The Choice

by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

The Choice, revised edition, by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Efrat Goldratt-Ashlag

Goldratt presents his thought provoking approach, this time through a conversation with his daughter Efrat, as he explains to her his fundamental system of beliefs. The revised edition includes Efrat’s own notes and maps (charts) she made during her conversations with her father, helping the reader determine the true essence of the book.

From the original publication:

TOC has been successfully applied in almost every area of human endeavor, from industry to healthcare to education. And while Eli Goldratt is indeed a scientist, an educator and a business leader, he is first and foremost a philosopher; some say a genius.

He is a thinker who provokes others to do the same. Often characterized as unconventional, and always stimulating—a slayer of sacred cows— Dr. Goldratt exhorts his readers to examine and reassess their lives and business practices by cultivating a different perspective and a clear new vision.

Genres: Business, Management, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Leadership, Audiobook, Psychology

240 pages

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt (Hebrew: אליהו משה גולדרט) was an educator, author, physicist, philosopher and business leader, but first and foremost, he was a thinker who provoked others to think. Often characterized as unconventional, stimulating, and “a slayer of sacred cows,” he urged his audience to examine and reassess their business practices with a fresh, new vision.

Dr. Goldratt is best known as the father of the Theory of Constraints (TOC), a process of ongoing improvement that identifies and leverages a system’s constraints in order to achieve the system’s goals. He introduced TOC’s underlying concepts in his business novel, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, which has been recognized as one of the best-selling business books of all time. First published in 1984, The Goal has been updated three times and sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. It has been translated into 35 languages.

Heralded as a “guru to industry” by Fortune magazine and “a genius” by Business Week, Dr. Goldratt continued to advance the TOC body of knowledge throughout his life, building on the Five Focusing Steps (the process of ongoing improvement, known as POOGI) with TOC-derived tools such as Drum-Buffer-Rope, Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) and the Thinking Processes. He authored ten other TOC-related books, including four business novels: It’s Not Luck (the sequel to The Goal), Critical Chain, Necessary but Not Sufficient and Isn’t It Obvious? His last book, The Choice, was co-authored by his daughter Efrat Ashlang-Goldratt.

Born in Israel on March 31, 1947, Dr. Goldratt earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Tel Aviv University and a Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy from Bar-Ilan University. He is the founder of TOC for Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing TOC Thinking and TOC tools to teachers and their students, and Goldratt Consulting. In addition to his pioneering work in business management and education, Dr. Goldratt holds patents in a number of areas ranging from medical devices to drip irrigation to temperature sensors. He died on June 11, 2011, at the age of 64.

Reviews

[Ash Moran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm torn between whether this is the best book I've ever read, or the second. It's in contention with The Goal, also by Eli Goldratt.

The Goal introduces the concept of the Theory of Constraints by starting in a factory and identifying a manufacturing bottleneck. Towards the end, it talks about the idea that the thing constraining a business may not be physical, but mental - an idea or policy. The Goal's key idea is a process of ongoing improvement, targeted at whatever the current constraint is.

The sequel to The Goal, It's Not Luck, takes this further, and shows (among other things) how to use logic maps to break down complex problems to find the root cause of the constraint. I've used this process several times, although I learnt the detailed mechanics from The Logical Thinking Process: A Systems Approach to Complex Problem Solving, and it's the most effective problem-solving tool I've found, by an order of magnitude.

The Choice adds a whole new dimension by taking the essence of The Goal (focussing on the constraint) and It's Not Luck (thinking in cause-and-effect) and explains in simple terms how to apply it to, no less, the problem of having a "full, meaningful life". To do this, Goldratt claims - we must have enough successes, which depend on our stamina to overcome setbacks, our ability to create opportunities, and our ability to collaborate with people.

Goldratt's argument is that to achieve these steps to a full life, we must be able to think clearly. But, we are blocked from thinking clearly by four obstacles:

• We see reality as complex, rather than (as Newton showed) a thing of Inherent Simplicity
• We accept conflicts as a given, rather than seeking to remove them
• We blame, rather than assuming goodness and looking for explanations of other people's behaviour
• We think "we know", rather than challenging our assumptions and looking for breakthrough ways to change a situation

The book is written as a dialogue between Goldratt and his daughter Efrat. The real win from that is that as the conversation progresses, Goldratt removes one-by-one the barriers that stop Efrat believing that anyone can learn to think clearly. The end result is a few simple steps that anyone can practise.

