The ‘One Page Management System’ ( OPMS )

1. The ‘One Page Management System’(OPMS) It’s the tool par excellence to transform IDEAS to effective ACTION

2. The importance of IDEAS: • ALL human accomplishment - individual, organisational or societal - is based on IDEAS • But ideas can get accomplished only when they are effectively acted upon • Therefore, we need means to ensure effective action on our available ideas • The best of ideas would fail if they are not effectively acted on GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

3. About IDEAS: • Bad Ideas (which should NOT be pursued) • Trivial Ideas • Good, Small Ideas • Good, Big Ideas • Great & Noble Ideas • Ideas that may be impossible to accomplish “To create educational systems for India that would enable our citizens to accomplish all they are capable of” GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

4. About IDEAS: • Using conventional means, it is not easy to arrive at a realistic understanding of the true value or type of an idea • Great accomplishments cannot come out of trivial ideas - trivial ideas would generally lead only to trivial accomplishments • Small (but not trivial) ideas - when well handled - may lead to truly worthy accomplishment • Great ideas may or may not lead to great accomplishment - they most probably would NOT lead to great accomplishment if not effectively handled and acted upon “Garibi Hatao!” GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

5. In any case, we do require practical means to enableeffective handling of every worthwhile idea - from inception to final action on the idea GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

6. Ideas may range from ‘apparently simple’ to ‘apparently very complex’ But the complexity of an idea is actually a function of our perceptions of it! GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

7. A couple of important characteristics of ideas: • An idea may contain any number of other ideas • Ideas can be extremely ‘slippery’ if not handled right - they often just disappear - or appear to change from what we wanted to mean! GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

8. In general, handling of Ideas for Actionis a process involving: • Idea Generation • Idea Organisation InteractiveManagement GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

9. More about Interactive Management (IM): IM is THE seminal development in general system theory, from Professor John N. Warfield. IM enables us to develop - from our own good ideas - effective, actionable pictures of the systems we work within.

10. Interactive Management involves: • A ‘cybernetic’, ‘systems’ view of the world • Human ideas and perceptions - linguistics • An integration of human psychology (behavioral issues) with technological concerns - how technology is used in real life • “The resolution to a problem must come from the people involved in the problem” Demands Democracy in the organisation! Cybernetics: “The science of communicationand control in the animal and the machine” GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

11. Systems Theory: the transdisciplinary study of the abstract organization of phenomena, independent of their substance, type, or spatial or temporal scale of existence. It investigates both the principles common to all complex entities, and the (usually mathematical) models which can be used to describe them GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

12. To Interactive Management, OPMS adds of ‘integration of ideas’: • Idea Generation • Idea Structuring IM  Idea Integration OPMS GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

13. Not just ‘idea generation in the abstract ’ The underlying idea always being: Enable and Ensure effectiveACTION! But ‘focussed’Idea Generation GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

14. Focus ‘trigger question’: MISSION “What, in your opinion, are the THINGS TO DO to get the right job for your abilities and interests ?” “To get the right job for your abilities and interests ?” GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

15. Ambitious Missions areaccomplished by ‘stakeholders’ in Mission Some Missions: “To propagate OPMS in India and worldwide” • “To get the right job for my interests, abilities” • “To convince you that the OPMS approach offers a feasible way to go” • “To ensure all in the Production Department get highly motivated to perform to the best of their abilities” • XYZ Ltd - “To reach turnover of Rs 2000 crores, with PAT of Rs 300 crores, by 2005” • “To ensure that the bureaucracy becomes truly responsive to the real needs of citizens” • “To cleanse the Ganga” • “To ensure 90% literacy in Nation within 10 years” Rajiv Gandhi’s Mission - failed Another failedRG Mission GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

16. Ambitious Missions are highly susceptible to failure!! --- The OPMS approach can help us successfully accomplishANY kind of ambitious Mission, whether individual, organisational, or societal Please note: Not“WILL help”! GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

17. OPMS just asks: “You have a problem or Mission at hand? Not quite satisfied with the existing means of handling it? Try out theOPMSapproach - it can help you move several significant steps forward!” GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

18. General format of ‘first trigger question’ in OPMS approach: “What, in your opinion, are the THINGS TO DO to accomplish ‘Mission’ ?” GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

19. Developments from ‘brainstorming’ Focussed Trigger Questions on Mission lead to: Lists of ideas Idea ‘structuring’ demand EffectiveOrganisationof Ideas GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

20. Conventional management practices do not do too badly in terms of ‘generating ideas’ - though the usual methods could bear improvement But conventional mgmt. theory & practice are BOTH extremely deficient indeed in terms of ‘structuring of ideas’ - the concept barely exists! GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

21. 1st Step: Generate relevant ideas (from the people actually involved in the Mission)

22. MISSION: “To double turnover within 1 year” “What, in your opinion, are the THINGS TO…?” Some ideas generated: • Obtain needed finance for basic working capital • Explore new, untried markets • Launch a new product • Appoint a dynamic CEO who knows our business + the markets • Create more effective dealer network • … (etc, etc) GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

23. Okay - Ideas have been generated. Now, those ideas must be effectively organised for action GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

24. “Does, in your opinion, To obtain needed finance for basic working capital (1) contribute To explore new, untried markets (2) ?” (Response “YES”)

25. “Does, in your opinion, To explore new, untried markets (2) contribute To obtain needed finance for basic working capital (1) ?” (Response “NO”)

26. What we have done is to record the ‘mental model’ of perceived relationships between two elements in a ‘graphical format’: To explore new, untried markets (2) CONTRIBUTES To obtain needed finance for basic working capital (1) GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

27. We ask a few more such questions. An important property of the relationship “contributes to” enables us to create the entire model quite efficiently GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

28. To monitor rigorously, day by day should contribute Create more effective dealer network • Launch a new product (A) • Explore new, untried markets (B) Create more effective marketing system Obtain needed finance for basic working capital Appoint new CEO Model in THINGS TO DO Dimension (read bottom upwards) GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

29. The relationship “contributes to” has the following property: If A B AND B C then A MUST C (where A,B, C stand for various elements and ‘ ’ stands for “contributes to” GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

30. Does this seem familiar to you? Right! It’s like ‘PERT/CPM’ - which is predicated on basis of the transitive relationship “precedes” MSProject Primavera GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

31. External plastering complete Wall Brickwork complete Roof complete Roof Frame complete House complete FoundationComplete Door , WindowFramework complete External plastering complete Precedes So-called Project Planning: Building a House GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

32. One difference: If ‘A’ precedes ‘B’Then ‘B’ cannot precede ‘A’(and the reverse question needs no asking) However, if ‘A’ “contributes to” ‘B’ ‘B’ may still contribute to” ‘A’ i.e., the relationship is ‘reflexive’ GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

33. But the BIG difference: ‘Precedence’ can help us explore familiar andwell-known systems But only the concept of ‘contribution’canenable us to explore and to understand systems containing sizable sections unknown GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

34. Here’s the crux of the matter: Any Mission is automatically accomplished if ALL the activities that may“contribute to” that Mission are done by people involved In this sense, the relationship contributes to is probably THE MOST IMPORTANT concept in any language! It is the critical ‘Action Word’. GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

35. This is called an INTENT STRUCTURE ‘Intentions’, connected by perceived ‘contribution’ relationships between the intentions!! To double turnover within 1 year To monitor rigorously, day by day should contribute To create more effective dealer network • To launch a new product (A) • To explore new, untried markets (B) To create more effective marketing system To obtain needed finance for basic working capital To appoint new CEO GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

36. Intent Structures may require modifications from time to time To double turnover within 1 year Create more effective dealer network should contribute • Launch a new product (A) • Explore new, untried markets (B) Create more effective marketing system Obtain needed finance for basic working capital Appoint new CEO To monitor rigorously, day by day GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

37. When an individual or group starts work on an unknown Mission, it is like someone stepping into a darkened room - without a flashlight. As these ‘contribution structures’ are developed, the Mission becomes continuingly clarified to the people involved in the Mission (just as the dark room becomes familiar to the explorer through his/her groping around). GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

38. THINGS TO DO These models can become as large as required to describe the most complex live situation! Over time, as we work on our Missions, our models may come to comprise hundreds or even thousands of elements! GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

39. THINGS TO DO It turns out that this process of structuring with “contributes to” enables the users to focus at any time on just a narrow band of a few ideas! GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

40. THINGS TO DO In such models, we can easily ‘fill in the gaps’ wherever found, in almost real-time - thus this process is ideal for creating EFFECTIVE Action Plans GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

41. To double turnover within 1 year Create more effective dealer network should contribute • Launch a new product (A) • Explore new, untried markets (B) Create more effective marketing system Obtain needed finance for basic working capital Appoint new CEO To monitor rigorously, day by day Any such model can be translated into ‘standard prose’ very easily indeed! And this little model would translateinto nearly a full page of prose. Obviously, it is MUCH easier to read, understand and remember the model! GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

42. To double turnover within 1 year Create more effective dealer network should contribute • Launch a new product (A) • Explore new, untried markets (B) Create more effective marketing system Obtain needed finance for basic working capital Appoint new CEO To monitor rigorously, day by day A quick translation: Everything we do requires regular monitoring - such as - Obtain needed finance for basic working capital & to appoint a CEO should contribute to Create more effective marketing system which in turn should contribute to Launch a new product and to explore new, untried markets each of which contribute to each other. Also, obtaining needed finance for basic working capital & appointing a CEO should contribute to Launch a new product and to explore new, untried markets …… In turn, Launch a new product and to explore new, untried markets should contribute to create a new dealer network. Also... GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

43. A model of 40-50 elements, occupying maybe 2-3 pages might be the equivalent of 30-40 pages of prose!!!The length of the prose translation expands exponentially as the number of elements increase!

44. THINGS TO DO Also, the models can be ‘blown up’ as required to the depth and detail as required GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

45. Also, because of the “contribution” relationship, an ‘Action Planning’ model also shows the WHY? and the HOW?of each element... THINGS TO DO WHY? HOW? GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

46. Up WHY? To match/surpass productivity of Israeli s/w industry by 2003 should contribute To ensure high quality of Indian s/w services and products • To encourage s/w orgs to spend at least 25% of ttl s/w budget for s/w productivity tools • To allow companies to utilise part of their export earnings for means to meet delivery schedules To.. Down HOW? WHY? HOW? To…

47. UPthe model to find out“WHY?” DOWNthe model to find out “HOW?” THINGS TO DO WHY? HOW? GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

48. The model shown: ISM Interpretive Structural Model

49. Warfield’s ISM process is a grand generalisation of the well known PERT/CPM tool, used in so-called “Project Management Software” PERT/CPM is based on the transitive relationship “precedes” GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.

50. … but “precedence”is NEVER sufficient to describe ALL relevant aspects of a real ‘system’, such as an organisation working to accomplish a challenging Mission! Warfield’s ISM enables us to use ANYtransitive relationship, choosing exactly the one that is relevant to the issue under consideration at the specific time! GSC - OPMS - IIT Pres.