Evaporating Cloud

The Evaporating Cloud tool intends to ‘vaporize’ difficult problems by resolving an underlying conflict. Eli Goldratt, who invented the tool, is said to have been inspired by Richard Bach and his 1977 book Illusions, in which the main characters remove storm clouds from the sky by thinking them away.

The idea is that if you share a goal with the person, people or organization with whom you’re in conflict, there is not really a conflict. Rather, one or more assumptions made about the situation is false, and once you unearth them, you have a pathway to a win-win solution without compromises.