Intervening with Actions

In Southbeach 0.9, a new type of colored box has been introduced. What management consultants told us was that in client presentations it would be useful to them to distinguish their recommended actions and interventions to solve the client's problem. We call these agents 'actions', and they are shown in blue in order to distinguish them from useful boxes (green) and harmful boxes (red).



Actions can be considered to be in some ways 'outside' of the model, or superimposed on the model - intervening on it. In TRIZ, this could be called the 'supersystem' or 'external environment'. In effect, the consultants that gave us the feedback that led us to add 'actions' to Southbeach, are 'external' to the client as they make their proposals for change/transformation.

Whether you are a management consultant or another kind of problem solver, we hope you find these visually distinctive 'action' shapes useful in your work. Formally, 'actions' are considered 'useful' in a Southbeach model.

In the example model above, also note the use of 'insufficient'. There is both an action to increase the 'insfficiency in the system'. There is also an 'insufficient action' which may or may not be sufficient to address problem area three.

Potential of 'ideation' in the enterprise

This model shows the top 5 benefits of 'ideation' (large scale collaborative problem-solving using tools like Imaginatik's Idea Central). As companies come to understand these benefits, it raises an issue they must focus on - how to take advantage of the capability ideation provides. They must understand the tool has no value in the absense of appropriate business challenges. If the company can be proactive and set ideation challenges, they will enjoy proactive participation from staff. If they can turn this participation into results (our goal) via the idea development, evaluation and conclusion process, this will amplify the organization's willingness to set more challenges, generating more results. This virtuous circle is what empowers every well-founded ideation program.

This model illustrates two new features in the coming release of Southbeach Modeller. A grouping box has been used to highlight the benefits of ideation. An 'issue' lozenge shape has been used to highlight the question that enterprise's must ask themselves.

Charities partnering Service

This Southbeach model describes some of the challenges and capabilities that charities have, and how if they could find a way to partner with other charities with complimentary capabilities and needs, they could help each other more effectively utilize their own capabilities to produce solutions that meet their goals.

The idea is that a Charity Partnering Service could consume capabilities from some charities that are then paired with challenges faced by other charities to help them meet their mutual goals. For example, one charity needing funds for projects may receive donations from another charity where those projects also meet the needs of the other charities charter. Similarly, one charity may have a distribution network in place for delivering aid, whereas another charity may have access to supplies that could be delivered through that distribution network.

Social media is sited as one example of how such a service could enable charities to share information about their resources and needs to enable a 'dating-agency' for charities to match them with potential partners.

The model was inspired by a discussion with Andreas Rindler, the Finance Director of the UK arm of the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre-UK (MDAC-UK).

Obama's Prisoner Dilemma: Reject Torture, Defend Torturers

According to Wired [Feb 04, 2009] President Barack Obama finds himself in a quandary of sorts over his public position opposing torture and secret detentions.

The new U.S. president has renounced those Bush administration practices, but government lawyers continue to defend the previous administration's top officials accused of authorizing and carrying out those policies.

Unexpected events

As many companies ponder the financial downturn, no doubt some are wondering whether there needs to be radical changes to their strategic plans, risk management programs, and planning processes for resource allocation. This model illustrates the dilemna many will face as we go into 2009 and beyond.

Based on the article 'African investment could be hit'
Interestingly, whilst drawing this model, the use of Southbeach clarified several points that were not explicitly stated in the article.

Window pane diagrams

Southbeach contains a Grid tool. Grids are used to 'separate' elements of a model in various 'dimensions' of separation. In this example, a 3x3 grid is used to represent the past, present and future (time epoch) resources associated with the sponsorship of a project, the customer and the team delivering the project (system structure).

The template comes from page 530, Systematic Innovation for Business and Management, Darrell Mann, 2004.

Elements inherit attributes off the grid - from the cell in which they are placed. The modeling software allows grids of rows only (pools), columns only (swimlanes) or window pane diagrams as in this example.

Each dimension is called a 'separation'. Separations can be typed: for example in space, time, by structure, by perspective, around system aspects, by role, on probability and on conditions.

Modeling trends

Southbeach can be used to model trends. Here, two well known examples of observed trends in commerce are illustrated. A potential hybrid trend, I refer to as 'amenity' is shown as the convergence of maturity on two existing trend lines.

Earth 3.0 - Scientific American

This model celebrates the launch of Earth 3.0, a new high quality publication from Scientific American. (www.sciamearth3.com). The model describes what is said in the editor's letter.

Note the use of a separation by Time to describe the three epochs described in the SciAm article. Focus (yellow), Goal (block green) and Risk (block red) have also been used to good effect. Note the use of an 'insufficient counteraction' (dotted crossed line) to denote that early argiculture produced only local impacts, not global harm. Note the use of the 'overloaded' (doubled line) effect to show the industrial consumption. Note the use of 'oppose' (double headed jagged effect) between the concerns about the environment, and the necessary third world development. Note also the use of 'required' (solid circle at source end of effect lines) to signify the necessary actions to bring about the potential (dotted line box) for economic and environmental progress.

Being more productive with Southbeach

This Southbeach model shows the potential harmful consequences of an unstructured approach combined with a lack of discipline and planning. It's a common picture. Let's break it down: Many people feel forced into this situation by the amount of work they receive and the amount of support from others they don't receive. This increasing work leads to increasing urgency which leads ultimately to dropping the ball (or less and less sleep, stress, less collaborative; more insular behaviour)... It has the further consequences that there is no time for planning, and no time for prioritising activities, leading to a reactive behaviour that becomes more random with time.

The Southbeach approach can be used to re-establish the discipline necessary to deal with complex situations and high workloads. It is a structured approach that enables you to break your problems down into manageable chunks that can be shared with others. Structuring thought, planning, design, work, and collaboration in this way can create more reuse in everything you do and can reduce the workload for others, giving them more time to help reduce the workload for you.

Another benefit of this collaborative approach is the wealth of experience and different ideas and approaches that can be brought to bear. More information, with more techniques for combining it enables better decision making to enable you and others to focus on what is important to get results and achieve your goals.