1
The Herd and the Gate
The questionWhen results disappoint, does more pressure organize your flow, or scatter it?
The ideas
Fifteen ideas you can use before the book arrives.
The book does not hand you answers to memorize. It presents everyday scenes and lets the conclusion take shape in your head. Here are the fifteen scenes, one per chapter. Start anywhere.
2
The River
The questionIf nothing moves, what exactly is producing your result?
3
The Waiting Room
The questionIf you followed one order end to end, would it spend more time working or waiting?
4
The Slowest Scout
The questionIf the group can only move at the speed of the slowest, why do we keep speeding up the fast ones?
5
Busy Is Not Productive
The questionWhose efficiency are you protecting, and at whose expense?
6
Too Many Tabs Open
The questionDoes your team have too much work, or too much work started?
7
Traffic Lights at the On-Ramp
The questionWhat would happen if you released less work into the system next week?
8
The Orchestra
The questionWho or what sets the beat in your operation, and does the rest of the system know it?
9
Following Distance
The questionWhere is your safety distance, and what is it telling you right now?
10
The Barrel
The questionWhich stave have you been raising, and which one actually limits you?
11
The Most Valuable Minute
The questionAre you measuring margin per unit, or throughput per minute of the constraint?
12
The Brewery
The questionWhich decision, the one nobody questions anymore, is producing exactly the behavior you complain about?
13
Juggling
The questionHow many things are you carrying at once, and what would finishing three of them be worth?
14
Speed Is Not Direction
The questionBefore automating, is the flow worth accelerating?
15
The Beam of Light
The questionWhere is your attention pointing, and what stays in the dark because of it?
The chapters
Fifteen chapters. One line of reasoning.
—Introduction · The Age of Acceleration
1The False Logic of More
2The Invisible Flow
3The Cost of Waiting
4The Constraint Always Exists
5The Illusion of Productivity
6The Invisible Congestion
7Controlling the Release
8The Power of Synchronization
9Protecting the Flow
10The Mathematics of Flow
11Measuring What Matters
12The Invisible Constraint: Decisions
13The Cost of Multiple Priorities
14Technology Accelerates. Flow Guides.
15The New Scarcity: Attention
—Conclusion · The Flow Equation
And at the back of the book: the fifteen laws, a one-page tool to find your constraint in eight steps, and a glossary that maps the plain language of the book to the formal vocabulary of the Theory of Constraints.