2016 banner
 

Session K - Pre-Conference Session
Thursday, June 8th, 9am-12pm, 1:15-4:15pm

InThinking Together
Presented by Bill Bellows

Format: Seminar
Primary Focus:Understanding Systems
Secondary Focus: Understanding Variation

   
 

Description: This seminar was designed to explore the philosophies of a variety of management theorists; (including but not limited to) Russell Ackoff, W. Edwards Deming, Edward de Bono, Genichi Taguchi, and Tom Johnson; as they apply to the performance of products, processes, and the delivery of services.  Among the topics of discussion will be the concepts of “better thinking about thinking” and “thinking together.”  A deeper understanding of these ideas and examples of their everyday use will provide direction for organizations to learn together and work together in new ways.  The seminar will introduce you to these ideas through a series of questions that are specially selected to create awareness of a new approach to working together, learning together, and thinking together. 

Target Audience: Anyone who is concerned about improving the effectiveness of individuals and organizations will gain from this seminar and leave with a new and deeper knowledge of the organizational environment, and connect to a growing network of participants across the U.S. and around the world.  Past participants include individual contributors, teams, senior managers, managing directors, managers, engineers, designers, artists, graduate and undergraduate students, human resource professionals, secretaries, office administrators, purchasing agents, accountants, health care professionals, civic leaders, university deans, and professors.

Organizational Issues: Individual and group proficiency in the principles and examples of "thinking together” is fundamental to organizations that “work together, learn together, and think together.”   In the new economy, the proficient utilization of thinking will be a necessary condition; fundamental to business competitiveness.  The aim of this seminar is to elevate the consciousness of individual and collective thinking about sub-systems, variation, knowledge, numbers, interactions and thinking patterns. 

Objectives: At the completion of the seminar the participants should have the ability to better identify, characterize, and interpret the vision of seamless organizations, wherein working together follows from the ability to better learn together and think together.   The objective of the seinar is to explore the potential of "InThinking" organizations and to reveal the practices and strategies of such environments. 

Cost: None

Pre-work: None

Materials Needed: None

Handouts: Available only to session attendees

Bill Bellows

Biography: Bill Bellows joined The W. Edwards Deming Institute® in October 2016 as the Deputy Director. In this role, Bill works in collaboration with Kevin Cahill to guide the worldwide efforts of the Institute to achieve its aim.

Prior to joining The Deming Institute, Bill was employed by Aerojet Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, California, serving as an Associate (Technical) Fellow, focusing on "thinking about thinking" with applicability to the design, development, and production of liquid rocket engines. In a 26-year career that spanned ownership of “Rocketdyne” by Rockwell International, Boeing, United Technologies, and Aerojet, Bill was widely known for his efforts to provide insights to the advantages of thinking together, learning together, and working together. While integrating the management methods of W. Edwards Deming with Genichi Taguchi’s “Quality by Design” system and Russ Ackoff's systems thinking, coupled with Edward de Bono’s thinking tools, he pioneered the development and application of ideas that include Mixed Model Management, Macro System Models, Micro System Models, Purposeful Resource Leadership, Category & Continuum Thinking, and Investment Thinking.

Away from “Rocketdyne,” audiences for Bill’s presentations and seminars have reached after-school programs in elementary schools, graduate students at Northwestern University, as well as corporate, university, and public classes across the United Kingdom. Bill earned his BS, MS, and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. In addition to his employment by “Rocketdyne,” Bill worked as a heat transfer engineer in the gas turbine industry for Textron Lycoming in Stratford, Connecticut.

Away from work, Bill serves as chairman of the Deming Medal Committee for the American Society of Quality and is an editorial board as well as columnist for the UK’s Lean Management Journal (www.leanmj.com). He was also the founding president of the In2:InThinking Network, a position he held from 2001 through 2016. He lives in Santa Clarita, California with wife, Monica.

Contact: Bill can be reached by e-mail at bill@deming.org for additional information about this Pre-Conference session

Linkedin:
www.linkedin.com/pub/bill-bellows/0/435/218/


   
       
Return to 2017 Forum Home Page