TACTics Journal
A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners
August  2007

 

In this issue:

 

-  A Welcome Note by the Editor

-  Update on  TOCfE 10th International Conference Events Kathy Suerken

-  TOCfE gathering in Holland  Petra Pouw-Legêne, Holland

-  A note of thanks Kathy Suerken

-  After the Odyssey experience Ana Maria Conde, Colombia

-  Malaysia  AGOAL team’s Ambitious Target Matt, Maylasia

 

A Welcome Note by the Editor

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Well, the month of August is usually a quiet time in Serbia so not much has been happening around here. I have been rather proud of our winning tennis players (Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic) and rather concerned about the hooliganism of our football fans. In September issue of TACTics there will be a report from Israel where they mention using TOC tools to improve the performance of a youth football team, which has really inspired me. Something to think about as a future project!

Here in this issue, we start with an update on the conference in Florida, hear a little bit about the Odyssey for alumni in Holland and a TOCfE gathering right after that, find out how Ana Maria’s process of growing up and maturing unfolds and learn about the Malaysian AGOAL team’s working on the ambitious target to attend the conference in Florida.

I would like to thank all of you who drop a note with comments or feedback from time to time. I usually like to feel that what I do is really meaningful, but sometimes things I do become just things I do and I do them simply as chores. And then comes a note from one of you (particularly if it is someone I don’t know) and I remember why I do this. It’s a selfish reason, I admit, but I love the experience of the world being huge enough for an endless exploration and discovery and yet small enough for people from different parts of the globe to share, connect, touch one another’s lives…

All the best,

Zana Borisavljevic  jana.b@talk21.com 

 

Update on  TOCfE 10th International Conference Events Kathy Suerken

 

October 11-14,  2007

Ramada Plaza Beach Resort

Ft. Walton Beach, Florida USA

Conference registration and for more information : www.tocforeducation.com

Dr. Eli Goldratt Keynote Lunch:    Friday, October 12

 

Other Keynote Speakers:   Dr. Marta Bogdanowicz,  Thursday, Oct 11.

Professor  Bogdanowicz of the University of Gdansk, Poland is Vice President of the World  Dyslexia Association  and author of 15 books.

                                           Julie Wright, Sunday, Oct 14. 

Julie Wright, from United    Kingdom, is author of We All Fall                        Down  and Education Director of TOCH

 

Upgrade Workshop:        The Strategic and Tactic Tree.  Facilitated by Dr. Eli Goldratt.

 

Plenary Presentations Include:

 

“How to SEE and UNLOCK Inherent Potential Within Each of Ourselves and Others.”

                                                                          Alan Barnard,  Republic of South Africa

“Changing the Paradigms of Inmates in Singapore Jails Through TOC”

                                                                          Christina Cheng, Singapore

“The 4 Characteristics of Teaching Materials  Dr.  Danilo Sirias,      USA

 

“A Holistic TOC School Implementation”          Rosie Servin,   Mexico

 

“Empowering Disadvantaged Women to Make Sense of Their Lives”

                                                                         Rafael and Francis Conde, Colombia

“Managing Change”                                         Oded Cohen,   Israel

 

“Research Results from a Study to Assess TOC in an Application to Children’s Psychosocial Development”                            Edyta Sinacka-Kubik, Poland

 

“Thinking for Change:  Creating a Successful Future”   Dr.    James Holt,     USA

 

“A Secretariat of Education Project on the Use of TOC for Student Dropout Prevention”

                                                                                       Daniel Brown,  Mexico

“Why I Teach TOC to My Medical Students”   Dr. Antoine Gelder, Republic of South Africa

 

“A Rotary Club TOCfE  Initiative                     Olu Odewammi, Nigeria      

 

 

 

TOCfE gathering in Holland  Petra Pouw-Legêne, Holland

                                                                              pouw.legene@planet.nl

From July 27th to 30th the Odyssey for alumni took place in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands. There, Kathy Suerken, Christina Cheng from Singapore, Annemie Knibbe and I from Holland met and formed a little group of TOCFE enthusiasts within the bigger group of young business alumni. Ana Maria Conde from Colombia was also present. She was one of the trainers.

 

It was a wonderful experience to meet Eli and to learn from him while working on a topic that we hope to be able to present at the conference and share with everybody.

Because we were already together in Holland and because Kathy had some time left before she had to travel to Poland, she offered to give us a preview of her ideas about training the trainer. (See the long letter Kathy wrote about that in Tact Journal a few months ago). We were planning to drive to my house after the Odyssey and spend two days together. Kathy happened to mention this plan to some others in the network and before she and I knew it, our house was too small for all the excited responses from people who also wanted to come. In no time the group grew from 5 to 13 people from different countries! I have friends who run a conference centre in a renovated farm in the north-east of Holland. Thanks to Hans van der Kooij from the Caesar Groep in Holland, who sponsored our stay, we were able to spend an intensive and enlightening two and a half days together at that farm.

 

For Annemie and me it has been overwhelming but also very stimulating to meet so many wonderful people who were all so involved in TOCFE. Thank you, Kathy, for the delightful seminar.  As far as I am concerned, I hope and dream that we can share what has been talked about and taught with everybody else in TOCFE in the near future.

 

A note of thanks Kathy Suerken        suerken@cox.net

TOCfE wishes to thank Hans van der Kooij  and Caesar Groep, NL for sponsoring venue and accommodation for a European TOCfE  facilitator upgrade  that was held in Netherlands July 31-August 1, taught by Kathy Suerken, and attended by  12 TOCfE facilitators.    A note of warm appreciation  is extended also to Petra  Pouw-Legene for helping to organize this event.

 

After the Odyssey experience Ana Maria Conde, Colombia

Lately I have realized that even though TOC is not “the whole” it helps me to search, open and understand other possibilities. As I once said, TOC is not only a theory; it is a way of living. And until last year I really didn’t know how to apply TOC in my whole life, especially in my personal life.

 

When I went to Odyssey, thanks to an awesome guidance and great friends, I started to realize that my emotions and reactions had a meaning, and that I could achieve being “happy enough”. And now, for the second time there in Odyssey, I had an opportunity to help others in their learning, but I ended learning more from them. It is amazing how I feel today, I feel happy and calm, each day I know more that this is what I want to do in my life.

 

And more than doing projects and having amazing ideas, it is learning from others through teaching, studying, listening to people that care about you and learning from people you assume that do not give things to your life, that is the way to make your life meaningful and better. And now I get finally to open my eyes and see how lucky I am for having the family I have, the TOC family, the opportunity to learn, to travel, to study, to meet people from all over the world and to create my own opinions and take my own decisions

 

Malaysia  AGOAL team’s Ambitious Target Matt, Maylasia

 

Right after we were told that the 10th TOCFE conference would be held in Florida, United States, all of us avidly started on our Ambitious Target. Our excitement and enthusiasm were already a great start for our plan to attend the next TOCFE conference.

 

Obstacles are something everyone tries to avoid. Typically, in an Ambitious Target, the ‘obstacle’ column will never be absent. As usual, we ought to find actions to solve the obstacle faced in order to define our Intermediate Objectives and fulfil the common goal. This time we are bound to face more challenging ones!

 

All 6 of us, young ambassadors of our country, pretty much share the same obstacles. One of them is ‘time’. We are all 9th Grade students and the teachers aren’t giving us any mercy to reduce the amount of homework! To top it all, the list of many undone assignments and projects prevented us from proceeding in what we are doing. The worst  thing in school are exams. And this year, it’s no ordinary exam – it’s the Junior High Evaluation Test which is a public examination. We face a tough dilemma whether or not to choose between our duties as a student or an AGOAL member because both are important in our lives.

 

Another major obstacle we are facing in order to head to Florida is the source of money needed for the flight ticket. Most of us do not come from well-off background. Therefore it is a burden to fork out 5,000+ Malaysian Ringgit over the flight ticket. AGOAL Malaysia is not an established group in Malaysia yet. Mrs. Nor Zamani has appealed to the Malaysian government to make AGOAL Malaysia an established group but according to her, it takes a while for it to be approved. At this very moment when the conference is about to be held a month away, there is unfortunately not much time left.

 

Thirdly, to make going to Florida happen in a very hectic year for everyone, it is certainly not easy to bring everyone together for meetings despite the fact that the 6 of us are classmates. All of us are busy with our individual study revision and furthermore, we do not have a proper team leader or a director to lead the team. The weekly MSN Messenger chat meeting with Mdm. Francis is not being practiced often anymore.

 

Last but not least, for the Muslim members of AGOAL Malaysia, their annual Hari Raya celebration is coincidentally on the same day as the 10th TOCFE conference. Hari Raya is a celebration in which a family will all reunite with each other and pray in the mosque. Therefore the four Muslim members would most likely not be able to attend the conference.

