TACTics Journal

A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners

October 4, 2002

In this week’s issue:

Networking

(1) Introduction: “Just Go With the Flow,” Cheryl A. Edwards

(2) “Just Go With the Flow,” From Petra Pouw-Legene

Reader’s Feedback

(3) Denise Meyer

Editors’ Notes

(4) Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards

NETWORKING

(1) Introduction: “Just Go With the Flow”

From Cheryl A. Edwards

Many of us, after learning the TOC tools, want to rush right into our

professional world and start using them. Immediately! Right now! Then the

questions set in:

Will they work?

Do I know the process well enough?

Will I apply them properly?

And, all sorts of others.

Petra shares a wonderful injection to the “Teach it to others right

away/Don’t teach it to others right away” conflict. If the Need for “Don’t

teach it right away” is to become more proficient at using the tools, then

what is the best way to really become proficient? As educators we

intuitively know the answer to that question, right? Read the following

article to find out what Petra did.

(2) “Just Go With the Flow”

From Petra Pouw-Legene, Netherlands.During the past week, I taught the tools of

TOCFE to a very close friend (let's call her Liz). It took us three days, in

which she learned to use the cloud, the negative branch and the ambitious

target. We used her own relevant dilemma's, problems and unsolved issues.

Liz discovered that for the first time in her life she had tools as she called

it "to make a real connection with the world." I used Mr. Goldratt's statement

from the conference that there are no problems in reality, so Liz learned

to look at the underlying beliefs or assumptions and at the references she used.

What I liked most about these three days was the flow and the energy that

came with this way of thinking and asking questions. Of course it has been

intensive, but it was never tiring and we both had the feeling that it was

timeless. At the moment, Liz is using the tools and making homework to find

out if she is going to accept a new job in an organisation or if she is going to

start her own private practise (in which she wants to use TOC as well). We

made an Ambitious Target and she began working on the first IO.

Two days later Liz and I invited her 85 year old mother (let's call her Anna)

to use TOC about the question if it might be time for her to consider giving

up her own apartment and moving to a home for the elderly. I told her in

advance that it was an experiment and that I had never done a session like

this, so that it was new for me as well.

I explained the purpose of the cloud to Anna and told her that using this

tool might help her to look at the problem from a different perspective. It

might give her a way to get out of the circle of thoughts and assumptions

she has had for months now on this very big issue. She wanted me to write

it down for her, so I used a big flipchart and drew the cloud.

After a lot of time and a very long list of assumptions on both sides, she

finally was able to find words to fill in the cloud:

D: Move to a home for the elderly

D': Stay in my own house

B:

C: Keep my freedom

A: Have a pleasant life

I wrote all the assumptions she had on the flipchart. We checked them all.

She said most of them were always true. But, the most touching part to

me was that Anna refused to fill in B. Every time she tried to think of

what need she might have that would make her want to move to a home for

the elderly, she went "blank". Even though I told her many times that it was

only an inventory in order to see what her real needs are and to find an

injection, she still did not want to put in anything for B. Was she afraid she

committed herself by filling in B? So, we left it open for that moment.

I asked her what talking about it had done for her. Anna said that she had

had two hours of hard-work thinking, but that it was different from the

brooding she had been doing at home.

Liz evaluated what had been said and done during that evening. Then she

came up with the injection for this moment. We all agreed to look into the

question: “What does it mean to keep my freedom?” Of course the family

around Anna also has the same need. If necessary, we'll be meeting again in

a few days.

Anna thanked me for the way I had listened to her. She took the sheet

from the flipchart home with her. This morning I talked to Liz on the phone.

She told that Anna had been very quiet and at peace with herself on the way

home. Liz herself said that the evening had taught her to ask questions like:

“Am I right when I think you mean….” Or, “Did I understand you correctly

when you said….” She learned to check her assumptions.

I learned even more—just go with the flow and not force any solution at

all. My attention was on the process and how to make that as clear as

possible for Anna.

I hope that this experience may help others who have the same issues to

deal with. It was kind of scary for me—to have such a major issue. I could

not help thinking: “How would a Jonah deal with it?” I do not have that much

experience.

I also hope to get responses from anyone who reads this story: Did I take

the right step in using the cloud? What would you have done? And what “to

keep my freedom” for means for you?

Thanks so much Mr. Goldratt for the tools. It's making the world a better

place indeed.

READER’S FEEDBACK.(3) Denise Meyer, California, USA

“Then they used the tools to involve the students in constructivist learning.”

I cut this sentence out of our last TACTics in reference to Manfred Smith's

submission. Educators have for years advocated a "constructivist learning

theory" but the "how to do it" has been elusive in the readings that I have

done.

I have learned, however, that the use of the TOC tools is a key to

constructivist learning. Through Eli's thinking processes, I have over and

over been required to rethink my view of reality. We have a "construct of

reality" in our minds that constructs colors and everything we see. It is

made up of the assumptions that our experiences and modeling by parents

and others in our lives have provided to us. One of the key things that Eli's

processes makes us and the students that we teach do is check our

assumptions and revise our view or "construct" of reality.

EDITORS’ NOTES

(4) Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards

Feel free to share with us. Send your responses, applications of the thinking

processes, lessons, announcements, and etc. by mail to: Cheryl A. Edwards,

2253 S. Hill Island Rd., Cedarville, Michigan 49719, USA. Or send hyperlink

to cedwards@cedarville.net or bucknek@earthlink.net.

To view TACTics in its intended formatting, visit our web site at

www.tocforeducation.com and click on “What’s New.”