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Aim and Stats
Aim
Now in our eighth year of
operation, the aim of the "OD" sessions is to
continue
to foster an appreciation of Enterprise
Thinking, as
well as inthinking,
within an emerging thinking network that is
developing inside Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and
beyond. Dates for future "OD" sessions along
with additional "thinking" opportunities for 2007
can be found in this announcement.
OD Stats
For an update on OD statistics, last month's
invitation was sent to 3508 inthinking partners.
With the latest updates to our mailing list, this
month's invitation is going out to 3606
partners in the U.S., as well as fellow
inthinking partners in Australia, Austria,
Bosnia-Hercegovina, Brazil, Canada, China,
Dubai, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany,
India, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Kenya,
Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Romania, Russia,
Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea,
Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the U.K..
Taken together, these individuals represent
over 600 organizations in this list of
nations, from
elementary schools and senior high schools to
colleges and universities, from one-person
consulting firms to United Technologies, GM,
IBM, General Electric, NASA, and Philips
Electronics. Among this list of invitees,
participation in last month’s first 2007 OD
conference call with Russell Ackoff included
68 partners from across the US and England as
well (444 partners joined in throughout 2006,
402 thinking
partners joined us throughout 2005).
In2:IN
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Good afternoon from Canoga Park, California,
home of
United Technologies' Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
With the passing of Valentine's Day and the
coming of World
Thinking Day on February 22nd,
it's time to come together for a few hours of
"thinking together." This month’s Ongoing
Discussion is scheduled for Thursday,
February 22nd and Friday, February 23rd, from
12-2pm Pacific Time on both days.
Click here
for the February 2007 In2:InThinking Network
newsletter.
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| Welcome First Timers |
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Your names have been added by virtue of your
attendance in our series of Thinking Roadmap
seminars and overviews, or attendance at the
annual In2:InThinking Network Forum, or through a
personal request, from you or a friend.
Welcome to our thinking networks.
Click the link below to send me the name and
email address of anyone you would like to have
added to the mailing list, or let me know if
you would
like to be removed.
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Contact Bill Bellows |
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| February 2007 Ongoing Discussion – Sheldon Rovin |
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Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's Enterprise
Thinking Network welcomes Sheldon Rovin as
our second Thought Leader for 2007 in a
preview of his keynote appearance at the
upcoming In2:InThinking Network's Forum in
April. Sheldon is Emeritus Professor of
Healthcare Systems at the Wharton School of
Business and past Director of Healthcare
Executive Management Programs at Wharton
Executive Education and the Leonard Davis
Institute of Health Economics. He is also
Emeritus Professor and past chair of the
Department of Dental Care Systems, School of
Dental Medicine; all positions at the
University of Pennsylvania. Among the
programs Sheldon directed at the Wharton
School are the Johnson & Johnson-Wharton
Fellows Program in Management for Nurse
Executives, the SmithKline Beecham Executive
Management Program for Directors of Hospital
Pharmacy, the Wyeth Ayerst-Association of
Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics
Program in Management, and the Wyeth
Ayerst–APM Executive Management program for
Chairs of Medicine. Sheldon is a diplomat of
the American Board of Oral Pathology and
holds DDS and MS degrees from the University
of Michigan.
Students of Russell Ackoff will recognize
Sheldon's name for his co-authorship role on
two recent books – Redesigning
Society and Beating
the System: Using Creativity to Outsmart
Bureaucracies. His writings include
over ninety journal articles and book
chapters, and nine books, including Medicine
and Business: Bridging the Gap and Managing
Hospitals: Lessons from the Johnson &
Johnson-Wharton Fellows Program in Management
for Nurse Executives.
Sheldon's Thought
Piece offers his insights
on "Boundary-less thinking," which he defines
as "thinking beyond the boundaries or
constraints, usually self-imposed, that
inhibit change, are often used to justify
cherished, but unfounded practices and
beliefs, maintain a tight grip on the status
quo, and keep organizations functioning
sub-optimally." Consider how these
unfounded practices and beliefs lend
themselves to an ever-growing list of
"Ackoff’s
f-Laws," the focus of last month’s
OD sessions.
What if, by comparison, our organizations
fostered the openness of thinking that
allowed underlying assumptions to be
examined? If such an examination is
fundamental to technical analyses, as simple
as using the appropriate assumptions for
calculating heat transfer coefficients, then
why not also examine the assumptions behind
the thinking used to manage and lead our
organizations? We might then realize the
implications of "driving change" and
see the
connection to driving both cars and
cattle. Might
we then see more of a focus on leading
change, if not transformation? In doing so,
we would be reminded of Deming's
Second Theorem – that our organizations
are "being ruined by best efforts, not guided
with Profound Knowledge." In this month's
Thought Piece, Sheldon adds,
"In the face of an emergent, uncertain world,
our boundary-less thinker realizes the folly
of trying to achieve certainty by planning to
the nth degree....How do we challenge our
assumptions if we're not sure what they are?
This is the task of the boundary-less
thinker - to think without the constraints of
habit, the self-imposed boundaries, to
challenge dogma, to surface the underlying,
unwitting assumptions that drive behavior, to
question authority when it’s apparent it
needs to be questioned and to act
reflectively, not reflexively."
In addition to this month's Thought Piece
from Sheldon, here's a link to an interview
he participated in with Russ Ackoff in 2005.
The topic was "Questioning Authority."
Along with the Thought Piece, this
interview will help prepare you for a
conversation with Sheldon on the
boundary-less thinking our organizations are
in need of.
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Contact Sheldon Rovin |
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| OD Details |
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Please join us for one or all of the hours of
this month’s OD. As always, you are invited to
participate for as long, or as short, as you
can in one or both of these sessions...
