1st Edition
The Human Constraint How Business Leaders Can Embed Continuous Innovation, Conflict Resolution, and Problem Solving Into Daily Practice
The Human Constraint is a business novel with supplementary material for business leaders. It is inspired by dozens of implementations of the Decalogue methodology in Europe and North America since 1996. The Decalogue blends Deming’s philosophy with the Theory of Constraints in a cohesive, systemic approach to management. The novel explores an increasingly complex, interdependent, and fast-changing world where companies must find a way to overcome obsolete mental models and embed continuous innovation in their operations with a coherent organizational model.
The story in Part One unfolds during the financial crisis that developed after 2008 and illustrates how this affects a group of executives engaged in a transformation process. It charts their attempts through the crisis to transform part of an industry dominated by a zero-sum game mentality using a very different approach: an ethical and value-based supply chain where all stakeholders benefit.
Through the narrative in Part One, readers are exposed to a way to embed continuous innovation, conflict resolution, and problem-solving in action. In Part Two they will find an introduction to a systemic method for management and the Thinking Processes from the Theory of Constraints.
These Thinking Processes can help them develop the skills to:
- Understand and analyze our current reality, as individuals and organizations.
- Surface assumptions that keep us trapped in less-than-desirable situations.
- Generate robust solutions/innovations.
- Identify unintended consequences of what may seem like an effective idea and avert them upstream.
- Resolve conflicts in a win-win way.
The knowledge, methods, and tools to overcome obsolete mental models and practices exist. This book aims to present the reader, through narrative and supplementary material, with elements of a new way and new economics that are fit for purpose in our age of complexity.
PART ONE
1. Unreal City
2. Stability and Chaos
3. Vertigo
4. The Deming Dimension
5. Dreams and Secrets
6. A Conflict in a Cloud
7. A Gap in the Skyline
8. An Invisible Web
9. Treasure Hunt in Dumbo
10. An Unrefusable Offer
11. The Woes of Winter
12. They’re All Traders
13. Arrivederci New York
14. Shaker Heights
15. Pictures from an Exhibition
16. But We’re Only Just Getting Started
17. Spring Awakening
18. Stuck in the Middle
19. Counterpoint
20. Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick, Slow
21. All That Fall
22. Aftershocks
23. Oh, Canada
24. Enter A Ghost
25. Inherent Conflict
26. East Coast, West Coast
27. Fire in the Hole
28. A Celebration
29. The Original Thought
30. Choices
31. The Human Constraint
32. A New Economics
PART TWO: Insights into a systemic management methodology and the Thinking Processes from the Theory of Constraints
Bibliography
Biography
Dr. Angela Montgomery co-founded the first Decalogue Method company with Dr. Lepore in Milan, Italy in 1996 and co-founded Intelligent Management in Canada in 2010 to expand the work in North America. As a Partner of Intelligent Management, she has worked with CEOs and Executive Teams to break down barriers, build organizations as networks, create a positive culture, and accelerate growth. The Intelligent Management team helps leaders counter the sub-optimization that silo-thinking and behavior bring in organizations and radically improve performance to build sustainable prosperity.
Angela’s years of experience in adult education, research, and writing have allowed her to contribute meaningfully over the years to the development and promotion of the Decalogue knowledge base since its inception. She has a Ph.D. from the University of London in Literature and Science and has published with Cambridge University Press, MacMillan, CRC Press, and Springer.
