Aim and Stats
Now in our ninth 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 2008 can be found in this announcement.
OD Stats
For an update on OD statistics, this month's invitation is going out to 3500+ partners in the U.S., as well as fellow inthinking partners in Australia, Austria, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Dubai, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, 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 United Technologies, GM, IBM, General Electric, NASA, and Philips Electronics. Among this list of invitees, participation in March's OD conference call with Bob Dickman and Richard Maxwell included 31 partners from across the US (132 have joined in so far in 2008, 342 joined in for all of 2007, 444 partners joined us throughout 2006, and 402 thinking partners joined us throughout 2005).
Yes, Grace, the diffusion process of connecting thought leaders continuuues... |
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Good morning from the west coast home of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, located in Canoga Park, California, on the western end of the San Fernando Valley in greater Los Angeles.
With the seventh In2:IN Forum and Mother's Day behind us, Memorial Day coming up this weekend in the U.S., and Father's Day and graduations coming up, summer will soon be upon those of us in the northern hemisphere (no, one season does not fit all of us). But, first, it's time to come together for a few hours of "thinking together." This month's Ongoing Discussion is scheduled for Wednesday, May 28th and Friday, May 30th, from 12-2pm Pacific Time on both days. Information on this month's Thought Leader, Tom Johnson, follows below.
Most recently, Tom was honored by the American Society for Quality (ASQ) with the 2007 Deming Medal. The citation in this honor reads,
"In recognition of his enduring efforts to integrate Management by Means with Dr. Deming's System of Profound Knowledge to foster insights and actions toward sustainability and to increase the possibility that humans and other life flourish on the Earth forever".
Click here for the PARTICIPANT SURVEY for this month's OD and to receive the conference call information once you complete the survey.
(Click here if you are having trouble reading this announcement.)
For those who missed last month's "OD" sessions with Ariane David, you are in luck. The sessions were posponed until a later date.
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!!!
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Thought Leader - Tom Johnson
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's (PWR) Enterprise Thinking Network welcomes Tom Johnson to lead our fourth Ongoing Discussion of 2008 (and our 100th since January 2000) on May 28th and 30th.
H. Thomas ("Tom") Johnson is a
long-time friend of PWR's Enterprise Thinking Network, as well as the In2:InThinking Network, having spoken at three Annual Forums (2002, 2003, and 2008 - shown in above photo). With these connections, we are very delighted to welcome Tom to the Ongoing
Discussions for the first time as our Thought Leader this month.
Most recently, Tom delivered the
Sunday morning keynote address at the close of the In2:InThinking Network's 2008 Forum. The title of his
presentation was Manage the
Means, Not the Ends, to Secure Satisfactory Long-term Business Performance",
and his accompanying slides are available online. All businesses desire high and stable profitability, period after
period for as long as possible. However, most performance improvement
initiatives achieve their desired result for only brief periods, a few years at
best, followed by periods of increased instability and poor results. Professor
Johnson explained how this unintended consequence of improvement initiatives
occurs because managers fail to understand how their view of what causes business
results differs greatly from how a business should naturally produce those
results. He traced this management failure to the common and long-standing
fallacy of believing that the linear quantitative language used, quite
properly, to describe business results can also be used to explain and
analyze the complex, non-linear process that produces those results.
This fallacy causes managers to view quantitative results, or ends, as solid
goals and to view process, or means, as ephemeral steps they manipulate in any
way necessary to achieve their ends. Professor Johnson argued that businesses
cannot achieve satisfactory long-term financial performance until managers
accept the idea that financial results are achieved by nurturing the means
according to principles like those scientists observe in natural systems. He
described examples of such principles found in the science of modern
evolutionary cosmology, in The Toyota Way, and in the management thinking of W.
Edwards Deming.
