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Aim and Stats
Now in our fourteenth year of operation, the aim of the "OD" and "BTA" sessions is to continue to foster an appreciation of InThinking
within an emerging network that is developing inside Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and beyond. Dates for future "OD" and "BTA" sessions along with additional "thinking" opportunities for 2013 can be found in this announcement.
OD + BTA Stats
For an update on OD and BTA statistics, this month's invitation is going out to 4500+ partners in the U.S., as well as fellow InThinking partners in Australia, Austria, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Chile, Dubai, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, 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, Philips Electronics, and The Boeing Company.
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As we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the US and remember him around the world, we are mindful that he had a dream "that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood." Such appreciation and respect for diversity, a way of expressing the concept of variation relative to people, is essential for sitting together and living together, without ranking, whether the focus be ethnicity, skin color, age, religious beliefs, health, thought, or speed of reasoning.
Given this reminder of the variation and diversity that surrounds us, here's an invitation our 157th Ongoing Discussion (OD), set for January 28th and 29th, with Gipsie Ranney leading us in a conversation on the topic of "Transformation: You Can't Do Just One Thing." Link here for the PARTICIPANT SURVEY and to receive the conference call information, plus a link to Gipsie's Thought Piece, once you complete the survey. Find details on this Ongoing Discussion below.
Cheers...
Bill Bellows
Associate Fellow and Lead
InThinking Network
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
Canoga Park, California
william.bellows@pwr.utc.com |
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Better Thinking About... Webinar Series
As always, there is no relentless root cause to explain anything, such as the ideas behind this new webinar offering. There are, however, common causes present always and a special cause on occasion. From death to birth, singular causes offer insufficient explanations when attempting to move well beyond what Dr. Deming referred to as "the prevailing system of management." Team work, as in multiple causes, both common and special, offers a systemic view. Beginning in February 2012, PWR's InThinking Network will launch a monthly webinar series. The title, "Better Thinking About..." is designed to connect this effort with the many other activities of our InThinking Roadmap efforts, all designed to foster what we refer to as "better thinking about thinking." As with all continuous improvement efforts, the use of the term "better" does not imply what we're currently doing is "bad," "dumb," "unwise," or "thoughtless." Rather, the notion of improvement implies that our efforts, processes, products, ideas, and thinking can be better and better yet again. Whether or not improvement is worth the investment of resources will always be a worthwhile question to ask. Such was the thinking behind launching this series and our theory is that this effort will be a worthwhile investment for our attendees and presenters, as well as organizers. Beginning in the fall of 2011, the ideas behind this webinar emerged from a number of conversations. Over time, the format was defined as one 90-minute session per month, from February through December, targeted for the second Thursday of the month, from 11:30-1pm Pacific Time. The sessions will be audio taped, with these files eventually posted for download. Eleven presenters have been contacted and confirmed, with a few confirmed for specific months. Next up, topics will be confirmed for each. In our second year, plans are under way to continue this series in February, with an announcement to be released early in the month. |
Memories of Genichi Taguchi, 1924-2012
Profit to Society
Genichi Taguchi, the father of "Taguchi Methods," (a subject matter coined by Don Clausing, termed Quality Engineering by Dr. Taguchi in his native Japan) died on Sunday, June 3rd. Beginning in the late 1980s, Dr. Taguchi traveled to the U.S. to consult with Xerox, where he met Don Clausing, and later AT&T's Bell Labs, where he mentored Madhav Phadke, who later authored Quality Engineering Using Robust Design. In his last book, titled Taguchi's Quality Engineering Handbook and released in 2004, he and co-author Yuin Wu presented strategies and techniques for topics ranging from his Quality Loss Function to Robust Design, Parameter Design, Tolerance Design, Signal-to-Noise rations, On-Line Quality Control, and Mahalanobis Distance. Over the last 20+ years, Dr. Taguchi served as the Executive Director of the American Supplier Institute, based in Dearborn, Michigan. Dr. Taguchi visited PWR on three occasions, twice in 1994 and later in 1996. His first two visits included lectures and application sessions ranging from materials processing to rocket engine design. On his third visit, he was joined by Yuin Wu, who in 1986 was the first Taguchi Methods consultant in the U.S. Together, they provided advice to PWR engineers on the how to apply the concept of robustness to the development of the RS-68 engine. Among his many honors, Genichi Taguchi was awarded his first Deming Prize in Literature for his efforts to create and promote the use of a somewhat radical definition of quality. Instead of the traditional mechanistic definition, based on the standard practice of assessing the quality of parts and processes and the ability to conform to requirements, Taguchi suggested a definition based on minimizing loss to others downstream. Specifically, he defined quality as, The minimum of loss imparted to society by a product after its shipment to the customer. In doing so, quality can also be defined in terms of relationships between parts, not in terms of the parts taken separately. While they never met, such thinking aligns extremely well with the thinking of Russ Ackoff, who encouraged a shift from managing parts to managing the interactions between the parts. In receiving the Deming Prize in September 1960, statistician Donald Wheeler (see page v) reported that Genichi Taguchi provided the world with a new definition of quality, On target with minimum variance Years later, in his 1986 book, Out of the Crisis, W. Edwards Deming defined Dr. Taguchi's Quality Loss Function as "a better view of the world." His ideas have the ability to reduce loss to society, which is a profit for all. Tributes to Dr. Taguchi can be posted online at this link. |
Memories of and from Russ Ackoff
The one and only Russ Ackoff served as our "January" Ongoing Discussion Thought Leader on four occasions between 2006 and 2009. In addition to these "visits" with us from his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, he also traveled to Canoga Park every year, from 2003 through 2007, to deliver half-day and full-day lectures in our Leadership & Learning Center (picture above), as well as in Boeing's Conference Center in nearby Huntington Beach. In doing so, he inspired us with his countless "systems" stories, from his chance visit to AT&T's Bell Labs to experience the account of the "overnight destruction of the Bell telephone system" (and his discovery of their use what came to be known as the Idealized Design process) to the tale of a cost-cutting paper company client, who continued to offer sales of a paltry amount (think "loss leader") of specialty photographic paper to Claire Booth Luce, whose husband's company, Time magazine, was their number 1 customer. One of these stories, plus many more from his career in the U.S. Army, stationed in the South Pacific, to his lengthy career as a management consultant, is told by Russ in the first of two recent posthumous publications by Triarchy Press, titled Memories. Follow this link for more details on this book, in addition to news of the second book, Differences That Make a Difference. Here's a link for details on a special discount.
To view a video of John Pourdehnad's fond memories of Russ, follow this link on YouTube. NEW - Link here to download a 90-page transcript of a video with Russ Ackoff and W. Edwards Deming. The conversation took place in l992 and was edited and released as Volume 21 of The Deming Library series in l993. It is called "A Theory of a System for Educators and Managers" It is available from CC-M Productions and includes a second DVD with discussion/teaching guides for it and the rest of the Deming Library at The CC-M website at |
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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 InThinking Roadmap seminars, workshops, and overviews within Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, or attendance at the annual In2:InThinking Network Forum, 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 e-mail 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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Meeting Notice Service - OD and BTA
If you'd like to receive meeting notices on your Microsoft Outlook schedule for upcoming Ongoing Discussions and Better Thinking About... webinars, reply to Bill Bellows at william.bellows@pwr.utc.com and your name will be added to our announcement list. |
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The Essential Deming
by W. Edwards Deming
Under the editorial leadership of Joyce Orsini, The W. Edwards Deming Institute has recently released the latest book by Dr. Deming, titled "The Essential Deming." According to Joyce, "This book is about Deming's theory of management, in his own words, gleaned from articles and papers he wrote, and speeches he gave at conferences and seminars -- little-distributed until now....I have reviewed the Deming Collection of materials in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division in Washington, DC, materials that Deming gave to me over the years, and copies of papers he handed out in classes, at various seminars, and that I have gathered from other sources. I have also reviewed hundreds of hours of video and audio recordings of his lectures to students and at conferences....After skimming thousands of documents, I reviewed in detail some 850 articles, letters, papers, cases, lectures, speeches, and notes by Deming that contained potential material for this book. I've selected about a hundred for inclusion in whole or in part for this book."