I've used Theory of Constraints tools to tackle big- and medium-sized problems before. But I've come away from The Choice enthused to practise day by day, hour by hour. It's an enlightening and inspirational guide to "thinking clearly".

[Sebastian Gebski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let's keep it short:
1. Goldratt books are the only books you need to read (ever) about efficiency & optimisation
2. Goldratt's TOC is the foundation of both Lean & Kanban - if you get it right, mastering those will be a piece of cake
3. This one is NOT a book about TOC.
4. However, it's a book about applying TOC in practice (e.g. to have a "full life") - it's not really a fictitious story of some company, but a dialogue between EG & his daughter Efrat.
5. The book itself doesn't introduce any new breath-taking, ground-breaking concepts, but it's practical to the bone & there's plenty of non-trivial WISDOM in it - I've made tons of private highlights & notes

Read it. Just do it.

[Александр Федотов · Rating 5 out of 5]

У каждого плодовитого автора есть книга 'как жить лучше с идеями автора х'. Голдратт - не исключение. И я рад этому.

Книга построена в форме диалога между ним и его дочерью, который шаг за шагом отвечает на вопросы о том, как жить полной жизнью.

Голдратт говорит, что этому препятствует несколько вещей:
- представление о том, что мир сложный и сложные ситуации не имеют простых решений
- привычка обвинять других людей в ваших проблемах
- конфликты существуют и мы можем разве что найти компромиссы, а не решить конфликт в корне
- мы не всегда понимаем настоящие причинно следственные связи, а склонны пользоваться коробочными решениями, которые уже доказанно работают. Мы считаем что мы знаем, когда интересней пользоваться нашими знаниями просто как гипотезой и моделью, которая работает, но которую также можно сделать и лучше.

Смысл книги в том, чтобы показать, что можно научиться простоте мышления, которая заключается в постоянной тренеровке обдумывания причинно следственных связей и использования открывающихся возможностей. Для этого необходимо принять за аксиому то, что мир потенциально безграничен и при жтом прост.
Также следствием является то, что любую ситуацию можно улучшать не только отшлифовуя результаты, но и кардинально, путем пересмотра все более нижних уровней и добавляя новые концепции.

Интересно то, что когда мы меняем модель, то наше дерево причинно следственных связей может поменяться и у нас появляются уже новые возможности доя роста.

[Victor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly excellent book that dives into Goldratt's philosophy. It describes how thinking clearly and believing in Inherent Simplicity can lead to a full life. It discusses the four obstacles of thinking clearly and how to overcome them:

- The first obstacle is our belief that reality is complex. This makes us look for complicated solutions. But something can be complex and simple at the same time, depending on the definition of complexity. A complex system (complex considering the number of elements and its structure) can be simple because you can change it by touching a single element. Inherent Simplicity encourages you to look for a small number of root causes (simple) that explains all undesirable effects (complex). Hence, solutions can be simple and obvious in hindsight.
- The second obstacle is our perception that conflicts are a given. Every conflict can be removed by clarifying its assumptions and removing the wrong ones. (This explains the thinking behind the evaporating clouds conflict resolution method described in It's Not Luck)
- The third obstacle is our tendency to blame others. We can overcome this obstacle by searching for a win-win solution. To do this, we must first think about a different, bigger win for the other side, a win that is not part of the conflict.
- The fourth obstacle is our tendency to think that we know. This drives us to look for small problems to fix, fixes that generate diminishing returns. Thinking that every situation ca be improved can help us see the big persistent problems. Fixing these leads to a quantum leap in performance.

The book is full of examples from everyday life and business. Efrat's notes and logical maps (at the end of the book) made the ideas presented in each chapter stick. I do recommend going over her notes after each chapter.

[Alistair MacDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading other novels by Eliyahu M. Goldratt (The Goal, It's Not Luck, Critical Chain), I was able to understand pieces of the process and theory of The Theory of Constraints which set my up to understand The Choice in more detail. This book is different from the novels. It follows the interaction between Goldratt and his daughter as she learns about the philosophical side of her father's theories and how they can apply to life in general. I found this book helpful in providing motivation to apply the things I have been learning from Goldratt's writing.

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has dozens of glowing, 5 star reviews on Goodreads. This isn’t one of them. When I finished the audiobook version, I wondered if that was all there was. I was expecting another “The Goal”, with a fictional story explaining some concepts. You get a bit more personal take on that here – the story is told from Goldratt’s daughter’s perspective, having a kind of Socratic give and take on aspects of the theory of constraints and optimization, aspects relating to how each player frames the problem they are having and how providing a new frame can change the group’s “goal” from impossible to easy. In the examples, this is what Goldratt does. But the way it’s told was quite different than his previous books. At times, the audiobook reminded me of when I listened to “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” in how the conversations went. This was less deep than “Zen…” but had that feel, and I suspect the target audience would be those who enjoyed “Zen…” and were into business problem solving and manufacturing (actually, more distribution) problem solving. I’ve read many books about framing recently. Compared to these recent books, this seemed a bit dated and theoretical, given the apparently fictional examples. But it does provide some definition of the issue and walks through some examples of possible solutions and ways to think about those solutions that may provide the right kick for your own thinking.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is really, quite poorly written and thought out for what it is proclaiming to provide. For someone who is not in manufacturing and has only read The Goal there was so much potential for the book to be a huge hit. But when every example they give is a lengthy manufacturing example and all the real-life application notes are found in the appendix you don’t really get much out of it. I went through the chapter notes at the end of the book twice and got twice as much out of it as anywhere else. With that said, it had just enough where I think the author has some amazing ideas. It sucks that I have to slog through the terrible organization and methods to get those ideas into any applicable use for my non MBA background.

[Ananth Venkatesan · Rating 3 out of 5]

What choice we do have
Page 2
If you want an easy life, grab a hammer a big one and hit yourself on the head, hard. You will have an easy life and they will also bring food to your bed.
I definitely want live a meaningful life – a full life – and so does everyone I know.
I am also aware that even though people want to live a full life, most people don’t achieve it,

Page 4, 5 and 6
Only a fool will expect a prototype to work perfectly the first time what one expects is to find out what does work according to expectation and what doesn’t.
Every Situation is an opportunity to learn, every new initiative is an exploration
Therefore, even if a prototype, as an instrument dint work, as long as it provided new knowledge of which cause and effects are valid and which are not, the satisfaction of progress compensates for the disappointment,
When a prototype a new initiative –doesn’t work, we face two alternatives: One is to bitch about reality and the other is to harvest the gift it just gave us, the knowledge of what has to be corrected
On the one hand, one has to be humble to assume that one doesn’t know. Actually to avoid disappointed, one has to assume that things will, most probably not work first time.
On the other hand, one must be arrogant: have the confidence that one is capable of figuring out how to make things work
Put these two things together you have a nice oxymoron: Humble Arrogance.

Page 7
Bad luck is reality meets lack of preparation, approaching reality like a scientist, if done well also provides the needed preparation.
Every Person is born with tremendous brain power, unfortunately there are obstacles that stand in the way of using that brain power.

Page 8
The first and most profound obstacle is that people believe that reality is complex, and therefore they are looking for sophisticated explanations and complicating the solution
Page 9
The admiration of sophistication is totally wrong. The key for thinking like a true scientist is acceptance that any real life situation, no matter how complex it is once understood, embarrassingly simple, moreover if the is based on human interaction you probably have enough knowledge to begin with.
Page 10
No man is an island; most of a person’s difficulties and joys stem from his interaction from other human beings
The most difficult case is those dealing not with just a diverse group but also with a diverse group that has to achieve something together, in other words an organization.
Uncommon Sense.
Page 13
Author terms a word – Un common Sense. Meaning Common sense sometimes is not as simple as the word
Page 15
Most of the improvement initiatives are centered mainly on cost savings – including trying to save on transportation, trying to find cheaper yet acceptable, suppliers. If a cost- saving program generates a few million a year it is regarded as good initiatives, if it generates tens of millions a year it is regarded as exceptionally successful, that’s why it is no wonder that they regard increasing net profits by billions as impossible.
To reveal the true potential for improvement I wanted them to examine the phenomenon of shortages; of missing items.
Page 25
The shop should hold only what is needed for proper visual display plus the quantity the shop optimistically expects to sell in the following days.
Page 26
A store knows that a fresh collection attracts clients to the store. We discussed that is the reasons the shops. that’s the reason to switch from two collections per year to four season per year.
Page 27
If we start replenishing to the store and accepting back items from the store on a regular basis. it is possible to make sure that store will have a new collection every month. With no increase in the number of items, current designs, produces and warehouses




Why is common sense Not Common Practice?
Page 31
People use those protective mechanisms tend to lower their expectation about life. Simply, since they hide the real problem from themselves, their energy is channeled to deal with the much less important things in their life. So in spite of their efforts their reality doesn’t improve much; no wonders that after a while they lower their expectation.

Page 32
Shortages and surpluses the core problem was evident – the fact that everything is based on the forecast and the forecast is awful.

Inherent Simplicity
Page 35
Inherent simplicity, in a nut shell, is at the foundation of all modern science as put by newton and in understandable language, it means, nature is exceedingly simple and harmonious with itself.
Page 36
Asking why and insisting on meaningful answer is the key. Every little kid is a Newton in Potential, they relentlessly ask why and they are not happy with answers like “go to your mother” or God made it that way. Remember how Amir defined God? the word moms use when they don’t know the answer
Page 37
What newton tell us is that the opposite happens, the system converges, common cause appears we dive down, if we dive deep enough, we will find that there are very few elements at the base- the root cause – which through cause and effect connections are governing the whole system, the result of systematically applying the question why is not enormous complexity, but rather wonderful simplicity.
Newton had the intuition and the conviction to make the leap of the faith that convergence happens, not just for the section of nature he examined in depth, but for any section of nature. Reality is built in wonderful simplicity
The same convergence, the same wonderful simplicity, exists in any aspect of reality. Reality is built in wonderful simplicity

Contradictions and Conflicts
Page 44
He talks about what is actually there, not on the surface, but right below it. He talks about what does exists if we just bother to scratch the surface.
When we examine the relationship between any two closely related people. Just listen to them when they describe the history of their relationship, a mother and her teenage daughter, two friends, a person and his counterpart at work, not to mention a married couple. Very soon you ‘ll get tired of listening to the vast details and to the inconsistencies between the stories.
Page 49
What I mean by inherent simplicity is that reality any part of reality is governed by very few elements and that any existing conflicts can be eliminated. If we take that as given, as absolutely correct in every situation, we will find ourselves thinking clearly.
Putting the Belief to Work

Page 52
Order more to avoid shortages versus order less to avoid surpluses.
Harmony
Page 56
In too many cases blaming points us in the wrong direction, into a direction where we will not find a good solution, even if the person is removed, in most cases the problem will stay.
Blaming others pours fuel onto he fires. It is a recipe to ruin the harmony in the relationship.
Page 57
You will be able to refrain from blaming people when you are convinced that there is no reason to blame them. Before you jump into conclusion that I am talking about a utopian word, let me highlight that the belief in Inherent conversation also implies a deep conviction that harmony exists in any relationship between people.
Pay attention: I didn’t say that every relationship is harmonious I am well aware that harmonious relationship is rate; much too rate.
Harmony exists in any relationship, while harmony does exist in any relationship between people, unfortunately in most cases we don’t bother to find and actually implement it.

Never Say “I Know “

Page 66
In Fashion the forecast is particularly lousy because the lifetime of the products in the market is too short. Consumption data that has been collected in one season cannot be used for forecasting the next season consumption because the products are different. But that is not the case for forecasting the relative consumption of different sizes; the ratio between consumption of a large size and small size tends to stay same for years.
Suppose the season lasts four months and that a particular item has depleted after one month. How much are the lost sales relative to the amount that was sold? The lost sale are three times bigger that the actual sales. What about an item that is completely sold out after three months? the lost sales are just one third of the actual sales. This means that even though we work with restricted availability of the colored fabric, we can get most of the effect, in terms of percent increase in sales, since most lost sales can be prevented. The same goes for reducing the bad effect of surpluses, especially when we consider that the longer it takes until the slow mover is sold, the lower the price at which it is sold.
Currently the companies order the amount needed for the whole season and the demand delivery before the beginning of the season. Once they get the goods they immediately push about 40% in to retail to fill up the pipelines with the new collections.
Pave 69
Brands that operate on three seasons a year have about six inventory turns, for them increasing to nine inventory terms is a major achievement.
Win- Win

