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Aim and Stats
Now in our fifteenth year of operation for our "OD" sessions and the third year for our "BTA" sessions, the aim of both is to continue to foster an appreciation of InThinking
within an emerging network that is developing inside Aerojet Rocketdyne and beyond. Dates for future "OD" and "BTA" sessions along with additional "thinking" opportunities for 2014 can be found in this announcement.
OD + BTA Stats
For an update on OD and BTA statistics, this month's invitation is going out to 2400+ partners in the U.S., as well as fellow InThinking partners in Australia, Austria, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Chile, Dubai, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, 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 GenCorp, United Technologies, GM, IBM, General Electric, NASA, Bechtel, Kuwait Energy Company, Philips Electronics, and The Boeing Company.
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Welcome First Timers
Your names have been added to this announcement list by virtue of your attendance in our series of InThinking Roadmap seminars, workshops, and overviews within Aerojet Rocketdyne, or attendance at the annual In2:InThinking Network Forum, through a personal request, from you or a friend. Welcome to our thinking networks.
Click either link below to send me the name(s) and e-mail address(es) of anyone you would like to have added to this mailing list, or let me know if you would like to be removed. Thanks!!!
ADDITIONS
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Meeting Notice Service - OD and BTA
If you'd like to receive meeting notices on your Microsoft Outlook schedule for upcoming Ongoing Discussion conference calls and Better Thinking About... webinars, reply to Bill Bellows at william.bellows@rocket.com and your name will be added to our meeting notice list. |
International Participants
Our conference call sessions are toll-free within the U.S. and Canada. Several international participants have been able to connect toll-free using Skype for a VOIP connection, which we now recommend to others calling in from outside (or inside) the U.S. and Canada.
First, you'll need to establish a Skype account at www.skype.com. Once Skype is set up and functioning correctly the only thing that is different when connecting with our "InThinking Roadmap" conference call sessions ("OD" or "The New Economics Study Sessions") is the use of a pass code and security code. For our "OD" sessions, these numbers are provided once the "participant survey" is completed. For the "The New Economics Study Sessions," these numbers are provided in an email from Tim Higgins, who hosts these calls. In either case, when prompted by Skype to enter these codes, use the keyboard not voice option and be sure to turn off the computer's microphone, otherwise the numeric keys don't function. If the microphone is left on when the codes are entered, Skype's automated operator will reply with "number not recognized," as no number has been transmitted. Also, please note that the "pound key" in the U.S. (#) translates to the "hash key" in the U.K.
New users of Skype are encouraged to perform a conference call test in advance of the scheduled "InThinking Roadmap" conference call. Contact Bill Bellows to arrange for a test call. |
Additional Reading
Beginning in 2009, a series of articles have been prepared for the Lean Management Journal (LMJ) to share InThinking insights with the Lean community. This month's feature LMJ article,
This month's feature LMJ article, from July 2013, Drawing Lines (released with the permission of the LMJ), offers perspectives on the prevailing explanations of drawing lines to separate those who contribute (within a team) and those who apparently do not. Contact Bill Bellows with questions, comments, or observations about this article. |
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Good morning from the Los Angeles campus of Aerojet Rocketdyne, located in Canoga Park, California, on the western end of the San Fernando Valley.
I was introduced to both Larry (L) and Johnnie (R), (pictured above, during a recent visit to Tomsk State University, in the Siberian town of Tomsk, Russia) in 2006 by our mentor, Russell Ackoff, during a visit to Philadelphia. We met over lunch in the faculty club at the University of Pennsylvania. Our earliest conversations focussed on the art of program management, with "Russ" guiding our efforts to design a week-long seminar. Five years after Russ' passing (see "Memories of Russ" below), we're united by an appreciation of what Russ shared with us, including his admonition that "it's better to do the right thing wrong than the wrong thing right, for the better you do the wrong thing, the wronger you become." A classic "Russism" to reinforce the value of focusing on effectiveness before efficiency.
As for their focus as Ongoing Thought Leaders this month,
Johnnie and Larry's Thought Piece focuses on their efforts to formalize an education program to convey their advice for responding to dynamic complexity.
