What is everyone's goal?

What is everyone's goal?

Tom Kemp 1214063615|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I was thinking about the difference between for-profit and "for-purpose" organizations; the difference between a manufacturer and a hospital, for example. Classically, TOC tells us that for-profit organizations all have the same goal: make more money now and in the future while satisfying necessary conditions. The goal of schools, hospitals, governments etc. are never nailed down and seem a lot harder to define. Why is this?

I think all organizations have exactly the same goal.

In order to introduce this goal, let me start by talking about money or, rather, money multiplied by time. We are familiar with the concepts of 'lost throughput dollar days' and 'inventory dollar days'. We know how important it is to know not only how long something has been happening but also how much money that thing is worth to an organization. In another thread I'll put down some thoughts about what exactly a 'dollar day' is but, for now, it represents a certain amount of choice. The more money I have and the sooner I have it, the more choice I have about what to do.

The for-profit goal, above, is all about money and time. I therefore believe it is all about choice.

On the other hand a for-purpose organization generally has more trouble articulating its goal. Sure, they have many aims. A hospital, for example, is about caring for patients (but not to the point of keeping them longer than necessary); a charity wants to do good in the world (but not to the point of being starved of cash); a school wants to prepare pupils for the world (without spending too much time on each pupil).

If we look at the most successful for-purpose organizations in each of their sectors, I'm convinced we shall discover an important property. I believe those leading organizations will each have the most choice about the way they operate and the work they do. I believe that the aims of each for-purpose organization can be translated into questions of choice. A hospital wants more choice now and in the future about which patients it treats and what it does for them; a charity wants more choice now and in the future about which people it helps and how it helps; a school wants more choice now and in the future about which pupils it takes on and what it provides for them; all the time, fulfilling legal and moral requirements.

So, maybe the goal of every organization is to have ever more choice while satisfying necessary conditions?

We must define 'choice' but I suspect it will involve the number of possible states an organization can be in while fulfilling its remit.

last edited on 1214085831|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Tom Kemp + show more

Re: What is everyone's goal?

bryanmcn 1214305348|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Have you read "Built to Last"? It is one of the few books that Eli talks about besides his own. In it, Collins explains that the Built to Last Companies have something else as a goal besides making money. Goldratt hinted that this may be the case in the Last Chapter of "The Goal. Johnah says; "Making money is not my goal and I don't think its yours". Can a company verbalize a goal like a one person can ?

Re: What is everyone's goal?

Tom Kemp 1214779630|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I haven't read 'Built to Last' but I understand (from a talk by Eli Goldratt last year) that it believes the companies it mentions have in common that they have built a "culture". I've been too vague in what I mean by 'choice' but that is deliberate until I have thought about it a lot more. It just seemed reasonable to search for a common, underlying concept of what a "goal" might be. I suspect a "culture" emerges as a secondary attribute of an organization as it successfully moves towards its goal. The more successful a company is, the longer it will persist, the more it will believe what it is doing is correct, the more it will retain what it believes are its successful characteristics. Such organizations are 'fit' in the sense of evolution and will therefore appear to have teleological characteristics. I want to be careful to distinguish these from the underlying evolutionary processes in which I'm most interested.

Re: What is everyone's goal?

PatWilson 1214892128|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

FYI…
One TOC book that you may of heard of, but from my perspective gives one of the best perspectives on both a troubled culture and the transformation to a flourishing (meeting organization and personal goals) is GREAT BOSS DEAD BOSS by Ray Immelman. The direct TOC references are almost non existent, but Ray mentioned at a conference that his logic for the fiction story was in large part worked out with Thinking Process tools. The main concepts are of our natural inclination to align/associate oursleves and our values with tribes and managements role in the organization to understand these forces and their role to optimize the organizational performance.