The Book of Concepts

Glossary

At the end of the book, the definitions of the most important terms are listed alphabetically; like a dictionary, they can be used independently of the models.

A

Ability to motivate: The ability by which an individual can influence another individual’s inner motivation. It can be conscious or instinctive.
Agreement: Two or more people identifying with one another on a given subject.
Agreement-making: Clarifying the client’s expectations at the beginning of a process; the series of actions preceding planning and implementation. The agreement-making process is the supplier’s responsibility.
Analysis: One of the stages of the logical, inductive thinking process: organising the relevant information gathered. It is preceded by measurement and followed by conclusion.
Areas of leadership: The areas of leadership defined by the branches of the Compass model: leading processes, leading value creation/the business, leading an organisational group, leading employees and leading leaders.
Attitude: A conviction that guides our thinking, action and communication in our work.
Axiom: A starting condition that is taken as given in the course of reasoning.

B

Being motivated: The state in which my motivation, my inner drive, finds expression and my performance increases.
Better supplier: The better supplier is the one who knows better than the client what the client needs.

C

Capacity: Competence, mindset and attitude together.
Cause: An event or fact in the past or present that has brought about the current situation.
Checkpoint: A fixed point of thought following the action.
Client: The client is the other party to the employee’s matter (in Hungarian, ügyfél: ügy, “matter, cause” + fél, “party”); it is the client who formulates the expectations for that matter. There are two types: the one within the organisation, the internal client, and the one outside it, the external client – for example the Customer.
Commission Cross: A thinking technique containing the 11 questions that must be clarified when making an agreement. It can also be used for analysis and planning.
Compass model: A framework for organisations with which competencies and processes can be organised into a system.
Competence: The intersection of knowledge and know-how with method and technique. An individual is competent if they know what they have to do (they have the knowledge and know-how), how to do it (method and technique), and are able to do it on their own.
Complex process model: When planning a complex process, a chain of process models in which the output of one becomes the input of the next, and so on.
Concept: It has three meanings: strategy, system, method.
Concept-building: Following the three meanings (strategy, system, method), it has three possible outcomes: on the basis of the information available, we define a strategy, build a system from it, or create a method. The use of fundamental analysis techniques is recommended in concept-building.
Control levels: A process-management method with which we categorise our processes and so support prioritisation.
Control point: A fixed point of thought, of which there are two possible types, depending on whether we insert it into the process before the action (prevention point) or after it (checkpoint).
Cooperation: Community synergy. We always and in all circumstances cooperate fully and constructively. We consider creating harmony between the community’s energies to be above any of our individual truths.
Core process: The process that is started by the customer, arrives at the customer, and is paid for by the customer (unless we have exempted them from payment).
Corruption: The breakdown of the triad of thinking, action and communication: I do not do what I say; I do not say what I think; I think something other than what I do. I put individual interest before the community interest.
Creativity: The capacity to create, based on a way of thinking that departs from the familiar.
Culture of making proposals: Its essence is that making proposals is compulsory for everyone in the organisation; this also shows that thinking is present in the organisation.

D

Dashboard: The set of measures and indicators in a given process that show whether my process is heading towards conformity.
Decision: One possible output of the logical, inductive thinking process, when the person doing the thinking has the authority to take the decision.
Deduction: One of the most common forms of logical thinking, in which we state something and then prove it.
Dispositive: The group of rules from which we may depart if we can carry out the process in question better. There are two types: the internal dispositive rule (standard) and the external dispositive rule (recommendation).

E

Effect: The consequence of a cause.
Efficiency: The optimal use of resources in a given process, which takes into account other factors besides time and result.
External client: A client outside the organisation.

F

Feasibility plan: A study whose main aim is to decide whether the subject of the study can be, or is worth being, implemented. The output is usually a yes/no answer, if necessary with the arguments set out, supporting data and sub-studies.

I

Idea: The output of the creative thinking process.
Idea generation: The process whose aim is to produce as many usable ideas as possible. An idea-generation process can be made effective with structured creative thinking techniques.
Identity: The totality of the characteristics and facts that define an entity and give it its character.
Implementation plan: The implementation plan is drawn up after a positive decision on implementation and contains all the specific plans, process descriptions and standards that we carry out during implementation.
Indicator: An element of the dashboard; on its own it is suitable as a basis for decisions, since it signals processes, changes and the current situation and shows a relationship or ratio. It is mostly formed from measures and the static values linked to them, and from the relationship between the two.
Induction: One of the most common forms of logical thinking, in which we get from the question to the output through measurement, analysis and conclusion.
Input: The totality of the tools, information and methods needed to plan and carry out a process.
Internal client: A client within the organisation.

J

Job: The totality of the processes and process positions belonging to a given employee.