The material in this 313-page book is arranged in 8 chapters, with titles reflecting familiar themes,
1 - The World Is Being Ruined by Best Efforts
2 - Quality Is Made in the Boardroom
3 - By What Method?
4 - There Is No Such Thing as Instant Pudding
5 - A System Must Be Managed
6 - There Is No Substitute for Knowledge
7 - Management Is Prediction
8 - What Happened in Japan?
Link here to find The Essential Deming on Amazon. |
A Beginner's Guide to the Brain
by Elaine Johnson
Elaine Johnson, our Thought Leader in March 2010 on the topic of "Understanding "Context" to Achieve Harmony in Organizations and on Earth", has released her most recent book, titled "A Beginner's Guide to the Brain: Major Discoveries That Will Change Your Life," available at this link. This guide book builds upon the 1-day seminar she presented at the In2:InThinking Network's 2011 Forum, titled "An Introduction to the Human Brain: Understand Your Brain, Improve Your Life," with content ranging from Understanding Plasticity: How Experience Changes the Brain to How Relationships Forge the Brain to an appendix with a guide to Ways the Brain Learns Best. As with her Forum session on the brain, Elaine's book addresses questions such as How does a brain-friendly leader behave?, What specific things can organizations do to strengthen brains, raise IQ, and generate creativity?, and How brain-friendly is the digital age? |
Menlo Labs' "Garden of Eden" in LA
Tracy Huston, our Ongoing Discussion Thought Leader in 2007 and again in 2009, with Dave Flanigan, has been putting her green thumb to work in Los Angeles, guided by her systemic thinking and joining minds and arms with Dave Flanigan to initiate an urban farming project that is serving 150 families a week (including 40+ within Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne) with everything from carrots to chilies, employing at-risk youth in the San Fernando Valley, and providing free training for more than 75 employees. In a recent visit to their North Hollywood farm (covered by local media, including the LA Daily News) on land provided by the Department of Water and Power, and a project funded by the city of Los Angeles, Tracy and Dave shared a vision of "an Eden in the middle of a city" and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa imagined "what we could do if the city could now find more land." While we wait for a return visit by Tracy and Dave as Ongoing Discussion Thought Leaders in 2011, link here for more about their recent book, Gardening for People and Planet. |
Multi-Matrix: The Brain Game
Leslie Peters, our March 2011 Thought Leader, led a session titled "Vision Dominates Thinking." Link here to find the announcement. Leslie followed her OD appearance with a presentation at the In2:InThinking Network's 2011 Forum on the same topic. During her presentation (link here for details), she shared a "brain game," which is now available for purchase. According to her website http://sensoryprocessingcourses.com, here are details on the game; Develop the brain through integration of multiple senses within a 3-dimensional, motor challenge. The companion online, all-video course teaches you to improve key skills that are the foundation for reading and learning. "Brain Loads" combine multiple sensory systems to maximize brain development.
Designed by a developmental optometrist and director of a brain rehabilitation clinic, The Multi-Matrix Game assists children and adults with learning challenges, reading delays, attention disorders, and brain damage.
For more information, visit www.multimatrixgame.com |
| Thought Leader - Gipsie Ranney
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's InThinking Network welcomes Gipsie Ranney, from Brentwood, Tennessee, to lead our first Ongoing Discussion of 2013 on January 28th and 29th (and our 157th session since we began in January 2000). Gipsie has selected "Transformation: You Can't Do Just One Thing" as her topic in her fifth time with us as a Thought Leader.
Gipsie has been a friend and inspiration since our paths first crossed in the mid 1990s. I don't recall where we met, but I do recall attending a 2-day "Walter Shewhart" seminar she co-presented at Fordham University. She's been a mentor ever since. As with mentors Genichi Taguchi and Russ Ackoff, I keep a growing list of questions and topics to explore with Gipsie, from world news to insights from Dr. Deming. Inevitably, our conversation leads to a topic for her next appearance as an Ongoing Discussion Thought Leader, a role she's taken every January since 2010, as the late Russ Ackoff honored us from 2006 through 2009. In her latest Thought Piece, Gipsie has focused her attention on "Transformation: You Can't Do Just One Thing." Before reading her piece, be mindful of how she uses the term "transformation," as this word is used by many, yet with different definitions. For example, in chapter 4 of The New Economics, Dr. Deming offers;
The prevailing style of management must undergo transformation. A system can not understand itself. The transformation requires a view from outside.
