Systems Theory and Constraints

Great presentations at SNEC-PMI Chapter meeting in Cromwell, CT last night. Good speakers and thoroughly enjoyed talking shop with a long-time acquaintance who has taken a new position as an Enterprise Project Manager.

The main speaker - Michael de la Maza - facilitated a memorable presentation. Michael spoke about systems theory and constraints. If you have read Eli Goldratt's book "The Goal", then you understand systems theory. I read it years ago when we still lived in South Africa, and recall parts of the novel, but had forgotten the details.

On point that stuck with me from last night's event is this "It doesn't matter where you start, as long as your team continues to identify and work against the constraints in a system, you will improve. You create a learning organization. If you can learn at a faster rate than your competitors, then you will dominate your industry". For example, Toyota and Hyundai.

Therefore, your goal should be create learning organizations in your project teams. This means that you must foster anyone who identifies constraints and help them to work against the constraint to increase throughput. If you can iteratively remove constraints, then it doesn't matter where you started off, your systems will continue to improve and you are streets ahead of non-learning environment teams.

Michael's presentation was thought provoking and a lot of fun.

Remember "It is not where you start that matters in system theory, it is how fast you identify and work against constraints that matters". Sounds like a good motto for success in life as well.