They begin their Thought Piece (link to the 8.5x11 format) with these ideas:
To state the obvious, compared even to the previous decade, the present business environment is characterized by dynamic complexity. This situation manifests itself, in large part, in sudden disruption co-produced by an increasing rate of change, widespread connectivity, and by globalization. This occurs despite well-formulated planning and without obvious anomalies in established performance indicators. The result is that leading or managing as usual is no longer an effective option.
Dynamic complexity describes the perilous state or situation that some countries, organizations, programs, projects and policies are experiencing. This condition is a product of an exceptionally new and rare combination of unforeseen forces that produce severe turbulence that increases and exacerbates danger and potential to fail. The significant risk is a catastrophic outcome which may result when those in positions of responsibility do not have the ability to recognize what is happening - because cause and effect are subtle and occur in different time and space - and to do something effective to make changes. Catastrophes, unfortunately, cannot be predicted, but they can be anticipated by leaders who possess and apply requisite cognition, experience, decision making tools, and judgment.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, inadequacy of leadership competency is not a function of the atrophying of analytical skills; these remain strong in leadership programs and they are essential for many situation contexts. However, what is absent from leadership training and other organized management education is the recognition of additional systemic cognitive abilities for creating awareness to perceive situations exhibiting complexities, and appropriate methods for addressing sudden disruptions.
Their Thought Piece continues with these ideas,
The executive education program is grounded in engaging participants in three immersive learning models. Rather than abstract cases, learning is directed to specific challenges experienced in the respective organizations of the participants.
Conceptual/intellectual learning focuses on the cognitive processing of information, applying types of reasoning approaches, recalling stored images and information, and relating ideas, images, patterns, and structures. It also concentrates on conceptualizing and hypothesizing why situations or events occur and how they work.
Experimentation/action learning concerns how and where new hypotheses and theories are tested. This kind of learning is dynamic, active, involves taking risks, making experimental choices or actions, receiving feedback from others, failing then retesting.
Reflection/emotional learning which is central to the thinking and learning process, pays attention to the emotional content and context of participants' experiences in order to connect these to cognitive and active learning. It allows learners to think through their experiments and consider emotions and meanings (e.g., attitudes, biases, resentments) in addition to incorporating traditionally relevant facts and sanitized results.
Link here to download Johnnie and Larry's Thought Piece.
Link here to register to attend.
For those participants in the UK, please note that your clocks change (1 hour back) on October 26th, reducing the time difference for this month's conference calls to 7 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
Contact Johnnie and Larry by e-mail at john.pourdehnad@systemswisdom.com and
larrymstarr@systemswisdom.com, respectively, with any questions or comments you would like to share with them in preparation for this OD session.
Biographies
John Pourdehnad, PhD is a principal consultant at Systems Wisdom, a global consultancy based in Philadelphia. For more than 35 years, he has been a consultant and practitioner in organizational management, using systems thinking as a world view and communicating its implications for management. He has led and been involved with hundreds of strategic projects across the globe helping management teams with the resolution of complex problems. John holds an appointment at University of Pennsylvania where he has taught organizational studies, project management, systems and design thinking, and complex project management at the undergraduate and graduate level. He has worked as an educator/consultant with for-profit and not-for-profit organizations and government agencies. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal, Systems Research and Behavioral Science; a Fellow of the Da Vinci Institute for Technology and Management in Rivonia Gauteng, South Africa; and recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to the New Bulgarian University in Sophia, Bulgaria where he helped to create the "Design Institute" for the practice of design thinking using trans-disciplinary teams to cope with complex and intractable problems.
Larry M. Starr, PhD is Managing Director and a principal consultant at Systems Wisdom, a global consultancy based in Philadelphia. His consulting has been in strategic management, health care, and higher education-with a focus on use of systems and design thinking and practice to better understand and to solve complex challenges. His management projects have been with for profit, non profit and government groups in areas including strategic start-up, development, and growth. His health care projects have included writing guidelines, position papers, and designing curricula for emergency responders and for use of emergency medical devices. His higher education projects have included designing and building academic degree programs and communities of practice. He retired from appointments at the University of Pennsylvania in 2014 where for 12 years he had been executive director, academic chair and professor of Organizational Dynamics, and accepted an appointment as Program Architect at Philadelphia University to design a new kind of interdisciplinary professional doctorate in leadership. He is on the advisory boards, is journal editorial reviewer, and is the primary author of national education and training guidelines for several academic and professional organizations in medicine, medical education, management, and organizational studies.
