business novels, "The Goal", "It's Not Luck", "Critical Chain", and "Necessary But Not Sufficient" laid a foundation which enables anyone to ease into an understanding of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and the Thinking Processes (TP).

"Thinking for a Change" is one of a number of books which build on Dr. Goldratt's work. The Thinking Processes are explained and illustrated in layman's terms. The situations (dilemmas) used to illustrate Thinking Process applications include scenarios from both the business world and everyday family issues.

Upon reading this book, you will gain an understanding of the following:

Current Reality Tree - Used to examine cause and effect relationships that bring about the present situation.

Prerequisite Tree - A road map of obstacles to overcome, and specifically how they will be overcome.

Transition Tree - Used to identify and understand specific objectives and actions that will lead to a change (Future Reality)

Future Reality Tree - A tool for visualizing and understanding the desired change and how specific actions will affect that future reality.

Evaporating Cloud - A simple tool used to identify and resolve conflicting assumptions.

If you are familiar with and believe in TOC methodologies, this book is a must have. The best introductory materials are Dr. Goldratt's novels mentioned above. "Thinking For a Change" is one step up. It's more in depth, and more easily understood with at least minimal familiarity with TOC. If you've read this and are looking for hardcore TOC material, check out William Dettmers' "Goldratt's Theory of Constraints"

I have been inrterested in Theory of Constraints for many years. However, I work in a world that is slow to change and did not offer the opportunity to openly apply this new theory. Recently the international corporation that I work for, asked me to undertake a study on one of our internal benefit programs. Three years running this problem was a major employee hot spot on the satisfaction survey. Despite numerous efforts the problems remained. As part of a working group I was asked to see what I could find out. I had just read Lisa's book and decided this was an ideal opportunity to do a complete Theory of Constraints approach on this issue. When I told senior management they were skeptical, but decided anything was worth a try. It was scheduled for a six months study. I said I would follow the processes in Lisa's book. Bottom line results: Lisa's book has processes that you can follow immediately after reading; the processes keep you on track; the problem was solved in three months. I have been asked to take the lead on another project that may benefit from Theory of Constraints processes. Unlike my old calculus classes the intuitively obvious steps are included and make this a must read.

I recently finished reading the Thinking for a Change book and I am very impressed. I have now bought at least a half dozen copies and have started distributing them at work. This book is the most straightforward approach to actually beginning to apply the Thinking Processes that I have seen to date, and I have been doing a fair amount of reading on this over the past few months as my long term interest in TOC got revived six to eight months ago.

I have found this book and Thomas McMullen's book on the Theory of Constraints Management System to the be the best written of the latest crop of books to come out on this subject. Bill Dettmer's books provide much more detail, but Scheinkopf's stands out for its easy to follow examples and straightforward methodology.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in making more rapid progress toward their business or personal goals.

In "The Theory of Constraints and Its Implications for Management Accounting", the authors hail TOC's "Thinking Processes" as "...perhaps the most important intellectual achievement since calculus". The authors go on to comment on how these "Thinking Processes" are difficult to understand by most people.

With the release of "Thinking for a Change", Lisa has provided the "Thinking Processes" tools in a very accessible format. The everyday examples show us the power and the wide validity of these breakthrough problem solving tools. For veteran "Jonahs", the book provides tips on coaching others in the "Thinking Processes", and insight into the development of the tools that I've not found anywhere else.

For those with no introduction to the Theory of Constraints (TOC's) "Thinking Processes", they represent a paradigm shift in problem solving. A root cause analysis can be developed using the effect-cause-effect logic adopted from the scientific method. The old paradigm was if you don't understand something, collect more data. The new paradigm is that to understand something, you form effect-cause-effect logic and test it. The rules used to test the validity of the logic are presented in Lisa's book with everyday, yet compelling examples.

The validity of these "Thinking Processes" have been proven in application to organizational science, management science, as well as in the technical fields. The proof can be seen in the Profit and Loss statements of those companies who have adopted TOC as a overall management philosophy.

If you have found the writing of Senge, Wheatley, Covey, Gleich, and/or Pragiogini compelling, don't stop exploring until you have given TOC's "Thinking Processes", as outlined in Lisa's book a chance.

Scott Button, P.E., MSME, Jonah; Senior Specialist Engineer; Manufacturing R&D (in a major aerospace company.)

Thinking for a change (T4aC) is an excellent review of the TOC Thinking Processes. It is written in easy to understand language and provides simple, straightforward examples of how, where and why to use the various TOC thinking tools. The big insight from this book is that it presents the tools out of the normal sequence and demonstrates how they are independently useful. This will help those new and familiar with TOC to better understand the specific roles of the various tools and how they fit together.

Ms. Scheinkopf also provides very nice step-by-step guidelines for using each of the tools. While no one will ever become a Jonah by reading a book, this one sets the reader up for success by explaining the basics and providing examples that show how using TOC is a natural process and can be used in daily tasks and relationships.

I really hesitated to pay [$] for a book that is not directly related to my profession, somewhat short, and had an unkown beneficial value. Being casually familiar with the thinking processes from It's Not Luck, I went ahead and bought the book. I'm not disappointed. In about a month it has paid for itself several times over. It's not an easy read, but if your curious enough to be reading this, you can understand it. If your a professional with a wife and kid(s), it is a must for both work and home.

If you're interested in the practical application of the Theory of Constraints, this is an outstanding introduction. Scheinkopf gives a straightforward and accessible overview of the thinking processes and diagrams, along with a wealth of examples (including some very practical approaches to situations in her own family). Highly recommended.

On the TOC listserv (subscribe-cmsig@lists.apics.org), John Gaulin recently wrote:

Just a quick note of thanks -- and congratulations -- for the great work that is "Thinking for a Change". (By the way, great title too!).

I am a recent Jonah, having completed the program in October at the Insititute. Your book takes a very different approach to teaching the TP and helped clear up alot of things.

Also, thanks for showing the way of a true helping Jonah by being so active on the net. You really live your beliefs and it is wonderful.

We too often take great effort and contributions for granted. I want you to know that yours is not (being taken for granted).

Sincerely, John Gaulin

Lisa Scheinkopf hit the bull's-eye with this book! A superb book all around. She makes it fun and INTERESTING to learn how to use the TOC Thinking Processes.

This is the best contribution to disseminating the practical use of these tools to date. Who else (beside Dr. Goldratt) could create such a peice of work on this subject. Lisa is probably the second most experienced in the use of these tools and apparently one heck of an author!

Bravo, Lisa.

I read various books regarding the Theory of Constraints. Except for the chapter on prerequisite trees, this book explains how to use the theory very well to solve your daily problems. It also gives you a wealth of exercises that you can use to improve your practice of the theory.