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Greetings from Los Angeles!
At 7 days and counting, we are thrilled to share late breaking Forum news with all of our current registrants. Here's the latest news on attendance, weather reporting, post-conference logistics, Hilton rooms, and presentation previews. Our final notice next week will include attendance updates, links to maps, parking instructions, dress code suggestions, and information on Forum sales offers, including DVD sets, books, and "In2:IN ActionWear."
ATTENDANCE
Our Forum planning team is moving into the final stages of preparation, with our attendance now at 154. Another 10 to 20 are anticipated. As with prior years, we have attendees coming from across the United States. And, we are expecting a record number of international participants. This year, we welcome
attendees coming from as far away as England, Italy, Japan, Russia, Scotland, and Wales.
WEATHER
Southern California weather is expected to hold steady, with mild temperatures expected to continue, highs in the 70's (F, or 21C) and lows in the 50's (F, or 10C), with the sun shining. Don't
you love Southern California?
POST-CONFERENCE SESSIONS
In addition to planning for next week's weather, one
change of note from previous years is the location of the post conference
sessions. For the first time, they will be held at California State University Northridge (also known as CSUN), which is located 7 miles northeast of the Hilton Woodland Hills. Room assignments at CSUN, plus for all pre-conference seminars and workshops within Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, will be announced in our final pre-Forum announcement next week.
HILTON ROOMS, TRAVEL PLANS, AND LOCAL TRANSPORTATION
Rooms at the Hilton Woodland Hills, our Forum hotel, are still available. Ask for our Forum special rate of $109 per night. Check our logistical resources link for assistance with hotel reservations as well as travel planning.
PRESENTATION PREVIEWS
As for conference content, four previews of our speaker presentations are now posted. We invite you to follow the links below to download the these draft presentations now:
Ralph Wood, formerly United Technologies' corporate director for Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE), shares insights on a key to transformation, the emotional acceptance of the participants:
Return to UTC's story about Achieving Competitive Excellence. We quickly realized from the root cause analysis and existing behaviors that there was no business case for ACE! We had been asking employees at all levels to undertake ACE on faith. And, virtually all of the teaching examples were based on manufacturing, which was not viewed to be strategically important to the company compared with the likes of finance, business development, engineering, R&D, and service. In short, we had not established a compelling context and awareness for the transformation. It's no wonder that people perceived ACE to be a tax and not an investment. When we finally did create the business case for ACE, it came as a surprise to many from two perspectives: it was huge, and the leverage resided in operations.
Steve Cook, Project Manager for NASA's Ares Project, which is building launch vehicles for the next manned trip to the Moon (and beyond) has lead an effort to rebuild a culture of team exploration within NASA:
The effort to build the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles to
explore the Moon and beyond - or any other effort - succeeds
when people feel pride and accountability for the work they
produce and the organization delivers on its promises. The Ares
Project is building a world-class, affordable, safe, reliable
transportation system and an organization capable of bringing
innovative solutions to the nation.
Gipsie Ranney, Management and Statistical Consultant, who has been quoted by Deming, explores the effects of our organizational norms, from procedures to actions to interactions on employee commitment:
Effects of Unconditional Trust on Interpersonal Cooperation and Teamwork;
·willingness to go beyond job description
·high confidence in others
·people want to help each other
·willing to seek help
·free exchange of knowledge and information
·subjugation of personal needs and ego for the greater common
good
·high involvement
George Roth leads the Enterprise Change Research Program of MIT's Lean Aerospace Initiative program shares A New Theory of Enterprise Change:
Based on:
· Identification (need to be networked) - "tightening" system
· Directiveness - Providing direction and alignment (you can't "organize" a mess)
· Crossing boundaries - looking across organizations for improvement opportunities
· Power and politics across organizations - setting and managing boundaries, standards and plans
· Developing performance - within and then across
· Intergenerational leadership to sustain changes through worse- before-better dynamic
Note: The enterprise change proposition is contrary to current organizational change practices of loosing up centralized control, developing collaboration, and looking internally to improve capabilities or value-added.
We invite you to take a look now at these previews and make sure to print and bring along a copy if you would like one for note taking.
All for now. See you soon,
The Seventh Annual Forum Planning Team |
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Energize with
On Ensemble
Returning by popular demand, this unique group blends musical styles from jazz to electronic with a variety of instruments including the japanese taiko drum. What emerges from this collaboration is extremely powerful and soothing at the same time.
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