L

Leadership inputs: The inputs provided by the leader as a framework for planning and carrying out every process.

M

Mandatory (cogent): The group of rules from which no departure is permitted. There are two types: the internal mandatory rule (instruction) and the external mandatory rule (law).
Maximalism: A maximalist is someone who never works worse than the best of their ability.
Measure: The quantification of measured data; on its own it is not suitable for drawing conclusions. Placed in a frame of reference, it becomes an indicator and supports decision-making.
Measurement: In the logical, inductive thinking process, gathering the relevant information.
Method: One possible interpretation of concept: the set of techniques assigned to the way of implementation.
Mindset: A direction of thinking that also determines our relationship to work.
Mission: The word, of Latin origin, goes back to the idea of service. It means how we wish to serve our external social environment with our vision.
Motivation: Motivation has three components: the ability to motivate, openness to motivation and being motivated.

N

Negative deviation: A deviation from the performance level that the client identifies as a defect.

O

Openness to motivation: The characteristic that shows how far motivating factors have an effect on me.
Order and system: The inclination towards order and the totality of the tools linked to creating order.
Organisational group: All the employees belonging to a given leader or working in a given process.
Organisational operation: Creating cooperation, unity and agreement in the organisation.
Output: The result of a process, created in the course of work done with the inputs. Every process has an output, and some outputs also take the form of a document.

P

Pattern: The frameworks in our thinking on which logical thinking is built.
Pattern-free thinking: Departing from the habitual frameworks of thinking.
Performance appraisal: The appraisal of capacity, efficiency and results.
Performance level: The totality of the client’s expectations in a given process, recorded during agreement-making.
Positive deviation: A deviation from the performance level by which I exceed the client’s satisfaction.
Positivity: An attitude to the present and the future: constantly thinking in terms of solutions and results, and looking for action in every situation.
Prevention point: A fixed point of thought before the action.
Prioritisation: Ranking processes according to given criteria in order to work efficiently.
Proactivity: The mindset or state in which the supplier of the process thinks and proposes action sooner than the client of the process.
Process management: The view in quality systems that not only the result matters but also the process leading to it. The methods of process management make it possible for the process to be of good quality as well.
Product: A basic concept in value creation: the goods and the service attached to them.
Proposal: One possible output of the logical, inductive thinking process, when the person doing the thinking does not have the authority to decide. The heart of the thinking system, connecting thinking and action. The basis of the culture of making proposals.
Pyramid model: In organisations, the hierarchical layering of powers, positions and jobs; the system of subordination and superordination.

Q

Quality: Quality is what I make the client an offer for; its parameters are clarified in agreement-making.
Quality parameters: The parameters clarified with the client in agreement-making: form, content, quantity, time, cost and revenue.

R

Representative supplier: The supplier whose name appears as a brand in the given process; a point of reference.
Result: The output of a process, which takes its form and content in the course of work done with the inputs.
Rule: The four categories of rules are created along two criteria: the rule is external or internal, and the rule is dispositive (allows departure) or mandatory (cogent; does not allow departure).

S

Six Hats: Edward de Bono’s method, which supports parallel thinking.
Standard: A dispositive rule from which one may depart in a positive direction once an opportunity for improvement has been recognised.
Standardisation: Making improvement permanent; continuous development in the organisation, not tied to any particular time.
Strategy: One possible interpretation of concept: setting the direction.
Supplier: The process actor who provides input to the process; agreement-making is their responsibility.
SWOT: An analysis method for thinking through strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Synergy: Harmony, which can exist within an individual and within an organisational group.
System: The totality of the (material and immaterial) tools linked to creating order.

T

The dictatorship of professional competence: Under the dictatorship of professional competence, the person who decides or makes a proposal is the one who knows most about the question at hand.
Thinking: One of the three basic human abilities; it has two types: creative and logical.
Tolerance: A degree of deviation from the performance level that the client still accepts and that we record during agreement-making.
Transparency: Being self-explanatory and see-through. Everything we make transparent becomes clearer, develops and becomes visible and understandable. It cannot be separated from the concept of order.

U

Unity: An important goal of organisational operation is to create unity, which is a condition of effective cooperation between employees.

V

Value: One of the key concepts of the value-creation system, whose content is always given by the customer: it is the customer who says what the value of a product is for them.
Value creation: The process of creating value.
Vision: The idea and the picture of the future it opens up. It is not the same as a goal, but goals are the achievable parts of the vision. The vision is constantly changing; we never reach it, but we must always know that we are heading towards it.

W

What and how: The two basic questions of how an organisation works. “How” is the key question of the operating system: it highlights the importance of method. “What” is the key question of the value-creation system: it highlights the subject.
Work: The process in which one or more inputs become an output or outputs through an activity or group of activities.

← Back to the book