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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 3493 inthinking partners.
With the latest updates to our mailing list, this
month's invitation is going out to 3508 partners in
the U.S., as well as fellow inthinking partners in
Australia, Austria, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Brazil,
Canada, China, 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 470 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 OD conference call
with Ralph Wood included 37 partners from across
the US and England as well. Added to the 407
partners for our sessions through November, 444
partners joined in throughout 2006 (402 thinking
partners joined us throughout 2005). Is this
common cause variation or another special cause
event??? Hmmmm...
Nonetheless, the diffusion process continuuues...
In2:IN
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Good morning from Canoga Park, California, home of
United Technologies' Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
With the start of the new year, not
to mention Winnie
the Pooh Day on January 18th (can we hear a TTFN?),
it's time to come together for a few hours of "thinking
together." This month’s Ongoing Discussion is
scheduled for Thursday, January 18th and Friday,
January 19th, from 12-2pm Pacific Time on both days.
Click here
for the January 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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| January 2007 Ongoing Discussion – Russell Ackoff |
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Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's Enterprise Thinking
Network is delighted to present Russell Ackoff as
the inaugural Thought Leader for 2007 in a repeat of
his kick-off Thought
Leader role for 2006. Never
one to stand still, Dr. Ackoff released two books in
2006 - Idealized
Design: How to Dissolve Tomorrow's and Management
F-laws. Both are testimony to his stature as a
systems thinker without equal in the 21st century.
For those who are new to his work, Dr.
Ackoff is the
Anheuser-Busch Professor Emeritus of Management
Science, the Wharton School, University of
Pennsylvania and was the August A. Busch, Jr.
Visiting Professor of Marketing, John M. Olin School
of Business, Washington University, St. Luis, MO,
from 1989-95. He received his undergraduate degree
in architecture (1941) and his Ph.D. in Philosophy
of Science from the University of Pennsylvania
(1947). He was a member and former Chairman of the
Social Systems Sciences Department and the Busch
Center, which specializes in systems planning,
research, and design - both within The Wharton
School. His work in research, consulting, and
education has involved more than 350 corporations
and 75 government agencies in the United States and
abroad. Including his 2 books in 2006, he has
written 24 books. He is also a friend of the
In2:InThinking Network and has graciously
contributed to In2:IN efforts on a regular basis,
such as his videotaped keynote address at the 2006
Forum ("The
Biggest Mistake Managers Make"), which
is included in the full set of Forum
proceedings.
Over the years, Dr. Ackoff has collected "truths
about organizations that we might wish to deny or
ignore - simple and more reliable guides to
managers' everyday behavior than the complex truths
proposed by scientists, economists and
philosophers." He refers to these "truths" as
f-Laws, which are the basis of his last book. The
short version of these f-Laws serves as this month's
Thought Piece.
The long
version will be published
by Triarchy Press in late January. This work
includes over 100 f-Laws and "is designed to whet
your appetite and get you thinking about the
often-unacknowledged realities of organizations:
what really motivates managers; why are companies
run the way they are; how come they don't work better?"
For example...
The more time managers spend trying to get rid of
what they don’t want, the less likely they are to
get what they do want
When one gets rid of what one does not want, one is
likely to get something one wants even less. For
example, getting rid of a television program by
changing the channel often yields a program that one
wants even less. When DDT was used to get rid of
pests it harmed things we did not want to get rid
of. Prohibition gave a stimulus to organized crime
that was more harmful to society than abuse of alcohol.
Managers cannot learn from doing things right, only
from doing them wrong
Doing something right can only confirm what one
already knows or believes; one cannot learn from it.
However, one can learn from making mistakes, by
identifying and correcting them. Nevertheless,
making a mistake is frowned upon in most
organizations, from school on up, and often is
punishable. To the extent that recognition of
mistakes is suppressed, so is learning.
Needless to say, Dr. Ackoff 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."
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Contact Russell Ackoff |
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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, January 18th 12:00-1:00pm
2 – Thursday, January 18th 1:00-2:00pm
3 – Friday, January 19th 12:00-1:00pm
4 – Friday, January 19th 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: Close
Please reply to this note by noon Pacific Time on
Wednesday, January 17th 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.
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
February 22-23: Sheldon Rovin
March 22-23: Andrew Johnson
April 26-27: TBD
May 17-18: Chris Soderquist
June 28-89: Rick Searfoss
July 26-27: 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
December
2006, 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-545
Part 1 - 1-Feb-07 - 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 2-Feb-07 - 7:00-11:30am
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
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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
Class # CP-44
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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