2015 TOCICO Conference - Anti Fragility

This is the second post in a series. For the first post - go here.

A main theme in the conference was Anti-Fragility, becoming anti-fragile as individuals and a community and helping companies become anti-fragile. I have heard the term before but this time I feel I got a much better grasp of it. Here's what I can share:

• Definitions:
• Fragile:
• Sign on the box will say "Handle With Care"
• Mythological prototype is Damocles with the sword above his head ready to drop when his life is at its best
• Features limited gain and unlimited pain
• Breaks in reaction to pain

Richard Westall's Sword of Damocles (Source:Wikipidia)

• Robust:
• Sign on the box will say nothing, as it doesn't make a difference
• Mythological prototype is the Phoenix which comes back from the ashes just as it was
• Features limited gain and limited pain
• Recovers in reaction to pain

 FJ Bertuch's Phoenix (Source: Wikipedia)

• Anti-Fragile:
• Sign on the box will say "Please Kick"
• Mythological prototype is the Hydra which grows 2 new heads for every 1 cut off
• Features unlimited gain and limited pain
• Grows in reaction to pain

Hercules Killing the Lernean Hydra

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Anti-fragile systems are designed around multiple low risk experiments, with the ability to quickly focus and cash in on the few successes, letting go of those experiments that did not make the grade. This is a system that does not protect all of its parts.

Now, of course, it is clear that the anti-fragile state is relative, time-based and specific. Think of the human body - our bones are quite anti-fragile, recovering to be stronger at the break point, but our necks and hearts are not, bearing the burden of past trauma, if they ever recover.....

While the subject was a repeating thred there weren't much ideas as to how to make it happen, One thing was made very clear, though, throughout the conference and that is that systems that are based on forecasts are fragile, more will come on that.

So, take a moment to reflect about your private life, your organization, our community - where are they now? how can this be improved? at what cost? 

Let me know what you think.

Book Review - Purple Curve Effect

Almost finished reading this book. I like it, though I can't think of anyone I'd recommend it to. For the begginers it is way all over the place and would not be a good starting place. For the advanced it is way too simplistic. Still, SKI is very personable and does a good job selling himself.
I liked some of his tips, especialy the idea of making lists from the end goal backwards. I was also very intrigued by the fact that I think he got all his TOC on backwards and still it works very well for him. Goes to show this TOC thing is robust.

2015 TOCICO International Conference - Cape Town

I've just returned from Cape Town a week ago and I think it's a great time to share some of my conference highlights with those who could not make it this year.

Some Conference Participants (can you spot me?)

First off - join me in sending love and support to Marcia Hutchinson, TOCICO's General Manager, who broke her arm on the first night and needed an operation. Marcia's proffesional management was totally aparent in the fact the conference went on without any interference, leaving her free to take care of herself. GET WELL SOON, MARCIA!

The first day was a full day of keynote speakers interlacing academics and practitioners  and introducing the conference's main thread of the Anti-Fragile vision. Some success stories brought to light the amazing effects TOC can have on a business and how important it is to ensure the process is maintained over time and management switch-overs.

Keynote Speaker

I especially liked Rami Goldratt's session about the forces eroding our ability to generate forcasts, especially in a retail environment. He makes a valid point - yes, forecasts are inherntly wrong but they should be getting closed and closer to being right. After all, they are based on past experiance, of which we have more and more data points with each day passing, on computing abilities, which grow bigger and faster with each day passing and on algorithms, that should improve over time and experiance. Look at the weather forcast as an example. Over the years it has gotten better, to the point that we trust the 10-day forcast as a good enough directive for packing before a trip. Sure, we do not expect it to be right on the money, just in the vicinity. Shouldn't the forcasts for sales numbers and for purchasing be doing the same? Well, they don't and Rami gave a very clear explenation why. He also promissed to put together a YouTube vid covering his explenation, so keep a look out.

With all the interesting take aways I've had, it seems a series of posts is in order, so be on the look out for my future posts on the subject. (Here is the first one)

Here is a sneak peak:

My presentation about buffering life

So, have a look at the conference schedule, and let me know what is of interest to you.

Order and Focus through Gmail Cleanup

A few days ago I noticed, again, that my unread count in Gmail is far greater than I would like. Noting that the count was only for my Inbox, not including the unread mails in the Social, Promotions and the other tabs I was using I knew the situation was much worse. Still, this was not the main problem. the main problem was that I was starring important To-Do items and then letting them slip as they were pushed to oblivion by new, unread mails. I needed to get Gmail to sort my mails in another order. I wanted my starred items on top. So I went into Settings and figured out a way to do it.

Here's how my Inbox is set up now:

• First I have all items with "Calendar" label - I set up a rule to have all the auto-reminders from Google's Calendar directed automatically to that label without staying in my Inbox more that an instant. This is a tiny list as I delete anything's that in the past.
• Next I have my starred list - this should be kept under 10 items at all times. If I go over 10 it means I must kick something off it by taking care of it immediately.
• Then comes the unread list - this is currently still too long but I'm working on trimming it. I've already filed away quite a lot of the unread clutter using labels and deleted a lot too. I'm hoping to get it under 10 at all times as well.
• Last is the rest of my inbox.

This order led me to admit I am getting far too much mails I really don't need. When I used the tabs method those mails didn't bother me. I'd go in to the non-Inbox tabs and run wholesale delete jobs 2-3 times a week and thought nothing of it. This new order made me start unsubscribing and cleaning up my act.

To clean up my unread list I have started reading all those blog posts and updates I have kept in order to read "later". It seems I've accumulated quite a few of "Dr. Lisa" Lang's blog posts, so now I am reading through them ad loving them, of course. The funny thing is Dr. Lisa talks a lot (and I do mean A LOT) about focus, and with the way I was running my mailbox that's the one thing I didn't have....

So, if you aren't subscribed to the Science of Business blog or the Velocity Scheduling System blog I highly recommend you subscribe to them. If you have any good tips for Inbox control - please share with us by commenting on this post.