Hello TOC

Thinking Process Workshop · Lesson 6 of 9

Negative branches

Good ideas are often rejected for fear of what might go wrong. A negative branch maps that fear as cause and effect, and a supporting injection trims it. Build the shipping example step by step, then test your own injection.

18 min · Not completed yet

Why look for what could go wrong?

Many good ideas are never implemented because people fear their side effects, often without saying so. If we want our solution adopted, we must think through those negative consequences ourselves and find a way to stop them.

The negative branch reservation (NBR) improves decisions by surfacing the possible negative outcomes of a proposed solution, predicting what can go wrong, and then preventing it. It is the fourth layer of resistance: “yes, but…”.

The whole process to a good solution is:

  1. Verbalise the problem as a cloud.
  2. Surface the assumptions under its arrows.
  3. Develop an injection.
  4. Check for negative consequences: the negative branch.
  5. Trim the branch with a supporting injection.

Building a branch

Step 1. Write the injection at the bottom and the negative outcome at the top, and read upwards: “If [injection], then [negative outcome].”

Step 2. Ask “because…?” Why do you believe the negative outcome will follow? Then decide where the answer goes:

  • If it is something that will happen as a result of the injection, place it between them. This builds the spine of the branch.
  • If it is something that already exists, or may happen independently of the injection (“if it rains”), place it at the side of the spine, joined to the step it helps explain.

Step 3. Check every arrow with the categories of legitimate reservation until the branch reads cleanly.

Step 4. Trim the branch. Find the weakest link, usually where a side condition combines with a spine step, and add a supporting injection that stops the chain there.

The shipping example

The injection from the last lesson gave shipping the authority to call the customer. The account manager objects: the customer will see me as irresponsible and unprofessional.

The customer sees the account manageras irresponsible and unprofessional Shipping tells the customer it doesn’thave the delivery information The customer feels these detailswere covered by the account manager Shipping may call the customerfor missing delivery information InjectionSide: exists already Supporting injection: shipping saysit wants to recheck the delivery detailsto give the quickest, best service
  • If shipping has the authority to call, then shipping will tell the customer it doesn’t have the delivery information. That will happen because of the injection: it goes on the spine.
  • That alone doesn’t make the account manager look bad. It does together with something that is already true: the customer feels these details were covered by the account manager. That goes at the side, joined by an ellipse.
  • Supporting injection: shipping tells the customer that, to give the quickest and best service, they would like to recheck the delivery information. The customer no longer hears “we don’t know”, and the branch is cut.

Explore the same branch in the template, press Check my work, then try changing it.

Pause and think: a manager proposes releasing work to the floor only when the constraint needs it. The supervisor says, “Then my people will stand idle.” Where does “idle people” go in the branch?

  • On the spine: it will happen as a result of the injection
  • At the side: it exists already in today’s reality
  • It is the injection
  • It isn’t part of the branch

Less work on the floor at non-constraints is a direct result of the injection. The real negative outcome sits higher up the branch: perhaps “people are measured on utilisation and look bad” (with “people are measured on utilisation” at the side, because it is already true). A supporting injection would change the measure.

Workbook: test your own injection

Take the injection you wrote for your cloud in lesson 5 (or any idea you plan to propose). Ask the person most likely to object what could go wrong. Build the branch, decide spine or side for each step, and trim it.

Check your understanding

Answer all five. Get four right to complete the lesson.

1. A negative branch starts from…

  • The UDE that the injection was originally meant to remove
  • The injection, with the possible negative outcome at the top
  • The common objective
  • The assumptions

Read it upwards: if injection, then…

2. A step that will happen as a result of the injection goes…

  • At the side
  • At the top
  • Outside the branch, as a separate note for the reader
  • On the spine, between the injection and the outcome

That builds the spine.

3. A condition that already exists in reality goes…

  • On the spine
  • Nowhere
  • At the side, joined to the step it helps explain
  • In the injection itself, as a condition

Like “if it rains”: independent of the injection.

4. What trims a negative branch?

  • A supporting injection that breaks the chain
  • Dropping the injection and choosing another
  • Ignoring the objection
  • A stronger D

The original injection stays; the branch is cut.

5. Which layer of resistance does the negative branch address?

  • Disagreement about the problem
  • “Yes, but it will cause negative consequences”
  • “Yes, but there are obstacles”
  • Disagreement about the direction of the solution

Layer 4.