Page 75
The tendency to blame, as long as I do not overcome this tendency, even when the change is presented to me on a golden platter, I ‘ll ignore it
Page 76
We should adopt the belief in Inherent Simplicity. Our approach to conflicts should be based on trying to remove an underlying assumption so that the conflict will vanish. Removing the conflict paves the way to find the desired change. We’ll then be focused on expanding the existing cake rather than fighting over our share of finite too- limited cake. It is what we call seeking a win-win solution.
Searching for a win-win solution requires that we find the assumption that can be removed but this is sometimes quite difficult.
Slide 78
If we want our win to be bigger we have to ensure that the other side win will be bigger. It is always possible to find a win for the other side that is bigger than what the other side explicitly going after?
If there is bigger win for the other party, why doesn’t the other party ask for it? if it is so important, how come they don’t demand it.
And then it dawns on me. We said that people, and companies, lower the expectation when they use protective mechanism to camouflage from themselves the big chronic problems, the problems that they have already gave up on resolving. If a party is using such protective mechanism (and who isn’t) it means that it is numb to its biggest needs; it will not explicitly ask for what it really needs because it doesn’t believe that there is a way to get it.
Those who are not prepared will be blind to the stream of opportunities life presents them


Slide 81
Managers of the company had learned that to build a brand name takes time, a lot of time. And money a lot of money, the bigger the country the bigger the sums of money required.

Slide 82
Shop know that merchandize that carries a known name will sell, and they are reluctant to take the risk of buying non brand merchandize, merchandize that might not sell well enough. The shop reluctance is logical because the constraint of the most shops is display space (and cash). Carrying merchandize that might not sell well is actually wasting the constraint (the opposite of exploit), and therefore reduces the overall sales of the shop.

How many opportunities are there?

Page 89
Never say I know, it is because the conviction that we know will block us from further improving the situation.
If we keep improving the system, we will reach the stage the system is quite good. We can still improve it but we can no longer expect to gain as much as we did in the beginning; the reality of diminishing returns kicks in.
Page 90
Does the impression that “we know” block us from using our intuition and brain power? It certainly looks like it. A person who is convinced that the system is functioning well, that whatever there is to know about the system is known to them, that what is left is just to continue polishing, will never bother to spend the time and effort looking for a break through. We should never be satisfied with diminishing returns, that the next break through is always waiting around the corner
It might be the more prudent thing to do, continue to wonder if there is always a way to jump a situation to a new level, no matter how good it is to start with. If there is, it has far reaching ramifications. I always thought that the best opportunity is opened when we overcome a blockage, when we realize how to improve a bad situation.

Short Self Life Products
Page 93
Can we have fresh bread? you want that was baked today? come tomorrow.
Is there a difference between bread baked two hours ago or eight hours ago not really?
Page 99
The biggest change is, of course, in sales. It is not triviality to switch from constantly pushing each store buy more, especially towards the end of the month and more so towards the end of the quarter, into establishing “partnership” according to the real needs of the store; striving to increase the return on inventory of the store by agreeing on the right inventory levels and then simply replenishing the actual consumption.

The Sky is not the limit.
Page 109
Thinking like a true scientist means being humbly arrogant. Humble to have the conviction that you don’t know; arrogant to have conviction that you can develop the knowledge.

Page 110
The hardest thing to do is to struggle to find an answer to a problem when we believe that there is a high chance that it doesn’t have an answer. It is so easy to give up. Start with a conviction that better solution exists for sure.
Think cause and effect, if we eliminate the effect, we should eliminate the cause.
Think clearly and Tautologies
Page 116
I clearly agree that I don’t want an easy life- I want a full life, I also accept that in order to live a full life I have to have enough good opportunities and I need to advance some of the opportunities to a level where I’ll feel I have made a significant achievement
Page 117
The key to thinking clearly is to avoid circular logic.
Page 120
Circular logic is a point of no return for thinking clearly. You use it once and from then on you are blocked from diving down to the root cause and instead you are building castle on quick sand. The problem is that circular logic sounds right and when we cannot check it directly we tend to accept it as given.
Sales of our product are declining because the market taste is changing. If I leave it as is, this sentence is another fine example of tautology.
It might be that sales are declining because there is a downturn in the economy, or because there is new competition, or because our service has deteriorated or we raised the prices. There are so many plausible causes and with the information we have been given there is no reason to prefer one of them over the others.

Page 122& 124
The fact that we needed a person of Newton’s caliber to open our eyes to the convergence indicates that in many cases – as long as we don’t recognize the common cause – the effect looks to us as though they have nothing in common. That they belong to different situations or time frames. The belief in Inherent simplicity gives the assurance that at least one or more effect exists, we just have to enlarge the scope we are looking at in order to find it. Most people have enough intuition, and together with this assurance, after some practice, they are able to easily come up with additional effects to verify or refute a claimed cause. Inherent Simplicity opens the door to verifying an abstract entity,
Page 124
The more predicted effects verified, the higher the validity of the cause. The more you practice the easier becomes. When you practice it to the extent that it becomes second nature to you, people might start calling you a genius.

