The Choice  (English, Paperback, Goldratt Eliyahu M.)

The Choice 01 Edition takes forward the basic concepts of the Theory of Constraints and explains how to apply them to live a better life.\

Summary Of The Book

Eliyahu M. Goldratt, an Israeli management consultant, devised the Theory of Constraints to determine what factors might be holding an organization back from achieving its goals and how to deal with those obstacles.

According to the Theory of Constraints (TOC), any manageable entity functions within a set of constraints. Goldratt explained in his TOC paradigm how to find the critical constraint that is the main obstacle to success. Once this constraint is identified, he also explains how to restructure the, management system around this main constraint.

In The Choice 01 Edition, Goldratt  explains how these principles can also be applied to manage personal life. The book is in the form of an informal conversation with his daughter Efrat. In the prologue, Efrat explains how she managed to bring her father out of his study, and together, they sit down in their backyard.

Efrat then initiates the conversation, and gradually manages to engage her father in a full discussion of his philosophy.
Goldratt explains how people limit themselves from realizing their potential, and how a few simple basic assumptions are the only obstacles that stand in their way. If they learn to recognize these constraints and overcome them, they can have a successful and meaningful life.

He explains the four main constraints that stand in the way of most people’s quest for a happy, successful life. These are:

People assume that life and the way the world functions is very complex. Ultimately though, Goldratt says that reality is inherently simple. As Newton showed, nature ultimately fits a pattern and is simple and harmonious with itself. Goldratt says this applies to people’s lives too.

Another limiting constraint is people’s tendency to assign blame to other people, rather than examining how they themselves might be contributing to the negative situation.

People also assume conflicts as a basic law of nature, they assume that these will always exist. So, they do not find ways to resolve them.

Another major constraint is that people assume that they know everything about a given situation, rather than keeping an open mind about it, so that they might come with some innovative solution.

Goldratt says that the more complex a situation seems, the simpler the solution will be, if people train themselves to view reality as being simple and learn to challenge their own and other’s assumptions.

About Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Eliyahu  M. Goldratt was an Israeli physicist turned management guru.

Other books by Goldratt are The Goal, The Haystack Syndrome, It's Not Luck, The Race, and What is This Thing Called Theory of Constraints And How Should it be Implemented?

All his books are written around his basic philosophy, the Theory Of Constraints.

Eliyahu M. Goldratt was born in 1947 in Israel. He graduated from Tel Aviv University with a degree in science.  He studied at  Bar-Ilan University for his masters degree in science. He also earned his doctorate from the same university. While working for a software company called Creative Output, he noticed that many of the company’s own internal software implementations were not delivering as expected. He studied the causes for this and realized that the preconceived assumptions and old habits of the employees were affecting the proper use of the software solutions. This is when he got the idea for his management philosophy, the Theory Of Constraints, which he explained in his book, The Goal.