(2012-08-28) Intermediate Objectives Map A Great Planning And Execution Tool

Bob Sproull: Intermediate Objectives Map : A Great Planning and Execution Tool. I have used the IO Map in a variety of different settings and in every instance the leadership team not only understood it, but actually embraced it. The beauty of the IO Map is that everything that must be in place to achieve the goal of the organization is included on a single sheet of paper.

In recent years, William Dettmer has recommended that the IO Map, which he now refers to as a Goal Tree, should be the first step in a Thinking Process analysis. He believes this because it defines the standard for goal attainment and its prerequisites in a much more efficient manner

will accelerate the completion of Current Reality Trees, Conflict Clouds and Future Reality Trees

The other thing I like about IO Maps is that they can be used as a stand-alone tool which results in a much faster analysis of the organization’s weak points or in conjunction with the other TOC TP Tools. In this posting we will discuss the IO Map as a stand-alone tool.

Necessity-based logic trees use the syntax, “in order to have this……I must have that. The IO Map falls into the necessity-based category

The hierarchical structure of the IO Map consists of a single Goal, several Critical Success Factors (CSFs) which must be in place to achieve the goal and a series of Necessary Conditions (NCs) which must be in place to achieve each CSF. The Goal and CSFs are written as terminal outcomes that are already in place

Suppose that you were working with an organization who wants to become a highly profitable one.

This goal statement is written as a terminal outcome as though it’s already been achieved. In the IO Map below, the Goal is stated as “Highly Profitable Company” which is the desired end state.

the CSF’s are written as terminal outcomes, as though they’re already in place. You continue reading downward, in order to have, for example, high on-time delivery rate, I must have buffer management in place and functioning. The NC’s represent actions that must be completed to achieve each individual CSF and form the basis for your improvement plan

Here’s where I’ve departed from the traditional TP tools in that the next step would be to use the IO Map to construct a Current Reality Tree. And although I totally support this approach, when time is a factor, I continue on with the IO Map in this way. I typically facilitate a critical discussion on the status or current state of the Goal, CSFs and NCs. I use a simple Green, Yellow and Red coding system to describe how each of the IO Map entities exists in our current reality.

In our example, because the company is at least minimally profitable, but not highly profitable, it is shaded in yellow. If we look at the CSFs, four of the five CSFs are shaded in red

Let’s look now at several of the NCs that must be worked on to satisfy the CSFs.

For the first CSF, Highly Satisfied Customers, we see that the leadership team believes that three things must be in place to satisfy this CSF: