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Rocket Surgery...Got Excellence?
Along a continuum, one need not venture far to find rocket science and brain surgery positioned in the upper echelon of intellectual challenges. Look no further than a BBC podcast to find one data point, which does not prove a theory, but might prompt a smile. Leave it to Doug Krug, one of our 2013 Forum presenters, to merge these two bodies of knowledge into Rocket Surgery, perhaps in time for Elon Musk to explore life on Mars. Yet, when asked to compare his intellectual status to the likes of Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking once replied, "Anyone who compares himself to others is a loser." "We are all different...but we all share the human spirit," is a common response from Hawking.
Stepping back, what do you call the person who graduates last in his or her class in medical school? The clichéd answer, from the black or white world of Compliance Excellence, is doctor, one pre-requisite to becoming a brain surgeon, yet the same title as the person who graduates first in their class, as all have met the rigorous academic and residency requirements. Meanwhile, "goat" is the designation for the officer who graduates last in his or her class at West Point, the US Army's military academy. In keeping with the Army's commissioning protocol, all West Point graduates, whether first or goat, begin their military careers as Second Lieutenants. While use of the term "doctor" paints all medical school graduates as the same, without shades of gray differences, use of the "goat" label, such as applied to George Custer, an 1861 graduate, infers that West Point graduates are different, perhaps with a shared human spirit, rather than interchangeable soldiers. In the world of Contextual Excellence, shades of gray differences between doctors and soldiers appear in the context of the system in which they engage with others.
Contextual Excellence, borrowing from Elaine Johnson's appearance at our 2010 Forum, provides awareness of the variation in how a task is completed, more than the binary, yes or no, as well as awareness of the differences between items being counted, as when counting the number of rocket scientists at a launch or the number of kilometers along auto route A84 from Paris to Mont St Michel. Contextual Excellence reveals the infinite number of ways a task can be completed or the infinite number of differences between two brain surgeons or two kilometers along A84. While Compliance Excellence offers advantages when the independence of counting is essential, Contextual Excellence provides utility in the ultimate use of interdependent components, tasks, and people. From launching rockets to performing brain surgery to performing Purple Rain, what opportunities for improving teamwork could be revealed by mindfully engaging in both Compliance Excellence and Contextual Excellence and not confusing one with the other?
If you are interested in exploring and dissolving unseen forces that stand in the way of leadership and teamwork in industry, government, and education, through thinking together about thinking, we invite you to join with peers at the In2:InThinking Network's 2016 Forum in Los Angeles, California, from June 8th through 12th, on the campus of Woodbury University. This year, our ever timely focus will be;
"Know" Less - "Learn" More - INNOVATE!
Expand Your Future
Following a change we instituted for the first time in 2015, we are charging a daily fee ($25) to participate in the Pre-Conference sessions. This fee will help us to offset expenses for meals (Continental Breakfast and Lunch) and handouts associated with these sessions. As for incidental expenses, note that Woodbury University does not charge a parking fee.
Registration Deadlines
Register by Sunday, May 15th to reserve our discounted room rates at the Hampton Inn Register by Monday, June 6th to attend any of our Pre-Conference sessions
Register by Saturday, June 11th to attend our Weekend Conference For a glimpse of the excitement we offer, link here for a photo montage from our 2012 Forum. Link here for a complete list of our previous 2016 Forum UPDATES. In2:InThinking Network 2016 Forum Team |
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NEW - Forum Video Subscription Service
Through the services of Vimeo on Demand, we now offer a Forum Video subscription series. Select videos from our Forum catalog are available for online viewing for a low monthly fee (launching at $5 per month), with new videos from our 15-year library added quarterly. Eventually, our entire Forum video library will be viewable through this subscription series, with monthly rates maintained at the level at which subscribers join. This will be a great way to revisit some of your favorite presentations or see speakers you missed. Link here to learn more .
Coming Next
Through a partnership with CC-M Productions, we are proud to announce that our Vimeo on Demand library will soon expend to include the videos such as CC-M's 7-volume "Better Management for a Changing World." Our CC-M subscription series will include Russ Ackoff on The New World View, The Big Picture, The New Leadership, and Doing the Right Thing Right. It also includes Gerald Suarez on Managing Fear; Change, Improvement, and Fear; and Managing Fear: How to Begin.
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Deming Institute Workshop, May 23-25, New York
The W. Edwards Deming Institute, a 15-year "Forum Partner InThinking," is excited to announce a 2.5-day workshop on Effective & Efficient Leadership. At this seminar you will learn to look at your organization through a new lens: a lens of how to make your system better - and thus get better results. You will gain new knowledge to remove barriers, increase efficiencies, reduce wasted time, boost motivation, and provide better insight into what's really going on in your organization.
Link here to learn more. |
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Dutch Association of Research Quality Assurance
Jubilee Conference, May 26-27, Amersvoort, NL
DARQA, the Dutch Association of Research Quality Assurance, a new "Forum Partner InThinking," is celebrating 35 years of activity with a Jubiliee event, featuring a conference on May 27th, preceded by a pre-conference on May 26th.
Quality thinking and systems thinking is universally applicable, therefore the pre-conference and conference events welcome delegates from ALL quality driven sectors including; chemical & energy industry, ICT, aviation/aeronautics, aerospace, automotive, lithography, education, agriculture and financial institutions. Take full advantage of this unique opportunity to learn from the experts and ask your questions during the panel discussions by preparing questions and sending cases with your registration.
Link here to learn more about these events.
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