 

Nevertheless, these obstacles are not going to make us give up hoping. They only bring us one step closer in becoming wiser people with a tough personality. Thanks to the overwhelming support by everybody, I am sure ain’t no mountain’s high enough for us to reach! But regardless what the outcome is, we want all the TOCFE crew to know that we are still devoted to TOCFE and AGOAL and will serve passionately to make the vision of TOCFE and AGOAL come true. We love each and everyone of you and let us all pray and keep our fingers crossed so that we could meet each other this coming October.

Written by Matthew

 

AMBITIOUS TARGET:  Attend the 10th TOCFE conference in Fort Walton Beach, Florida

 

Obstacles

Intermediate Objectives

Actions/Solutions

People in charge

Verdict

1. We don't know whether our parents allow us or not

2. We know whether our parents allow us or not

* Ask them for their approval

Individual

DONE

2. We don’t know how to convince our parents about the conference in Florida this year.

1. We know how to convince our parents about the conference in Florida this year.

* We talk to our parents rationally and patiently.

Individual

DONE

* Tell them about how TOCFE has changed our to the better

Individual

DONE

3.  We are not sure about our visas.

11. We get confirmation about our visas

* Call up the American embassy.

Matt

DONE

4. We don’t know what we will be doing there-learning/teaching/etc

14. We know what we will be doing there.

* Ask during the AGOAL chat meetings

Wlian

DONE

5. We don’t know when will the invitation letter will be ready.

 

15. We know when the invitation letter will be ready

 

* Ask Kathy

Francis

 

6. We don’t know how to persuade the school principal because it is his first year in our school.

16. We know how to persuade the school principal.

* We talk to him rationally

* We tell him what have we learnt and what activities have we done which has in directly bring good name to the school and nation.

Alya

 

7. We don’t know how to get approval from the Ministry of Education, Malaysia.

17. We know how to get approval from the Ministry of Education, Malaysia.

* Have a meeting with Mrs. Zamani

Wei Lian

 

8. We don’t know when the confirmation from the Ministry of Education, Malaysia is.

18. We know when the confirmation from the Ministry of Education, Malaysia is.

* Have a meeting with Mrs. Zamani

* Enquire the staff of the ministry once we send the approval letters.

Matthew

 

9. We don’t know which teacher to accompany us to Florida, USA since Mrs. Ean and Mrs. Zamani won’t be there.

19. We know which teacher to accompany us to Florida, USA.

* Talk to the school organization.

Hanisah

 

10. We don’t know whether we need to get sponsor for the teacher.

20. We know whether we need to get sponsor for the teacher.

* Ask him/her

Wei Lian

 

11. We don’t know what flight there is to Florida, U.S.

3. We know what flight there is available.

* Check on the internet.

Alya & Han

 

* Enquire the travel agency.

Matt & Wlian

 

12. We don’t know how much the air tickets costs

4. We know how much the air tickets costs.

* Survey on which flight there is available and most reasonable.

Alya, Han, Matt & Wlian

 

* Check on the internet.

Alya & Han

 

* Enquire the travel agency

Matt & Wlian

 

13. We don't know whether we can afford to pay for the air tickets

5. We know whether we can afford to pay for the air tickets

* Ask how much is the flight ticket.

Alya, Han, Matt & Wlian

 

* Ask for sponsors

Francis

 

14. We don't know who to ask for sponsors

6. We know who to ask for sponsors

* Search in the website for the companies who contributed in TOCFE  Malaysia.

Han & Francis

 

* Call Mrs. Ean

Matt

 

15. We don’t know how to ask for sponsors.

7. We know how to ask for sponsors.

* Ask advice from parents.

Individual

 

16. We don't know whether we have time to complete our A.T before heading to Florida?

8. We know whether we have enough time to complete our A.T before heading to Florida

* Settle down everything as soon as possible.

Individual

 

* Plan our time systematically

Nad

 

17. We don't know if the preparation may affect our exam grades

9. We know whether the preparation will affect our exam grades

* Create a systematic timetable.

Nad

 

* Prepare our studies few months ahead.

Individual

 

18. We don’t know if “Hari Raya” befalls on the same day as the TOCFE event

10. We know when is Hari Raya

* Check the calendar.

Alya

 

19.  We don't know who really wants to go to Florida this year

12. We know who really wants to go to Florida this year

* Ask our parents

Individual

 

20. We don't have an adult to supervise and accompany us

13. We know whether there’s an adult to accompany us

* Wait till we know who is going to Florida.

Wlian