Page 125
Have you heard the Phrase, people resist change – the bigger the change, the bigger the resistance.
Page 126
In Science, every claim, every hypothesis, every cause is considered to be relevant only if it can be put to a test.
Page 128
Our intuition will surface in our mind only predicted effect that will validate that false hypothesis, while screening out all the other predicted effects that disprove it. if you are not careful to guard against

Emotion, Intuition and logic.
Page 155
At a minimum you have accepted not to accept anything just because someone, anyone, say it with authority. Always be on guard, always think, and continuously check if reality confirms your assumptions and conclusions.
Page 156
Different people have their emotions geared towards different things. People have different areas of interest. That’s why the opportunities and achievements that are important to one person may be different from the ones that are important to another.
Page 157
When we practice thinking clearly we don’t devote the same attention to every subject; we tend to concentrate on our areas of interest. The more we succeed in thinking clearly the deeper our emotions in those areas become. The deeper the emotions, the stronger is the resulting intuition. The stronger the intuition, the higher the chances to successfully apply logic; the higher the chances to achieve good results. And since the results were achieved in our areas of interest, they are meaningful in our eyes. The more meaningful the results, the deeper are the emotions.
It is the Helix that swirls upwards. Everybody has enough brainpower and intuition to reach a full life, no matter what the starting level of brain power and the intuition, if we practice thinking clearly, the helix will intensify them to new height.
I never leave things to chance. I always try to make sure that the deck is stacked in my favor. I Put safety nets on top of safety nets.
Page 173
Two Alternatives: One is to bitch about the reality and the other is to harvest the gifts it gave us. This is what I called the freedom of choice.

[Sourav · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a part of 'Theory of Constraints' series by Dr Goldratt. It is in form of a conversation between Dr Goldratt and his daughter Efrat. He tries to help her how to think clearly and how anyone can do so. Citing examples from textile industry to a bread making company, Dr Goldratt cites reasons that block someone to think of an inefficient solution and provides a way out. Highly recommended if you are interested in understanding TOC and logical thinking.

[Niklas Heer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tries to explain the thought process of Eliyahu M. Goldratt through an exciting dialog with his daughter.
The lessons are presented through reports he shares with his daughter from companies he worked with.
I very much enjoyed this format. It made it easy to read and enjoyable.
Although I still cannot claim I fully internalize the thought process highlighted in the book, I recognize that it is beneficial.
I can recommend this book to everyone.

[Toshihiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read for a new year.

A flawless Superhero Dr. Goldratt comes here. Well, beside the one side winning story, that bothers me from rating this book full stars, it has a lot of hint to think things clearly. Interesting and practical. Good read to start a new year.

[Akshay Patni · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was Goldratt's third book which I read, and it was no-less of a gem. He is definitely one of my favorite author and an inspiration.
Dr. Goldratt has tried to explain his ability to think so clearly about life and organization problems and how can we also do this. WE MUST LEARN THIS! This book contains multiple business cases and again Goldratt's simple way of looking at these problems, and creating the maximum impact with the least no. of livers is evident in each of them.
The book is medium-paced compared to The Goal or Goal II, and is structured as a conversation between him and his daughter.
Efrat (his daughter) has also included notes from each of her conversations in the end which acts as a good summary or reckoner whenever you want to go back. Must Read!

[Yaryna Zhukorska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Автор - фізик.
Це вже про здоровий глузд, бо це математичне мислення)
Гуру з управління бізнесом та автор теорії обмежень.
Рекомендується для прочитання всім, хто хоче мислити ясно, дружити зі здоровим глуздом та знаходити ефективні рішення.
Дуже крута!

🔗 Звинуватити когось - не значить, знайти рішення.

🔗 Гармонія існує в будь-яких відносинах між людьми.

🔗 І люди, і компанії знижують рівень своїх очікувань, коли намагаються приховати від себе серйозні й хронічні проблеми - ті проблеми, що вже зневірилися вирішити.

🔗 У всіх хороших рішень є спільна риса - вони очевидні, але лише заднім числом.

🔗 Ніколи не кажи «я знаю».

🔗 Завжди є можливість перевести ситуацію на новий рівень, незалежно від того, успішно вона починалася чи ні.

🔗 Найцінніші можливості для поглиблення знань відкриваються, коли реальність істотно розходиться з нашими очікуваннями.

🔗 Хороше рішення обовʼязково повʼязане з ключовим конфліктом.