Option
Time (Pacific
Time)
1 – Thursday, February 22nd - 12:00-1:00pm
2 – Thursday, February 22nd - 1:00-2:00pm
3 – Friday, February 23rd - 12:00-1:00pm
4 – Friday, February 23rd - 1:00-2:00pm
The agenda for each option will be:
Timing: Topic
Opening 10 minutes: Call in &
Introductions
Next 45 minutes: Ongoing Discussion
Last 5 minutes: Farewells and Close
Please reply to this note by noon Pacific Time on
Wednesday, February 21st to confirm your plans to
participate in one (or more) of these
options. If you do plan to attend, please
complete the OD PARTICIPATION SURVEY by using
the link below...
SURVEY
Those of you connecting in Canoga Park can
join in
from conference rooms 205 and 206 in building
1 at
Canoga. Telecon lines (including a pass
code and
a security code) have been arranged for those
who cannot join us at Canoga and are provided
upon
completion of the participant survey.
As always, please forward this announcement
to anyone we missed who would also like to
participate.
Regards...
Bill
Site Lead
Enterprise Thinking Network
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
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| Future OD Dates |
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Mark your calendars - future Ongoing Discussion
sessions will be held on the following dates,
from
12-1pm and 1-2pm Pacific Time.
Month, Dates and Thought Leader
March 22-23: Andrew Johnson
April 26-27: TBD
May 17-18: Chris Soderquist
June 28-89: Rick Searfoss
July 26-27: TBD
August 23-24: TBD
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| Systems Thinking Newsletter |
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Now available online for Pratt & Whitney
Rocketdyne employees...
The
Systems Thinker is an electronic
newsletter
made available monthly (on a subscription
basis) by
Pegasus
Communications. Each issue provides
articles
and case studies on systems thinking concepts
and
is available only electronically (as a .pdf
file).
Tools
and techniques for use in the Learning
Organization
are regularly included in this valuable
publication.
Featured authors include thought leaders and
consultants well known in organizational
learning and
change management circles.
The current edition of the SYSTEMS THINKER,
as well
as archived issues from February 2003 through
January 2007, is available for reading and
printing by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
employees here.
Network friends outside of Pratt & Whitney
Rocketdyne can learn more about this newsletter
AND read a variety of sample issues and
articles online. Individual and site licenses are available.
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| Thinking Roadmap Seminars |
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Opportunities within Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
(PWR)
The following in-house "Thinking Roadmap"
workshops are open to employees of Pratt &
Whitney
Rocketdyne, as well as suppliers, customers,
family
members, and "members of the community." This
schedule includes the next available
offerings for
the listed seminars in
Canoga Park, CA. Contact Bill
Bellows for additional seminar
information or to
register for any of these upcoming sessions.
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| Enterprise Thinking Seminar |
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Registration Fee - there is NO fee to attend.
Pre-requisite – there are NO pre-requisites.
Format - two 4.5-hour sessions over two
days
Schedule for Enterprise Thinking
classes in
Canoga
Park, CA for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
Class # CP-547
Part 1 - 22-Feb-07 - 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 23-Feb-07 - 7:00-11:30am
Class # CP-549
Part 1 - 22-Mar-07 - 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 23-Mar-07 - 7:00-11:30am
Class # CP-551
Part 1 - 16-Apr-07 - 12:00-4:30pm
Part 2 - 17-Apr-07 - 7:00-11:30am
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Sign-up for Enterprise Thinking |
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| Six Thinking Hats |
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Registration Fee - $165, charged back to
participant's department for PWR employees
and paid
by check for "members of the community."
Pre-requisite - attended Enterprise Thinking
within
the past 12 to 14 months.
Format - one 8-hour session.
Schedule for Six Thinking Hats classes in
Canoga
Park, CA for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
New dates TBD
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Sign-up for Six Thinking Hats |
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| Lateral Thinking |
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Registration Fee - $130, charged back to
participant's department for PWR employees
and paid
by check for "members of the community."
Pre-requisite – attended Enterprise Thinking
within
the past 12 to 14 months.
Format - two 7-hour sessions over two
weeks.
Schedule for Lateral Thinking classes in
Canoga Park,
CA for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
New dates TBD
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Sign-up for Lateral Thinking |
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| Managing Variation as a System |
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Registration Fee - there is NO fee to attend.
Pre-requisite – there are NO pre-requisites.
Format - three 3-hour sessions over three
days
Schedule for Managing Variation as a System
classes in Canoga Park, CA for Pratt & Whitney
Rocketdyne
New dates TBD
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Sign-up for Managing Variation as a System |
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| Kepner-Tregoe Problem Solving and Decision Making |
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Registration Fee - $330, charged back to
participant's department for PWR employees
and paid
by check for "members of the community."
Pre-requisite – attended Enterprise Thinking
within
the past 12 to 14 months.
Format - three 7-hour sessions over three
weeks.
Suggestion: If you are unable to attend all three
sessions in a given monthly series, we
encourage you
to attend the first session and then attend the
second and third in any order during a future
monthly series.
Schedule for Kepner-Tregoe classes in
Canoga
Park,
CA for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
New dates TBD
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Sign-up for Kepner-Tregoe Problem Solving & Decision Making Seminar |
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| The New Economics Study Session |
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Registration Fee - there is NO fee to attend.
Pre-requisite – there are NO pre-requisites.
Format - seven 2-hour sessions over three
weeks
Schedule for The New Economics Study
Session
classes in Canoga Park, CA for Pratt & Whitney
Rocketdyne
New dates TBD
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Sign-up for announcements of the next TNE Study Session |
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