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Aim and Stats
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, this month's invitation is going out to 3822 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 OD conference call with Bill Cooper included 27 partners from across the US (210 have joined us so far in 7 sessions in 2007, 444 partners joined us throughout 2006, 402 thinking partners joined us throughout 2005).
The diffusion process to connect thought leaders continuuues... |
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Good morning from Canoga Park, California,
home of the California operations for United Technologies' Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
With the passing of St. Oswald's Day on August 5th (link here to In2:IN-member Alan Winlow's reflections on both St. Oswald and his recent 7-day, 97-mile walk along St. Oswald's Way), and the almost passing of Perseids, it's time again to come together for a few
hours of "thinking together." This month's
Ongoing Discussion is scheduled for
Thursday, August 23rd and Friday, August 24th,
from 12-2pm Pacific Time on both days.
Information on this month's Thought Leader follows below.
Click here for the PARTICIPANT SURVEY
for this month's OD and to receive the
conference call information once you complete the survey.
And, in case you missed it, click here
for the August 2007 edition of the In2:InThinking Network
newsletter.
Cheers...
Bill Bellows
Associate Technical Fellow and Lead
Enterprise Thinking Network
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
Canoga Park, California
william.bellows@pwr.utc.com
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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 Thinking Roadmap seminars, workshops, and overviews within Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, 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 either link below to send me the name(s) and email 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 DELETIONS
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Thought Leader - Michael Iva
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's Enterprise Thinking Network
welcomes Michael Iva as our eighth Thought Leader for 2007 (and our 92nd since
2000) on August 23rd and 24th.
Michael Iva, also an In2:IN-member and a frequent contributor to the Ongoing Discussion conference calls, joins us this month as our Thought Leader. Michael is President and Creative Director of Qually & Company, Inc., and QuContent in Chicago. He is known internationally as a new product launch specialist, designer, writer, lecturer, part time college professor, and marketing expert. He has helped to successfully "position, reposition, or launch" 128 new products/services/issues. Michael operates in a world of things that are new, improved, unique, different, better, catalytic, and often unfamiliar to most of us.
Michael's Thought Piece is titled "100 Ways to Kill a Concept: Why Most Ideas Get Shot Down." This is a different kind of essay about creativity, and we think you will find Michael's approach refreshing, intriguing, and fun. It may be the first Thought Piece to contain an ode.
You will also discover an interesting web site called "ChangeThis". Michael's essay is a "manifesto" as defined by ChangeThis, and you can read about that process if you wish on this web site.
For the purpose of the Ongoing Discussion, Michael's Thought Piece will appeal to anyone who has had an idea and then thought, what next? People want to put ideas to work, which often means first persuading someone else to embrace the new ideas. We are all engaged in the process of persuasion in our lives, persuading others, being persuaded, persuading ourselves.
But how do people react to something new or improved or different or which might catalyze change? Well, we are often afraid, and when we are afraid it is so much easier to say "no" than it is to say "yes." And there are lots of ways to say "no" without really saying the word, a process that Iva calls "sandpapering it to death."
InThinkers will find much to appreciate in Michael's rich subject
matter. His list of "idea killers" will certainly be familiar to
anyone working in a Red Pen Company
environment. And it might be useful to delve a little deeper and try to
identify some more subtle obstacles to new thinking that might exist in
organizations that appear to be well along the continuum, in the realm of Blue Pen Company operations. What are some methods we might employ to recognize the less obvious
and perhaps more insidious obstacles to better thinking?
"I believe when it comes to new product development and
launches one should always remember that the rung of a ladder was never meant
to be rested upon, but only to hold a person's foot long enough to enable them
to put the other foot somewhat higher. So hold on to the 'old' just as long as
it is good and grab the 'new' just as soon as it is better." (Michael Iva).