🔗 Будь-яку гіпотезу - як би правдоподібно вона не виглядала - необхідно перевіряти на присутність в ній зневажливого ставлення до людей.

🔗 Ми неминуче зіткнемося з опором, якщо людина бачить інший, ніж ми, причинно-наслідковий звʼязок.

🔗 При зіткненні з сильним спротивом, що переростає в активний параліч, найприродніша реакція - спроба знайти компроміс. Це - серйозна помилка.

🔗 Люди часто приймають компроміси за розсудливість.

🔗 Люди, яких виштовхують з їх зони комфорту, не мають досвіду, щоб судити про те, що грунтується на причинно-наслідкових звʼязках, що відрізняються від звичних для них.

#451deepreading

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muchas críticas dicen que es un libro muy bueno, pero a mi no me terminaron de parecer muy "reveladores" o muy interesantes siquiera los pocos conceptos básicos que se discuten.

[Jack Vinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second reading after being much more involved in Theory of Constraints projects.
Here's my blog entry. https://www.jackvinson.com/blog/2014/...

[Brad Tatum · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book could be summarized in a few pages saving readers a lot of time. The examples used in book were hard to follow and not interesting.

[Manisha Singh (bookwalikahani) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Choice by Eliyahu Goldratt
He is called as “iconoclast”by the Economist
He is known for his business related books
And the Choice is not a normal book to read
You really need lot of attention and focus while you read this book,

Chapters:18
Pages:174

Published by:Productivity & Quality Publishing Pvt Ltd.

Recommendations:

This book is all about business and recommend if you are into business then only read other wise you cannot relate anything and then this book would be a boring read for you,

Review:

There is a analysis between the big organization,
The medium business and the smaller one,

This conversation is done by the father who is a scientist and the daughter who reads his analysising reports and the father wants her to understand why has he come up with this conclusion and what is his thought process about all different business structures with different strategies and all together different bands
The big brands who into clothing,
Who works according to the market of different countries,
Who has sales and new collections coming up as per the sessions
Like winter,summer,monsoon and so on
It has a deep discussion about the brand to increase the profit margins keeping in mind all the issues have been faced
Medium Organization,

A organization who makes bread
How can this company make profit as its a perishable good
Its beautiful description how this business can go ahead with a good business margin
Small organization
Who is a distributor what mindset he has and what kind of business he is doing
What he should change for more profit ratio,
Many more things in deep detail
Over all little tough to understand but someone into business should read.

#bookwalikahani

[Bob Wallner · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's it like being the child of one of the most influential business thinkers in the 20th century? This book gives you a little insight. The Choice is written as a running conversation between the late Eliyahu Goldratt and his daughter Efrat.


Straying a bit from the fictional novel, The Choice discusses Dr Goldratt's thinking regarding cause and effect relationships in a conversational tone. Through this conversation, and Efrat's notes at the end of the book, this book tries to bring a greater understanding and simplicity to the complex way that Dr Goldratt's mind works.


This book is the second book, critical chain being the first, that I've read by Goldratt that introduces his thinking on other concepts outside of theory of constraints. Besides talking about cause and effect he mentions other lesser known thinking processes such as vanishing cloud. I'm sure if Dr Goldratt had not died in 2011, these thinking processes would have been more commonly known. Today they live on through a handful of his disciples, but what little I know about them, they can be powerful critical thinking tools.


Although not quite as engaging as some of his fictional business novels, The Choice does warrant a re listen as I'm sure there are many finer points that I missed.

[Aisha Ayoosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely need to read this again for it to really sink in, but I will make an attempt at summarising what this book is about. The book is built around a conversation that Eliyahu has with his daughter, Efrat. The discussion revolves around how anyone can live a meaningful life and what the obstacles to it are. So.... I’d say it’s quite a philosophical book.


Freedom of Choice: Easy life vs Meaningful life
- Every action is an experiment, results are merely outcomes
- A scientist doesn’t label them as failures, instead learns from this to do better. One must have the stamina to get up after failing.


Obstacles to thinking clearly:
- Reality is complex, when in actual fact it is inherently simple.
- Conflict is a given, but it isn’t. Is compromise the only solution or can both parties get exactly what they what by focusing on a common objective. Win-Win!
- Tendencies to blame, rather than find out how and why things happen. Blaming will not eradicate the issue even once the person at blame is removed. Additionally, adopting the thinking that people are generally good.
- Don’t ever think that you know, because every situation can be substantially improved.