We have provided links to a variety of Thought Pieces for this
month' s conversation, all of which are posted on the "OD page" of the In2:InThinking Network at this link. And many of you have likely read Tom's last book, Profit Beyond Measure, in which he explains his theory of Management
by Means, based on his extensive relationship with Toyota and his deep understanding of the
Toyota Production System. As a supplement to these Thought Pieces, you might
also wish to read this recent column by James Surowieki, published in The New
Yorker magazine.
What kinds of questions might you
consider during this Ongoing Discussion session with Tom? Here are some to consider...
- How is "Management by
Means" different from "Management by Results" (or "by Objective")?
- How would you relate MBM thinking to "Blue
Pen Company" thinking?
- Many people also associate "lean" thinking with Toyota - what is meant by lean, and what is
the relationship of lean to MBM?
- What
was your experience in the In2:Inthinking workshop called "Resource Management"
with respect to MBR, MBM, and lean thinking?
- How can organizations "nurture the
means"?
- What view of the world or perspective might be helpful in thinking
about "nurturing"?
- How might we learn to
nurture each other in our work relationships?
- What practices might serve us
well?
Tom is
Professor of Business Administration at Portland
State University
(Oregon). He received the Deming
Prize from the American Society for Quality. He was named one of the 200
leading management thinkers living today in a survey published by Harvard
Business School Press in 2003. Winner of the Shingo Prize for Excellence in
Manufacturing Research in 2001 and 2007, Tom received in 2007 the American
Accounting Association's highest award for research, the Seminal Contribution
to Accounting Literature Award, for his co-authored book Relevance Lost: The
Rise and Fall of Management Accounting (Harvard Business School Press, 1987).
His full bio is available online.
Contact Tom by email with any questions you would like to share with him in preparation for the OD sessions.
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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 - Wednesday, May 28th - 12:00-1:00pm 2 - Wednesday, May 28th- 1:00-2:00pm 3 - Friday, May 30th - 12:00-1:00pm 4 - Friday, May 30th - 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 Tuesday, May 27th 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(s) April 24-25, Ariane David - POSTPONED June 26-27, Cyndi Laurin & Craig Morningstar July 24-25, Thought Leader To Be Determined August 21-22, Sheila Ronis
Follow this link to find our current list of Thought Leaders for all of 2008, as well as announcements for Thought Leaders in 2005, 2006, and 2007.
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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 December 2002 through May 2008, 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 (PWR), 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.
Background information on PWR's Thinking Roadmap, in addition to seminar and workshop descriptions and upcoming schedules, can be found in a new addition to the In2:InThinking Network website at www.in2in.org/TR/. Links to descriptions for each session are embedded in the titles below.
The schedule below includes 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
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 Enterprise Thinking classes in Canoga Park, CA for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
Class #CP-581 Part 1 - 19-Jun-08 - 7:00-11:30am Part 2 - 20-Jun-08 - 7:00-11:30am
Class #CP-583 Part 1 - 14-Jul-08 - 12:30-5:00pm Part 2 - 15-Jul-08 - 8:00-12:30pm
Class #CP-585 Part 1 - 21-Aug-08 - 7:00-11:30am Part 2 - 22-Aug-08 - 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."
Prerequisite - 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
NEW DATES TBD
Register to receive an announcement for the next Six Thinking Hats seminar in 2008
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Managing Variation as a System
Registration Fee - there is NO fee to attend.
Prerequisite - there are NO prerequisites
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-92
8:00-11:00am for each session below
Part 1 - 13-Oct-08 Part 2 - 15-Oct-08
Part 3 - 17-Oct-08
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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."
Prerequisite - attended Enterprise Thinking within the past 12 to 14 months
Format - three 8-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
New Dates TBD Register to receive an announcement for the first Kepner-Tregoe seminar in 2008
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The New Economics Study Session
Registration Fee - there is NO fee to attend. A copy of The New Economics is provided to each participant. 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.
Prerequisite - there are NO prerequisites
Format - seven 2-hour sessions over three and a half weeks, offered as a teleconference event
Presented by: Tim Higgins
Register now to receive an announcement for the next TNE Study Session in 2008
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