Looking ahead, our Better Thinking About... webinars continue next month, with a focus on "Thinking Tools & Processes," hosted by Tim Higgins on Thursday, November 13th, from 11:30-1pm PT.
Link here to register to attend this webinar in advance of the announcement.
Cheers...
Bill
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Memories of and from Russ Ackoff
 The one and only Russ Ackoff served as our "January" Ongoing Discussion Thought Leader on four occasions between 2006 and 2009. In addition to these "visits" with us from his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, he also traveled to Canoga Park every year, from 2003 through 2007, to deliver half-day and full-day lectures in our Leadership & Learning Center (picture above), as well as in Boeing's Conference Center in nearby Huntington Beach. In doing so, he inspired us with his countless "systems" stories, from his chance visit to AT&T's Bell Labs to experience the account of the "overnight destruction of the Bell telephone system" (and his discovery of their use what came to be known as the Idealized Design process) to the tale of a cost-cutting paper company client, who continued to offer sales of a paltry amount (think "loss leader") of specialty photographic paper to Claire Booth Luce, whose husband's company, Time magazine, was their number 1 customer. One of these stories, plus many more from his career in the U.S. Army, stationed in the South Pacific, to his lengthy career as a management consultant, is told by Russ in the first of two recent posthumous publications by Triarchy Press, titled Memories. Follow this link for more details on this book, in addition to news of the second book, Differences That Make a Difference.
To view a 10-minute video of John Pourdehnad's fond memories of Russ, follow this link on YouTube.
Link here to download a 90-page transcript of a video with Russ Ackoff and W. Edwards Deming. The conversation took place in l992 and was edited and released as Volume 21 of The Deming Library series in l993. It is called "A Theory of a System for Educators and Managers" and is available from the W. Edwards Deming Institute at this link. |
Podcasts from The W. Edwards Deming Institute
Beginning this year, The W. Edwards Deming Institute has recorded podcasts on a monthly basis, featuring 20 to 30-minute interviews by Tripp Babbitt with members of the Deming Community who are advancing the use and explanations of Dr. Deming's ideas. In this episode of the Deming Podcast, Tripp Babbitt interviews
Bob Browne, former CEO of the Great Plains Coca Cola Bottling Company, and soon to be author of a new book, The Sys-Tao Way, that outlines his application of the Deming Philosophy.
Bob gives a brief history of the Great Plains Coca Cola Bottling Company, and discusses his introduction to the Deming Philosophy and experiences incorporating many of the teachings into his organization. Bob states how the Four Pillars are the key to understanding Deming and finding the "Aha" Moments. He describes his lack of faith during the beginning of his Deming journey and its incorporation into Great Plains Bottling. Bob also shares thoughts on where a CEO or change agent starts and he discusses organizational change and adoption of these ideas.
Link here to find the podcast with Bob.
Link here to find the previous podcasts, featuring Kelly Allan, Kevin Cahill, Andrea Gabor, Steven Haedrich, David Langford, and Dan Robertson. |
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Leader of One, by Gerald Suarez
"Endorsements like these are seldom needed. Heed this one, read, study, and learn. Gerald Suarez is the future."
Russ Ackoff
Gerald Suarez, our inaugural "Better Thinking About..." in February 2012 on the topic of Leadership, has released his first book, titled "Leader of One: Shaping Your Future through Imagination and Design." Find it on Amazon at this link. Link on the book image to learn more about Gerald.
With endorsements from two of his mentors, Stephen Covey and Russ Ackoff, Gerald has fulfilled his dream of "writing a book that reflects my philosophy and experiences in the White House, the boardroom, and the classroom and to pay tribute to the major influences in my thinking."
This 18-chapter book offers a 4-phase "methodology" that consists of a cycle of activities that "work together in a holistic fashion"; Contemplation, Desire, Design, and Creation.
Gerald offers this advice at the outset:
Becoming a "Leader of One" and taking on the challenge of shaping your future is not easy. Transformative efforts never are. The task ahead will feel overwhelming, but commitment to initiate and sustain action, no matter how small, will move you closer to a new and desired reality.
