Description: This seminar explores the prospects of better thinking as defined by the management and leadership philosophies of W. Edwards Deming, Genichi Taguchi, Russell Ackoff, Tom Johnson, and others. Among the topics of discussion will be "resource management" and its applicability to variation management, systems thinking, and working together. Blue Pen Companies represent environments of growing levels of teamwork, wherein “acting locally and thinking globally” is more than a thoughtful expression. By contrast to Red Pen Companies, where teamwork inevitably translates to “local sub-optimization”, Blue Pen Companies offer the prospect of "working together through thinking together." The seminar will introduce you to these ideas through two experiential sessions which were designed to allow participants to "feel the difference" between Red Pen and Blue Pen Companies.

Target Audience: Individual contributors, members of management, suppliers, and customers who are providing leadership in "resource management" and "resource leadership" activities and in the transformation of their respective organizations from the "Prevailing Style of Management, " of independent parts, (Red Pen Companies) to managing with awareness of the interdependence of the elements of any system (Blue Pen Companies).

Organizational Issues: Proficiency in thinking together is fundamental to the ability to learn together and work together as "one enterprise."

Objectives: At the completion of the seminar the participants should have the ability to better appreciate systemic interdependencies, the impact of variation, the vitality of people thinking together, and the limitations of individual and organizational knowledge. Taken together, participants will become more aware of how to foster an environment of thinking together, learning together, and working together.

Cost: None

Handouts: Available for download after the Forum

Joe with his daughter, April

Biography: Joe Onstott was born and grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He acquired a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Oregon State University after which he hired into the Aerojet Rocketdyne Canoga Park facility as a member of the technical staff. He also holds a masters degree in business from Pepperdine University and is an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer.

Joe has over 30 years of experience in the design, manufacture and test of rocket engines. He started his career designing hardware for the Space Shuttle Main Engine; hardware that he has designed is currently flying on the Space Shuttle. He then moved into management where he could focus more on improving the process of designing hardware and was responsible for both the Combustion Devices Design dept and the Engine Systems Design dept at different times. His emphasis for improving the Design Process is based on approaching the design of any component from the system perspective, understanding and integrating the manufacturing process and customer requirements into the design.

Joe is currently heading up the Engineering Quality and Continuous Improvement team where the team’s focus is improving engineering for the division. He is responsible for supporting the improvement of the engineering process by improving the infrastructure, management processes and the application of improvement tools. He also provides engineering support to the various products as needed. Joe has spent a significant amount of time applying systems thinking and Deming’s theory of management to the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne business and currently teaches Managing Variation as a System and Design for Variation.

Joe has spent a significant amount of time applying systems thinking and Deming’s theory of management to the rocket business and currently presents PWR's Thinking Roadmap seminar, as well as Design for Variation.

He is an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer and has recently received his M.B.A. from Pepperdine University.

Contact: Joe can be reached by e-mail at joseph.onstott@rocket.com for additional information about this Pre-Conference session.