One thing that was interesting was the idea of the “mystery analysis” or what people should do when confronted by a surprising result. Rather than accepting the result, they should discover why the result was so different from expectations. Was it the thinking about the situation rather than the situation itself?

Overcome the 4 obstacles above = Think Clearly = Many opportunities + Stamina to overcome failures + Collaboration = FULL LIFE! 😊

[Darius Daruvalla-riccio · Rating 5 out of 5]

The choice is an excellent book for understanding the underlying thought processes of TOC. In Goldratt's novels, the story format helps you absorb the lessons and information and the choice acheives the same effect by using the format of a conversation between Efrat (Goldratt's daughter) and her father.
An excellent highlight of the book is the recap section at the wnd which summarises each chapter and draws the logical trees for each argument.
I would definitely recommend reading the other TOC books first (The Goal, It's Not Luck, Critical Chain) but once you have, The Choice will help to develop fluency and develop solutions for your own unique problems.

[andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eliyahu and Efrat, the chain smoking corpo guru and psycho (ologist) daughter, end up concluding after their week Socratic dialogue that the key to life is: stop bitchin and moaning!

the bread report and notes at the back make the worth of the book. otherwise, it’s a nice book to ape Eliyahu’s thought process.

All of Eliyahu’s recommendations to companies both “climb the ladder” and can be implemented progressively. One part can be optimized making it easier for the next part to be and so on. He has set strategies to iterate these companies to a hopefully global maximum by squeezing the shit out of flow, sales, and distribution.

[Serge Kurenkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you read any other of Goldratt's books this one is like a magnifying glass that explains what and how can be optimized/improved with his thinking processes and what is the logic behind that. Like a secret door into his magical laboratory and it is absolutely amazing when you realize that there is actually no magic.

Hooks:
The Goal, It's Not Luck, Critical Chain - you should read those before getting to The Choice.
Immunity to Change by Kegan, Robert - as an alternative approach to fixing the human mind.

[Nirav · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading multiple books on Theory of Constraints, what should I expect of this book?

To explain it in a somewhat abstract manner, it shows the thinking behind the thinking.

Chapter by chapter, we go into further depths of what ultimately becomes the foundation of the thinking processes, not just accepting the human-ness of us all, but also building the principles around this very human qualities of ours.

While some chapters are a drag because I had read other books. Highly recommended for everyone.

[Harsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Considering this was a sequel to 'The Goal', I had high expectations and it absolutely delivered. The book is set up almost like a masterclass in clear thinking.

Through a dialogue between Goldratt and his daughter, it explains various concepts and practical tips on how to think more effectively, supported by selected business case studies.

It challenges you to question some of the fundamental assumptions we use in day-to-day life and leaves you with a fresh perspective on structured thinking.

[Alex Oxford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has dramatically changed the way I think about reality, situations, and myself. It felt like the author was pointing out that I had a faculty available to me that I didn't quite realize. Almost like driving a car without realizing there's a rear view mirror—once it's seen, it can't be unseen. I am looking forward to diving further into Goldratt's thinking processes and theory of constraints. A must-read for any executive or manager. The audiobook is very enjoyable.

[Jussi Mäkelä · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Choice is likely the most impactful book I’ve ever read so far. It is opening so many new avenues I didn’t know existed both professionally and privately. I will most certainly be coming back to it several times in the future. This book gives more than all those self-help books or fancy management books you have likely already read.

[Yogesh Baher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beyond the Theory of Constraints or the conflict resolution techniques Goldratt is known for. This is a more personal and intimate account of the thinking patterns of a pragmatic scientist. Even on subjects like human relationships and the purpose of life, Goldratt has a scientific take which is unbelievably simple.

[Ed Schaefer · Rating 4 out of 5]

As is typical of Goldratt books I feel like I had some profound takeaways from this book, and I also feel like I need to reread this a time or two to really take away the messages and lessons.

I appreciated the format of a series of conversations (and questions) between him and his daughter. The look at thinking about thinking was deeply interesting and thought-provoking.

[Ilya · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bunch of very interesting and real-life concepts that you haven't thought about before. I recommend this book, it gives a fresh look at your thinking process and how you follow the path from a root cause to a consequence of the decision.

[Marquis Calmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another eye opener from Goldratt

While a lot of this retreads the ground of “Its Not Luck” this dove deeper. That book explored the tools, this book explores the mindset required to best leverage the tools. Worth a read for any TOC students.