Thinking Processes Including S&T Trees (Chapter 25 of Theory of Constraints Handbook)

This is an individual chapter of Theory of Constraints Handbook. What are the TP tools? Why are they so effective in analyzing business and personal problems? How is the application of logic, language, and structure brought together for penetrating analysis of problems and conflicts? How do the TP tools then help in laying out the transition from an undesirable present to a desirable future? How do they help protect a plan from unanticipitated pitfalls? How do they link together as an integrated system of logical capabilities for bringing about positive change? I hope to answer these questions in a way to show that almost anyone willing to do the work can achieve deep insight and make significant and meaningful improvements to environments both simple and complex; with step-by-step instructions on how to do it. I begin with discussion of the tenets in logic and fundamental assumptions in philosophy that underlie the TOC TP. Then I illustrate how the discipline of diagramming helps in guiding our analysis. Each of the TP tools is discussed in sequence with instructions on how to use it. The chapter moves on to examples, some of them real application cases.