He added,
The first step is transformation of the individual. This transformation is discontinuous. It comes from understanding of the system of profound knowledge. The individual, transformed, will perceive new meaning to his life, to events, to numbers, to interactions between people.
Once the individual understands the system of profound knowledge, he will apply its principles in every kind of relationship with other people. He will have a basis for judgment of his own decisions and for transformation of the organizations that he belongs to. The individual, once transformed, will:
Set an example
Be a good listener, but will not compromise
Continually teach other people
Help people to pull away from their current practice and beliefs and move into the new philosophy without a feeling of guilt about the past
While Gipsie's Thought Piece doesn't define transformation, when asked about it, she said "her use was not the same as Dr. Deming's use of transformation." Instead, she "refers to an organization's universally desired change effort to be a better competitor; to improve its competitive position."
Here's the opening from her Thought Piece;
Managers engage in numerous efforts to improve organizational performance, but may not see the magnitude of improvement they would like. They may ask questions such as: We have made it clear that developing new markets is imperative, so why don't we see more ideas for new products and services? Why is it so difficult to implement new initiatives? Why do people in different functions argue about the benefits of proposed changes? Why are engineers frustrated in their efforts to implement technical improvements in production? Why are our people not committed to the organization's goals?
Why do rewards not seem to produce the magnitude of improvements that we had hoped? Gipsie follows with,
Organizations need to change factors that seriously undermine their capabilities to survive and flourish. In the following, I will describe several factors that could be addressed to improve organizational performance. They are not accompanied by visual displays such as the organization chart, so they may be unrecognized. They include access to information, approaches to problem solving, actions for improvement, learning, rewards and control systems, policies and rules. All of these factors operate within a context of organizational and subunit cultures. They all affect organizational performance. A difficulty with them is that they are interdependent and just working on one will not be likely to achieve a desired transformation of the organization or improvement of the magnitude desired, but actions to address them can go a long way toward dealing with issues that lead to questions like the ones above. She closes with a section titled, "Not Just the Organization Chart," in which she offers us this advice;
The organization chart is a primary business icon. The organization chart is visible; many of the more important factors that affect organizational performance are not. Improving information flows, improving problem solving and learning, developing constructive interactions between individuals and units, using negotiation to manage conflict, communication and modeling by management, revamping rewards and controls and developing a culture that enables improvement are some of the organizational aspects that deserve far more attention than reporting relationships.
Link here to download Gipsie's Thought Piece.
Biography
Gipsie Ranney is an international consultant to organizations on management, quality improvement and statistical methodology. She was a member of the faculty of the Department of Statistics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville for fifteen years. She was a co-founder of the University of Tennessee's Institute for Productivity through Quality, and she developed and conducted numerous seminars on quality improvement. She served as Director of Statistical Methodology for General Motors Powertrain Group from 1988 to 1992. She was the first president of the W. Edwards Deming Institute. She co-authored Beyond Total Quality Management: Toward the Emerging Paradigm, published by McGraw-Hill, and contributed to Competing Globally Through Customer Value, published by Quorum. She has published papers on quality improvement and statistical methods. The American Society for Quality awarded her the Deming Medal for 1996, "for outstanding contribution in advancing the theory and practice of statistical thinking to the management of enterprises worldwide." Gipsie holds a B.S. in Mathematics from Duke University and a Ph.D. in Statistics from North Carolina State University.
Contact Gipsie at gbranney@comcast.net with any questions or comments you would like to share with her in preparation for this OD session.
