Introduction to Harmony

Sir Isaac Newton defined the foundation of all modern science in his famous quote: “‘Natura valde simplex est et sibi consona” which, translated into English, means ““Nature is exceedingly simple and harmonious with itself” and which captures the two fundamental beliefs of the “Hard Sciences’.

With his "Theory of Constraints", Dr. Eli Goldratt introduced these fundamental beliefs of the “hard sciences” and, as importantly, the thinking processes and methods of a scientist, to the world of analyzing, improving and managing organizations and supply chains that appear to become more and more complex and with many unresolved internal conflicts. Over the past 30 years, thousands of organizations around the globe have shown how the application of these simple yet powerful beliefs, thinking processes and methods can enable managers at all levels in the organization to SEE and UNLOCK incredible inherent potential.

In honor of Dr. Eli Goldratt and Sir Isaac Newton, and because we believe that “any organization can be made exceedingly simple and harmonious with itself”, given the right thinking and tools, we have called this TOC S&T Expert System HARMONY.

Harmony means “the way parts combine well together or into a whole” (from Greek “harmonia”). Musical “Harmony” is when a composer and or conductor achieve “the successful combination of musical notes, arranged and played simultaneously around the same melody”. When harmony is achieved, it means the composer achieved the successful combination of notes into a sound pleasing to the ear (the intended market for the composers’ music).

As with music, business leaders, the “composers” and “conductors” of "the common sheet of music for an organization" - its business strategy - also search for “Harmony” within their organizations. As with an orchestra, even the best musicians and conductor will only create noise unless they are all playing from the same “Sheet of Music”. Therefore, we can also use “harmony” to describe an organization where a leader or leadership team achieves “the successful synchronization of each of the parts of their organizations around doing what is best for the organization as a whole”.

The introduction by Dr. Eli Goldratt a few years ago of a new “Theory of Constraints” based thinking process called “Strategic & Tactic Tree” (S&T) is being viewed by more and more executives and managers around the globe that have been exposed to it, as “one of the most important breakthroughs in achieving Harmony within organizations” as they believe the S&T, for the 1st time, provides them with a practical process and logical structure for defining and communicating all the necessary and sufficient changes as well as the sequence of implementation of these changes to achieve more goal units for the organization.
As with many breakthroughs, this breakthrough started with a simple question:

If “Strategy” is really at the highest level of an initiative or organization and define the direction that dictates all activities and “Tactics” are lower down in an initiative or organization and define the activities that are needed to implement the strategy, then where do “Strategy” end and where do “Tactics” begin?

Figure 1: Traditional View of Strategy & Tactics

Dr. Goldratt realized that to answer this question, it required that the words “strategy” and “tactic” had to be defined more clearly than before. His new definitions were inherently simple, yet powerful. He decided to define “Strategy” as simply the answer to the question “What for?” (objective of a proposed change) and “Tactic” as simply the answer to the question “How to?” (details of a proposed change). From these definitions, it is clear that every Strategy (What for) should have an associated Tactic (How to) and therefore Strategy and Tactic must always exist as “pairs” and must exist at every level of the organization.

Figure 2: Goldratt’s View of Strategy & Tactic Tree

An S&T can therefore be viewed as simply a logical tree of the proposed changes that should be both necessary and sufficient to ensure the synchronized achievement of more Goal units for the organization. However, any logical tree is only as valid as the assumptions on which it is based. Therefore, it is the responsibility of managers at every level in the organization, to not only contribute to defining and communicating the Strategy and Tactic for each proposed change, but also to define and communicate the logic of the proposed change – why the proposed change is really necessary to achieve the higher level objective and ultimately the goal of the company, why they claim it is possible to achieve the objective (strategy) of the change (especially considering it has probably never been achieved before), why they claim their proposed change (tactic) is the best or even the only way of achieving the strategy of the change and finally, what advice/warning they would give to their subordinates to ensure sufficiency of implementation of the proposed change.

Each S&T node therefore in the S&T is simply a proposed change that should answer:

1. Why is the Change needed? (Necessary Assumption)
2. What is the specific measurable objective of the change (Strategy)
3. Why do you claim the Strategy is possible and what must be considered when selecting from the alternative ways of achieving the Strategy (Parallel Assumptions linking Strategy with Tactic)
4. What is the specific Change(s) being proposed to process, policy or measurement (Tactic)
5. What advice/warning should be given to subordinates, which if ignored, will likely jeopardize the sufficiency of the steps they would take to implement this tactic? (Sufficiency Assumption)

How much of the above knowledge is really properly defined, documented, communicated and systematically validated/invalidated within a typical organization? We believe the Harmony S&T Expert System provides managers now with a practical tool and structure to capitalize on the S&T breakthrough by Dr. Eli Goldratt to facilitate the design, communicating, validating, planning and implementation of “a Harmonious Business Strategy” to achieve & sustain the desired growth and stability within organizations.