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.”