Gavin Ritz writes in LO25401:
> To date no best model covers all situations. If I want to solve a certain
> problem that has only a 1 year time horizon I would use the Kepner-Tregoe
> method. If I want to solve a problem at shop floor with a 3 month time
> horizon I will use the 5 Y's. If I have a 2-5 year problem I would use SSM
> or ST. If I have an accountability or structure problem I would use SST,
> if I want to look at recursiveness and take into account the law of
> requisite variety I would use VSM. If I had a shop floor problem that
> needed a 2 year time horizon I would use TOC. If I wanted to match
> environments to viable systems and utilize tensions I would use EKS.
This looks to me like the beginnings of something that could be quite
useful to a LO, or even someone in any organization trying to tackle a
particular problem: a taxonomy of organizational problem-solving tools.
Gavin addresses two dimensions here: time frame and the particular context
of the situation. I'll try to lay out the above to show it more clearly:
Time Frame Situation Model
---------- --------- -----
3 month Shop floor 5 Y's
1 year ??? Kepner-Tregoe
2 year Shop floor TOC
2-5 year ??? SSM, ST
??? accountability, SST
structure
??? recursiveness, VSM
requisite variety
??? SY-SU matching, EKS
utilize tensions
Gavin, I apologize if I've distorted your intent.
Would anyone with experience in these or other tools like to add to this,
or perhaps disagree and offer a different taxonomy? (It would also be
useful to add references to the model names.) I can imagine this turning
into something that would be worth maintaining on the LO web site.
Best regards,
[Host's Note: Gavin has pointed me to his web site which includes a
diagram that helped me understand his views. See
http://sites.netscape.net/gavinritz/info
...Rick]
--Don Dwiggins "All models are false, d.l.dwiggins@computer.org but some are useful" -- George Box, "Statistics for Experiments"
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.