The Reason I Opened a Blog after Turning 70

I asked Hadas, my daughter, to help me open this blog. The simple reason is that I want to make an impact on the way organizations are managed.

I sincerely believe that what I’ve learned from Dr. Eli Goldratt helped me to learn more by myself and that learning could be useful for many people all over the world. People who care about managing organizations, who dare to listen, digest, possibly argue and then decide for themselves what to internalize.

I worked closely with Dr. Eli Goldratt for many years and it required constant challenging of the most obvious basic assumptions.  On one hand, challenging assumptions just for the sake of it might be too easy and very wrong leading to severe undesired consequences.  The difficulty is understanding the logic behind the assumption and then check carefully the boundaries where the assumption is valid and when the assumption has to be updated. On the other hand, being able to update basic assumptions, which are shared by many competitors, enables to identify and materialize new opportunities.

Speaking face-to-face with Eli Goldratt was hard training on combining two complementary, but seemingly opposing, key basic paradigms:

“Never Say I Know”

“Never Say I Don’t Know”

The first paradigm is part of the TOC Pillars. The second one I personally heard many times when Eli asked me a question and I said “I don’t know.” This simple answer “I don’t know” always made Eli mad. “You DO know” he shouted, “you know this-and-that and you also know this-and-that, so, what could the conclusion be?”

So, here is my lesson: whenever there is a problem one has to have the confidence that he/she is capable to find an answer that is better than the current state.  Yet, do not flatter yourself you have “fully solved the problem.” There is definitely much more to it.  The way to settle the two conflicting paradigms is to accept the fact that you know something, but never everything.  what we do know is an opportunity to define what we don’t know and can know more.

What should the generic lesson do to us? The insights of Dr. Goldratt on how to manage organizations have huge potential and only part of it has been materialized so far. Now it is OUR MISSION to further develop the insights, add new insights and eventually improve even more the way to manage organizations.

How should we do it? By maintaining the dialogue where we spread our ideas, truly wait for reservations coming from other people, analyze those reservations with both respect and logic and then come up with something much better than what we have started with.

I hope this blog is going to serve this ultimate goal.

Please, respond.

Eli Schragenheim

17 thoughts on “The Reason I Opened a Blog after Turning 70”

  1. Excellent decision to start this blog! Can’t wait to read more about ToC and how to improve organizations management. Only wish that more people would understand this basic open-mindedness about knowing and at the same time not being all-knowing.

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  9. Eli, it’s always wonderful to read how clearly and succinctly you put things in perspective. This blog is a great initiative and I look forward to reading more of your insightful posts.

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  10. Eli, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Goldratt on several occasions and support your in furthering his foundation. While Lean and Six Sigma continue to have successful paths (sort of)… I have always been convinced that throughput, including untouchable aspects like finance, are critical to truly accomplishing the goal.

    I am all in.

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  11. Dear Eli, I am so happy to be able to read your brilliant thoughts. I’ve got so much from you and majority of my professional achievements in very big share owe to you and Dr.Goldratt. However, I still have many questions to ask and thoughts to check. I hope to have another pleasure and honor to hear you in person in the nearest future. Do you come often to Moscow or it’s probably better to visit Israel for that? Again, thank you for starting the blog.

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  13. Dr. Goldratt called this ‘humble arrogance’. His writings are changing my life each day.
    Thank you for initiating this blog and sharing the knowledge.

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  14. Thanks for this blog Eli, we are all indebted to to world to share Dr. Goldratt vision to make the world better, to make life more fulfilling. This blog is a step in the right direction.

    Canisius Hitimana

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  15. Hello Eli.
    Thanks for starting this blog. Great idea. Eli Goldratt taught people how to harness their intuition, while testing the logic and assumptions behind it–and then learning how the perspectives of others could add valuable perspective to our initial root cause analysis attempts. It’s an endlessly fascinating topic.

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  16. Eli, I have immensely benefitted from each of your blogs since beginning, as a person, as a Manager, as a Businessperson and as a Consultant.

    These are not only thought-provoking but also solution-provider.

    Looking forward to more of these.

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  17. Eli,

    I love your ambition for build on the potential of Throughput Accounting. Coming from government, it seems the development needs to happen for the private sector, which is naturally measured by dollars, AND THEN be translated to what this means for non-profits. An exciting quest lies ahead, indeed. Best to you in this endeavour, my friend. God bless.

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