Problem solving tool kit LO25449

From: Gavin Ritz (garritz@xtra.co.nz)
Date: 10/13/00


Replying to LO25432 --

Dear Winfried

Winfried Dressler wrote:

> >Would anyone with experience in these or other tools like to add to this,
> >or perhaps disagree and offer a different taxonomy?
>
> Dear Don and Gavin,
>
> Surely I don't mind if we set up such kind of 'taxonomy', but I must admit
> that I am very reluctant. May be I should keep my mouth closed and wait a
> while, but there are already many models named, so I wish to express my
> unease.
>
> First, the mentioned models are not naturally occuring species in
> corporate world, which could be carefully observed (first phase of
> scientific process). Thus the term 'taxonomy' disturbes me in this
> context. For a good taxonomy I recommend Strategy Safari my Henry
> Mintzberg or Images of Organization by Gareth Morgan.

I am not too sure what you mean by this Winfried, the models I am talking
about are used extensively in the business world in some of the most well
known and large Fortune 500 companies. There is very little consensus
anyway on many business theories or models.

Why not give it a stab anyway?
What harm can come out of it, almost nothing as I see it?
If it helps people why not, if it stops being useful throw it away use
something else.

> Second each of those models are very complex and require a real expert in
> it. This reminds me of the world of medical care.

I know enough about the models, I talk about, to gain very useful and
helpful insights into corporations and I hardly would class myself as an
expert.

> There are experts for
> many disciplines. And in a really bad (but not so uncommon) case, they
> make an anamnese of the symptoms and prescribe a pill, which is meant to
> cure from the symptoms. Ususally, if the patient is not a doctor himself,
> he does not know how the pill interacts in his body. By the time, with
> changing symptoms the patient will take many pills a day and the day will
> come when most of the symptoms are due to interactions of the pills in the
> body. The patient is fully dependent on the doctors although he would be
> best off with none of them.
>
> [Host: anamnese? ..Rick]
>
> The systematic for different situations and time frames seem to imply that
> a company is best of if they had implemented all of them - this would
> prepare them as good as possible (limits by current status of the models)
> for most situations in most time frames.

Have you ever tried any of these models? I have with the most astonishing
results, and no you don't have to use them all one just needs to see what
is going on, do a situational analysis and see what the major bottlenecks
are solve them one by one.

> I doubt that this will work for the company. It may work well for the
> doctor.

Doubts are one of the biggest blocks of all human creativeness, if Edison
ever doubted he would not invent the incandescent light bulb he would have
never had started to experiment. Anything can work man landed on the moon
in the 60's with technology that was pretty pathetic compared to what we
have today.

Winfried doubts and worries, concerns will only block the very creative
juices that you go on about so much." Your term midwife of learning". Use
your sensory acuity and you might be quite surprised.

kindest
gavin

-- 

Gavin Ritz <garritz@xtra.co.nz>

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