Description: This simulation instills lessons of management science that no lecture can convey, and will stay with you for the rest of your life    The world is constantly growing more complex. One phenomenon of this complexity is how can well intentioned, intelligent people create an outcome no one expected and no one wants.    Players experience the frustration of being at the mercy of the forces of the system. Demonstrating how local decisions, combined with time delays, affects the whole.    This simulation explores the ‘boom and bust’ of the so-called ‘business cycle’ to the ‘Bull Whip’ effect experienced in supply chains.

Target Audience: Executives, government officials, to high schools students. Anyone who wants a ‘management flight simulator’ to help understand their organization.

Organizational Issues: We see straight lines, but reality is made up of circles.    Business and other human endeavors are systems, and are bound by invisible interrelated actions. The system is a unique thing, breaking it apart fundamentally changes its nature.    Since we are ‘inside the system’, it’s hard to see the whole pattern of change. Instead we focus on snapshots of isolated parts, and wonder why our deepest problems never get solved. Systems Thinking is a conceptual framework to make the full patterns clearer, and help us see how to change them effectively.

Objectives: The purpose of the exercise is to help you understand the essence of system thinking – first by showing that internal structure, not external events, cause system behavior, and second by showing what can happen when ‘Cause’ and ‘Effect’ are separated by time (delays).

Cost: None

Pre-work: None

Materials Needed: None

Handouts: Available for download after the Forum

Biography: Steve Dightman is a principle at RegularGuys Consulting which provides multi-faceted consulting and coaching aimed at improving business performance. Steve has a diverse background which includes many years with The Boeing Co. where he supported manufacturing operations, engineering, facilities, and business process improvement. He managed the Commercial Airplane Co., Education and Training group, supporting real time embedded computer avionics and simulation, engineering applications, operating systems, software engineering development, supply chain software applications and manufacturing equipment maintenance.

While at Boeing Steve co-lead a weekly study group for 13 years in the investigating and implementation of business improvement theories, methods and tools including Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), W. Edward Deming-Philosophy of Management, Theory of Constraints, Systems Thinking, LEAN, Six Sigma, Value Engineering, TRIZ, NLP-Neural Semantics, Human Performance Technology (HPT) and others.

Steve is Chapter President of APICS - The Association for Operations Management-Puget Sound Chapter and holds certifications as a Certified Professional Coach (CPC), Certified Performance Technologist (CPT), NLP-Neural Semantics Master Practitioner, and received a ‘Jonah’ certificate from the AGI-Goldratt Institute.

Contact: Steve can be reached by e-mail at stevedightman@kendra.com for additional information about this Pre-Conference session.

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/pub/steve-dightman/11/527/417

Biography: Dave Nave is a Management Engineer with a focus on processes and systems in the context of the surrounding organization. With experiences in coaching and mentoring for a variety of improvement efforts, he is known for moving projects forward by investigating complex ideas in terms of business- engineering-operations, build rapport, use critical thinking, and providing new insights in plain, easily understood language.

Dave’s experiences include the automotive, defense, and aerospace, microelectronics, and vacuum technology industries, and he has worked as a machinist, CNC Programmer, a variety of operational engineering positions, and support functions.

Dave holds a MBA in Management Systems (Deming Scholars Program) from Fordham University and a BS in Manufacturing Engineering Technology.

In 2004, Dave was one of only 12 people worldwide selected by the W. Edwards Deming Institute® to reconfigure Dr. Deming's famous "Four Day Seminar" into the 2.5 day seminar “Out of the Crisis” and subsequently named as a training representative for The W. Edwards Deming Institute®. He is a member of American Society for Quality and a Certified Manufacturing Engineer, and an internationally published author.

Contact: Dave can be reached by e-mail at dave@davenave.com for additional information about this Weekend Conference session.

Website: www.davenave.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davenave