Contact Michael Iva by email
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OD Details
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, August 23rd - 12:00-1:00pm
2 - Thursday, August 23rd - 1:00-2:00pm
3 - Friday, August 24th - 12:00-1:00pm
4 - Friday, August 24th - 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, August 22nd 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
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
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Future OD Dates
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
September 27-28: Tracy Huston
October 18-19: Gipsie Ranney
November 15-16 or 19-20: TBD
December 13-14, Steve Haines
January 24-25, Russell Ackoff
February 28-29, Sheldon Rovin
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Systems Thinking Newsletter
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
July 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 and Workshops
The following in-house "Thinking Roadmap" seminars and workshops are open to
employees of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, as well as suppliers, customers,
family members, and "Members of the Community." "Members
of the community" are individuals who are involved full or part time, or in a
volunteer capacity, in community related work.
This schedules below include the next available offerings for the listed seminars in Canoga Park, California.
Contact
Bill Bellows to request additonal information.
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Enterprise Thinking
 Registration Fee - there is NO fee to attend
Format - two 4.5-hour sessions over two days, offered as an in-person event
Presented by: Bill Bellows
Schedule for Enterprise Thinking classes in Canoga Park, CA for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
Class #CP-561
Part 1 - 23-Aug-07 - 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 24-Aug-07 - 7:00-11:30am
Class #CP-563
Part 1 - 27-Sep-07 - 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 28-Sep-07 - 7:00-11:30am
Class #CP-565
Part 1 - 22-Oct-07 - 12:30-5:00pm
Part 2 - 23-Oct-07 - 7:00-11:30am
Class #CP-567
Part 1 - 15-Nov-07 - 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 16-Nov-07 - 7:00-11:30am
Class #CP-569
Part 1 - 13-Dec-07 - 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 14-Dec-07 - 7:00-11:30am
Register to attend Enterprise Thinking
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Six Thinking Hats
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, offered as an in-person event
Presented by: Tim Higgins
Schedule for Six Thinking Hats classes in
Canoga
Park, CA for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
Class #CP-51
23-Oct-07 - 1:00-5:00pm
24-Oct-07 - 1:00-5:00pm
Register to attend Six Thinking Hats
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Managing Variation as a System
 Registration Fee - there is NO fee to attend.
Pre-requisite - there are NO pre-requisites.
Format - three 3-hour sessions over three
days, offered as an in-person event
Presented by: Joe Onstott
Schedule for Managing Variation as a System
classes in Canoga Park, CA for Pratt & Whitney
Rocketdyne
Class #MVS-90
22-Oct-07, 24-Oct-07, 25-Oct-07,
from 8:00-11:00am each day
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Kepner-Tregoe Problem Solving and Decision Making
 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, offered as an in-person event
Presented by: Tim Higgins
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
Class #CP-44
11-Sep-07, 18-Sep-07, 25-Sep-07,
from 8:00-4:00pm each day
Register to attend Kepner-Tregoe
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The New Economics Study Session
Registration Fee - there is NO fee to attend.
Pre-requisite - there are NO pre-requisites.
Format - seven 2-hour sessions over three
weeks, offered as a teleconference event
Presented by: Tim Higgins
Schedule for The New Economics Study
Session
classes in Canoga Park, CA for Pratt & Whitney
Rocketdyne
New dates TBD
Register to receive announcements for the next TNE Study Session
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PWR's Enterprise Thinking Network
First Annual Thinking Roadmap Week - October 22-26
Plans are underway for a week of Thinking Roadmap seminars in October, hosted by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, California, and culminating in a the Fifth Annual Lecture by Russell Ackoff on Friday, October 26th. Plans for seminars on Monday through Thursday follow below. Mark your calendars and plan your travel now.
Monday am - Managing Variation as a System - Part 1
Monday pm - Enterprise Thinking - Part 1
Tuesday am - Enterprise Thinking - Part 2
Tuesday pm - Six Thinking Hats - Part 1
Wednesday am - Managing Variation as a System - Part 2
Wednesday pm - Six Thinking Hats - Part 2
Thursday am - Managing Variation as a System - Part 3
Thursday pm - OPEN
Friday am - Fifth Annual Lecture by Russell Ackoff
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