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Personal Profile: Derek du Toit

I've been thinking about Thinking for twenty years. From the time that I challenged my teachers and other students at school, to the innovative ideas I incorporated into the knowledge-oriented products I developed, I have thought ‘outside the box’.

Computers were my first exposure to the business world, in which, as a main-frame operator and then programmer, I gained understanding of the fundamentals of information and technology. When the microcomputer era started, I was quick to advocate the benefits of desktop processing power.

When the opportunity presented itself to move into the management consulting industry, I took it with both hands, adapting naturally to the cutting edge of business analysis and improvement, learning all the time about the nature of complex systems, whether they be technological, organisational, or biological.

Energy, Charisma, Intelligence

At the same time, my interests in belief systems, knowledge, and thinking, which I had invested an enormous amount of time reading and thinking about, were to stand me in good stead. Exposure to the Eli Goldratt thinking processes put the finishing touches to my personal vision: to teach people about thinking. Here I found the medium for a set of ideas I had long wanted to develop and implement. The advent of industry’s focus on information and knowledge offered me the opportunity to put my understanding into practice, and I developed a suite of tools that consultants found easy to use and clients found beneficial.

After spending two years developing a mature team, and refining the tools, I decided I needed to find a channel for sharing this knowledge and experience, and hence Uncommon Sense Communication was founded.

I have developed my own unique methodologies, incorporating the ideas of those whose work I have read and found both useful and innovative, with the following initiatives in mind:

Strategy Facilitation including Problem-Solving and Change Management, Conflict Resolution, Roles and Responsibility, and my own 'zero-based' Balanced Scorecard.

With regard to training and development, I developed the Personal Empowerment Programme, including life and 'soft' skills to enable delegates to become well-rounded.

The core of everything I do involves Thinking, whether individual or collaborative. I do my level best, whatever the situation, to make thinking FUN...

D (just call me D!)

justd@justd.ws