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January 28-29 OD Details
Please join us for one or all of this month's first series of ODs. As always, you are invited to participate for as long, or as short, as you can in one or more of these sessions. Note that the conversations vary from session to session, due to a variety of causes, such as who participates and what questions are asked. This diversity is captured every month, as the calls are recorded and posted as mp3 files on a PWR OD website that is being created.
Option - Date/Time (Pacific Time);
1 - Monday, January 28th - 12:00-1:00pm
2 - Monday, January 28th - 1:00-2:00pm
3 - Tuesday, January 29th - 12:00-1:00pm 4 - Tuesday, January 29th - 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 Friday, January 25th 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
Telecon lines (including a pass code and a security code) have been arranged for those who cannot join us in a conference room at our DeSoto facility 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 |
International Participants
Our conference call sessions are toll-free within the U.S. and Canada. Several international participants have been able to connect toll-free using Skype for a VOIP connection, which we now recommend to others calling in from outside (or inside) the U.S. and Canada.
First, you'll need to establish a Skype account at www.skype.com. Once Skype is set up and functioning correctly the only thing that is different when connecting with our "InThinking Roadmap" conference call sessions ("OD" or "The New Economics Study Sessions") is the use of a pass code and security code. For our "OD" sessions, these numbers are provided once the "participant survey" is completed. For the "The New Economics Study Sessions," these numbers are provided in an email from Tim Higgins, who hosts these calls. In either case, when prompted by Skype to enter these codes, use the keyboard not voice option and be sure to turn off the computer's microphone, otherwise the numeric keys don't function. If the microphone is left on when the codes are entered, Skype's automated operator will reply with "number not recognized," as no number has been transmitted. Also, please note that the "pound key" in the U.S. (#) translates to the "hash key" in the U.K.
New users of Skype are encouraged to perform a conference call test in advance of the scheduled "InThinking Roadmap" conference call. Contact Bill Bellows to arrange for a test call. |
Future OD Dates
Mark your calendars - future Ongoing Discussion sessions will be held on the following dates (subject to slight changes), from 12-1pm and 1-2pm Pacific Time.
Month, Dates, Thought Leader(s), Topics:
February 25-26, Thought Leader and Topic to be determined
March 28-29, Thought Leader and Topic to be determined
April 25-26, Thought Leader and Topic to be determined
May 20-21, Thought Leader and Topic to be determined
June 27-28, Thought Leader and Topic to be determined
Note that the "OD" home page on the In2:InThinking Network web site is being moved to a PWR website. Stay tuned for the new address. |
Future Better Thinking About... Dates
Mark your calendars - future Better Thinking About... webinars will be held on the following dates, from 11:30-1pm Pacific Time. Details for how to participate in this webinar series are provided upon registering using the participant survey for each event.
Date, Presenter, and Topic (link on each topic to register)
January 10, To be determined
February 14, Gerald Suarez, Leadership
March 14, Paul Hollingworth, Systems
April 11, Elaine Johnson, Our Brains |
Systems Thinking Newsletter
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 December 2012, 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. |
InThinking Roadmap Seminars and Workshops
The following in-house "InThinking 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.
The schedule below includes the next available offerings for the listed seminars in Canoga Park, California. Contact Bill Bellows to request additional information.
Background information on PWR's InThinking Roadmap, in addition to seminar and workshop descriptions and upcoming schedules, are being added to a new PWR website, to be announced.
Note that the dates listed below are subject to change. All times listed are Pacific Time.
