Good morning from Windsor Locks, Connecticut, home of the corporate offices for United Technologies’ Hamilton Sundstrand. With the new year now 18 days old, it’s time to come together for a few hours of “thinking together.” This month’s Ongoing Discussion will be next week on Wednesday, January 25th and Thursday, January 26th, from 12-2pm Pacific Time both days.
For an update on OD statistics, last month's invitation was sent to 3126 inthinking partners. With the addition of 21 inthinking partners, this month's invitation is going out to 3147 partners in the U.S., as well as fellow inthinking partners in Australia, Austria, Barbados, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, India, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.. Also, participation in last month’s conference call included 37 partners. Added to the 365 who joined in the OD sessions through November, 402 thinking partners joined us for the OD sessions in 2005. The diffusion process continuuues...
Welcome to the "first-timers" on the distribution list. 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 network. (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.) Also, please note my new email address - william.bellows@pwr.utc.com.
Now in our seventh year of operation, the aim of the "OD" sessions is to continue to foster an appreciation of Enterprise Thinking, as well as inthinking (www.in2in.org), within an emerging thinking network that is developing inside Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and beyond. Dates for future "OD" sessions follow below, along with additional "thinking" opportunities for 2006.
January 2006 Ongoing Discussion – Thinking About the Future and Globalization
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne’s Enterprise Thinking Network is delighted to present Dr. Russell Ackoff as the inaugural Thought Leader for 2006, thereby getting the year off to an incredible start. Dr. Ackoff, as many of you know, is a systems thinker without equal in the 20th century and is making a strong claim on the 21st, as well. He has written many books interweaving systems theory and management theory, all in very accessible and down to earth language, accessible by leaders at all organizational levels. Dr. Ackoff is also known by his terrific and biting sense of humor and, to our sense, a nice touch of Zen now and again.
He has opinions about how organizations are managed and led that are worthy of note, now more than ever. In 1993, Dr. Ackoff wrote (from the Democratic Corporation),
“There are not enough institutional and organizational leaders in America who understand the prevailing mess, let alone know how to deal with it. Our only hope for stemming the retreating tide is to stimulate enough of the right kind of leadership by confronting it with the right kind of ideas, ideas that mobilize out human resources into concerted, constructive action.”
The Thought Piece for this Ongoing Discussion is very much about understanding where we are in the moment and then considering where we would ideally like to be right now. The piece is titled “Thinking About the Future and Globalization,” which can be downloaded from the In2:InThinking Network website at www.in2in.org/od/. This paper is delicious to read and should provoke an excellent discussion. Here are some choice excerpts:
“Forecasts are about probabilities; assumptions are about possibilities.”
“So much time is currently spent worrying about the future that the present is allowed to go to hell.”
“Now is the only time in which we can act.”
“A legitimate desire is one the fulfillment of which does not decrease the ability of anyone else to satisfy their needs and legitimate desires.”
Dr. Ackoff is the Anheuser-Busch Professor Emeritus of Management Science, the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He has written 22 books, the most recent of which are “Redesigning Society” and “Beating the System”. He is a also friend of the In2:InThinking Network and graciously contributes on a regular basis to our efforts. He will appear at our 2006 Forum, presenting a 3-hour pre-conference workshop on Friday, March 31st, and delivering a keynote address on Saturday, April 1st.
If you are unable to join us, or would like to reconnect with Dr. Ackoff after the OD sessions, you are invited to contact him by email at rlackoff@aol.com. You are also welcome to post your comments for him (and fellow participants) on this OD session on the new In2:InThinking Network “Café” page at www.in2in.org/cafe. Once registered to enter the Café, you are welcome to post comments, both feedforward (before the OD) and feedback (after the OD).
Please join us for one or all of the hours of this month’s OD. It is a rare opportunity to engage with one of the extraordinary thinkers of our time. As always, you are invited to participate for as long, or as short, as you can in one or more of these sessions next week...
Option Time
1 – Wednesday, January 25th from 12:00-1:00pm Pacific Time
2 – Wednesday, January 25th from 1:00-2:00pm Pacific Time
3 – Thursday, January 26th from 12:00-1:00pm Pacific Time
4 – Thursday, January 26th from 1:00-2:00pm Pacific Time
The agenda for each option will be:
Timing Topic
Opening 10 minutes Call in & Introductions
Next 45 minutes Forum discussion
Last 5 minutes Close
Please reply to this note by 5pm Pacific Time on Monday, January 23rd to confirm your plans to participate in one (or more) of these options. If you do plan to attend, please SPECIFY your option selection.
Those of you connecting in Canoga Park can join in from conference rooms 205 and 206 in building 1 at Canoga. Telecon lines have been arranged for those who cannot join us at Canoga…
Inside & outside of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne 866-285-7784
Pass code 9823774
Note: if you have trouble connecting during the telecon, call me on my cell phone at 818-519-8209.
Please forward this announcement to anyone we missed who would also like to participate.
Regards...
Bill
Mark your calendars - future Ongoing Discussion sessions will be held on the following dates, from 12-1pm and 1-2pm Pacific Time
Month Dates
February 16 17 (NEW DATES)
March 23 24
April 27 28
May 25 26
June 29 30
July 27 28
SYSTEMS THINKING NEWSLETTER - now available online for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne employees...
TheNEW 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 December 2005, is available for reading and printing by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne employees at http://rdweb.rdyne.bna.boeing.com/tools&services/roadmap/articles.htm
Network friends outside of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne can learn more about this newsletter AND read a variety of sample issues and articles at www.thesystemsthinker.com. Individual and site licenses are available.
Also, mark your calendars for the upcoming Thinking Opportunities listed in the attachment…
<<Thinking Opportunities - January 2006.doc>>
Bill Bellows
Technical Fellow
Enterprise Thinking Network
Mail Code: AA14
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
P.O. Box 7922
Canoga Park, CA 91309-7922