Elaine Marie Christine has a mission to bring peace to every mind. She is the founder of Aquaterra since 2005, the number 1 Best Selling author of The Peace Prophecy trilogy, and host of the Peacemakers podcast.
Is it artificial intelligence? Possibly. The Six-Discipline Model is a whole-brain model that serves as a generic framework. With six functions processing inputs and outputs, it can innovate and improve any thought, product, or process. Use this simple model of mind for your success.
Six-discipline model story
It was cool and rainy March 1996 when we arrived at Heathrow Airport in London. I was prepared to teach a 3-day Software Risk Management seminar in the financial district. Having been warned that attendees might be reluctant to ask questions of the American professor, I posed three questions after each section in my training material.
The class enjoyed our group discussion, and the students began to ask other questions. One man inquired, ‘How does risk fit into the big picture?’ I turned to write something on the board but drew a blank. Turning back to the class, I said, ‘Well, I’ll get back to you.’ That was Friday the 13th and my response received low marks on the course evaluations.
Back in the hotel room, my husband Tom Gorsuch asked, ‘How did it go today, honey?’ I said, ‘Not very well. The students asked me a question I couldn’t answer.’ Tom reassured, ‘Oh, don’t worry. We’ll work on it when we get home.’ Then we went out for dinner and at the theatre saw Les Misérables.
What is the six-discipline model?
Risk is the probability and consequence of decisions made with uncertainty. My search to understand how risk fits into the big picture of managing product development led me to conclude that existing management models did not adequately describe risk. What was missing was the ability to change the plan based on findings from risk assessment.
Peter Senge informs us, “A discipline is a body of theory and technique that must be studied and put into practice to be mastered. It has a developmental path for acquiring certain skills or competencies. To practice a discipline is to be a lifelong learner.” The Six-Discipline Model is a generic whole-brain model for product development and continuous process improvement.
The six-discipline model
Back home in Florida, Tom drew a simple diagram to handle the uncertainty that might arise from doing the work. The repeatable process was to plan the work and work the plan with feedback loops designed to improve and innovate. In August 1997, we presented our Six-Discipline Model at the Seventh International Symposium of the International Council on Systems Engineering in Los Angeles, California.
1. Discover the possibilities
Discipline 1 is Discover. Discover investigates what is uncertain and unknown. Ask questions. What don’t you know? Doubt what you think you know. Brainstorm ideas. Be creative and use intuition as your guide. Seek to understand the possibilities with an open mind to broaden your perspective. Discover is the discipline that reveals risks and opportunities for future awareness.
Think about the pluses and the minuses in your situation. Opportunity is a positive possibility and risk is a negative likelihood of loss. Identify the risk in terms of probability and consequence. You will not know your opportunity until you assess your risk. Opportunity and risk are two sides to the same coin. Tom says, “When uncertainty is gone, so is opportunity.”
2. Envision the product
Discipline 2 is Envision. Envision creates an image for inspiration in obtaining the desired results. What product or service do you want to develop, achieve, build, or grow? Write a vision phrase or statement of need. Draw a picture of the vision. Associate a song with the vision. List reasons why the vision is important. Translate your concepts into tangible goals and objectives.
How can you demonstrate commitment to the vision? Involve the stakeholders and share how each will benefit. Associate a symbol with your vision and distribute team wear in your logo colors. Use your imagination to visualize the best possible outcome. Communicate your vision clearly so that everyone learns how they play an important part in supporting ultimate success.
3. Plan the work
Discipline 3 is Plan. Plan your development by mapping the available resources such as time and talent to requirements derived from mission-specific goals and objectives. Estimate financial budgets required to perform the work based on research and performance data.
Sequence the planned work in a schedule. Establish quality criteria and develop test procedures for products. Update the plan based on variance data from measurements of work status. Revise the plan from management and technical feedback on project, product, and process risk.
4. Work the plan
Discipline 4 is Work. Work is your activity to implement the plan and produce the product. Consider intermediate and disposable work products from derived requirements, design documents, and test drivers. By-products of work are status and uncertainty, which develop as progress is made. Products remain in work until they satisfy the quality criteria.
5. Measure the work
Discipline 5 is Measure. Measure evaluates your expected and actual results. Track results over time and determine progress by comparing status (Where am I?) to the plan (Where should I be?). Analyze the variance and recommend corrective action. Report the difference between the estimates in the plan and the actual status to allow for mid-course corrections.
6. Value the measures
Discipline 6 is Value. Value your progress and learn from experience. Analyze benchmarks and project measures for reporting and improving organizational processes and metrics. Internal measures and external benchmarks help you know how to change the plan. Maintain a knowledge base with process asset libraries, reuse repositories and organizational metrics. Gather lessons learned and modify the plan to support continuous process improvement.
Validating the six-discipline model
How could I be certain the Six-Discipline Model was complete? I was asking this question and helping my stepdaughter with her second-grade science project around the same time. The children were taught to use the scientific method, a proven philosophy of inquiry first described by René Descartes. It occurred to me that I could use the scientific method to validate the Six-Discipline Model.
I called the assistant principal at Indialantic Elementary in charge of judging the Science Fair. I met with Mr. Ed Short to present my hypothesis that the Six-Discipline Model is a requisite process diagram of the human mind that can simulate any thought. I named it the 6D Scientific Method and explained how it describes a rational thinking process to help make decisions.
Mr. Short assured me that I had accounted for processing the inputs and outputs required by the scientific method. I read about René Descartes online where he is described as a devout and religious person. Descartes wanted to prove the existence of God, but his scientific method only proved that people had the power to think. And so, human beings began to doubt God.
Six-discipline model resources
Download and print the Six-Discipline Model diagram in PDF format. See how the 6D Scientific Method uses inputs and outputs specific to the scientific method with the six disciplines generic to the Six-Discipline Model. Elaine’s textbook on Amazon, Managing Risk, is a comprehensive guide for busy professionals delivering products on time and within budget.
Read more from Elaine Marie Christine
Elaine Marie Christine, Sole Proprietor & Owner at Aquaterra
Elaine Marie Christine is a Mindfulness Expert, number 1 Best Selling author, and International Keynote Speaker. She earned an MBA, Master in CS (1983), and PhD in Computer Science with a minor in Artificial Intelligence from the Florida Institute of Technology (1995). Her landmark text, Managing Risk, was published by Addison Wesley Longman (1998). She is the tech-savvy Sole Proprietor and Owner at Aquaterra, publishing digital content (since 2005). Dr. Elaine Christine was inducted into Who’s Who in America (2021).
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