There are no short cuts. Every building begins its steps upward with a single brick, every marathon race with a single step, and every book with a single word. The same can be said for every minute of your life, so seconds count. The first steps are always the most difficult, but each one will bring you closer to "there." |
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October 30th - 31st OD Details
Please join us for one or all of this month's series of OD conference calls. As always, you are invited to participate for as long, or as short, as you can in one or more of these sessions, Options 1-4. Note that these conference calls are "conversations, not presentations," which vary from session to session, due to a variety of causes, such as who participates, what questions are asked, and what learning transpires. This diversity is captured every month, as the calls are recorded, with links to these audio files shared with all who register to attend.
Option - Date/Time (Pacific Time);
1 - Thursday, October 30th, 12:00-1:00pm
2 - Thursday, October 30th, 1:00-2:00pm
3 - Friday, October 31st - 12:00-1:00pm
4 - Friday, October 31st - 1:00-2:00pm
The agenda for each option will be:
Opening 15 minutes: Call in and Introductions
Next 40 minutes: Ongoing Discussion
Last 5 minutes: Farewells and Close
Please reply to this note by noon, Pacific Time on Wednesday, October 29th 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...
PARTICIPANT SURVEY
Telecon lines (including a pass code and a security code) have been arranged for those who cannot join us in a conference room at our Canoga Park facility 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 |
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Future Ongoing Discussion Conference Calls
Mark your calendars - future Ongoing Discussion conference calls will be held on the following dates (subject to slight changes), from 12-1pm and 1-2pm Pacific Time.
Month, Dates, Thought Leader(s), Topics (link on each session to register):
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Future Better Thinking About... Webinars
Mark your calendars - future Better Thinking About... webinars will be held on the following dates, from 11:30-1pm Pacific Time. Details for how to participate in this webinar series are provided upon registering using the participant survey for each event.
Date, Presenter, and Topic (link on each session to register):
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InThinking Together Seminar
Description: This seminar explores the philosophies of a variety of management theorist, including but not limited to Russell Ackoff, W. Edwards Deming, Edward de Bono, Tom Johnson, and Genichi Taguchi, among many others; as they apply to the management of organizational resources, including ideas, innovation, knowledge, money, equipment, and space. Among the topics of discussion will be the concepts of "better thinking about thinking" (InThinking) and Purposeful Resource Management as well as Purposeful Resource Leadership. 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.
Registration Fee: there is NO fee to attend
Prerequisites: there are NO prerequisites
Format: two 4.5-hour sessions over two days, offered as an in-person event
Presented by: Bill Bellows
Schedule for InThinking Together classes in Canoga Park, CA for Aerojet Rocketdyne
Class #CP-2014-10 (to be hosted by College of the Canyons in Valencia)
Part 1 - 30-Oct - 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 31-Oct - 7:00-11:30am
Class #CP-2014-11 (to be hosted by College of the Canyons in Valencia) Part 1 - 13-Nov - 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 14-Nov - 7:00-11:30am
Class #CP-2014-12 (to be hosted by College of the Canyons in Valencia) Part 1 - 16-Dec - 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 17-Dec - 7:00-11:30am
Register to attend InThinking Together |
The New Economics Study Session
Description: A group of participants assembles, some in-person and some via teleconference, for this 14-hour series. Participants discuss W. Edwards Deming's last book, The New Economics, in which he introduced his concept of a "System of Profound Knowledge." The group reads specified chapters before each session and discusses the meaning and application of the ideas, as well as personal reactions to the ideas. Supplemental reading material become part of the conversations, as do reactions to video tapes of Dr. Deming.
Registration Fee - there is NO fee to attend. In addition, this is a toll-free call from the United States and Canada. International participants are welcome to join in as well, provided they do so at their own expense for the conference call. Aerojet Rocketdyne attendees will be given copies of The New Economics. Non-Aerojet Rocketdyne attendees can purchase copies on Amazon at this link, with used copies selling for $15 and Kindle copies available for $15.95.
Prerequisite - there are NO prerequisites
Format - seven 2-hour sessions over three and a half weeks, presented as a teleconference event
Presented by: Tim Higgins
Schedule for The New Economics Study Session
Class #CP-2015-01
Starting on 21-Jan, seven sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays, from 3:00-5:00pm (ending on 11-Feb)
Class #CP-2015-02
Starting on 11-May, seven sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays, from 3:00-5:00pm (ending on 3-Jun)
Class #CP-2015-03
Starting on 14-Sep, seven sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays, from 3:00-5:00pm (ending on 5-Oct)
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