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4th Annual InThinking Roadmap Seminar Week (October 21-25)
During the week of October 21st, PWR's InThinking Network will be hosting a week of activities from our InThinking Roadmap. Such a design offers a convenient way for visiting attendees to attend a selection of our sessions during one trip to Los Angeles. Current plans include the following day-by-day agenda;
Monday, October 21st
8:00-11:00am - Managing Variation as a System - Part 1
1:00-5:00 - InThinking Together - Part 1
Tuesday, October 22nd
8:00-11:30am - InThinking Together - Part 2
1:00-5:00pm - Thinking Tools - Part 1
Wednesday, October 23rd
8:00-11:00am - Managing Variation as a System - Part 2
1:00-5:00pm - Thinking Tools - Part 2
Thursday, October 24th
8:00-11:00am - Managing Variation as a System - Part 3
1:00-5:00pm - OPEN
Friday, October 25th
8:00-11:30am - Organization Workshop - Part 1
1:00-5:00pm - Organization Workshop - Part 2 |
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InThinking Together
Description: This seminar explores the philosophies of a variety of management theorist, including but not limited to Russell Ackoff, W. Edwards Deming, Edward de Bono, Tom Johnson, and Genichi Taguchi, among many others; as they apply to the management of organizational resources, including ideas, innovation, knowledge, money, equipment, and space. Among the topics of discussion will be the concepts of "better thinking about thinking" (InThinking) and "Purposeful Resource Management." The seminar will introduce you to these ideas through a series of questions that are specially selected to create awareness of a new approach to working together, learning together, and thinking together.
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 InThinking Together classes in Canoga Park, CA for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
Class #CP-2013-01
Part 1 - 24-Jan - 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 25-Jan - 7:00-11:30am
Class #CP-2013-02
Part 1 - 25-Feb- 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 26-Feb- 7:00-11:30am
Class #CP-2013-03
Part 1 - 28-Mar- 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 29-Mar- 7:00-11:30am
Register to attend InThinking Together |
Six Thinking Hats
Description: This seminar is designed to present a more structured approach to thinking, for individuals and teams. We have developed many excellent thinking tools for argument and analysis. Our information technology methods are constantly improving. We have, however, developed few tools to deal with our ordinary everyday thinking - the sort of thinking we do in conversations and in meetings. What is needed is Parallel Thinking or Thinking Together, where each thinker puts forward his or her thoughts in parallel with the thoughts of others. The Six Thinking Hats method is a practical way of carrying out Parallel Thinking. This seminar explores Edward de Bono's concept of Six Thinking Hats as a way to unbundle thinking, separating out its different aspects. Use of the Six Thinking Hats can result in more productive meetings on the road to better resource management within a growing environment of "InThinking Together."
Registration Fee - there is no fee for PWR employees to attend. For visitors, we charge $165, payable to Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
Prerequisite - there are NO prerequisites
Format - one 8-hour session offered over one day (or, two 4-hour sessions offered over two days), presented as an in-person event, or through web meeting for attendees within United Technologies.
Presented by: Tim Higgins
Schedule for Six Thinking Hats classes in Canoga Park, CA for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
Classes for 2013 have not yet been scheduled.
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Lateral Thinking
Description: This seminar provides participants with a number of deliberate, formal tools for creative thinking followed with opportunities to practice building usable skills. Seminar content is based on the work of Edward de Bono, an international authority on creative thinking and the direct teaching of thinking skills. Edward de Bono's Lateral Thinking tools are based directly on how the brain functions as a self-organizing information system. Here are some notes from Edward de Bono on the definition of Lateral Thinking:
1. You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper.
2. Lateral Thinking is for changing concepts and perceptions instead of trying harder with the same concepts and perceptions.
3. In self-organizing information systems, asymmetric patterns are formed.
Lateral Thinking is a method for cutting across from one pattern to another. This course develops skill in the use of the Lateral Thinking tools by means of practice exercises. Skills learned will build upon concepts covered in other classes on our InThinking Roadmap.
Registration Fee - there is no fee for PWR employees to attend. For visitors, we charge $120, payable to Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
Prerequisite - Six Thinking Hats
Format - two 8-hour sessions, presented as an in-person event
Presented by: Tim Higgins
Schedule for Lateral Thinking classes in Canoga Park, CA for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
Classes for 2013 have not yet been scheduled.
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Managing Variation as a System
Description: This seminar continues to explore the prospects of better thinking as defined by the management and leadership philosophies of Russell Ackoff, W. Edwards Deming and Genichi Taguchi and other like-minded systemic thinkers. The topics of discussion will be "Resource Management" (the systemic application of resources, including activities without problems, but featuring opportunities for investment) and it's applicability to variation management and systems thinking. This seminar will introduce you to these ideas through a series of questions specially selected to reveal a refreshing perspective when managing variation as a system.
Registration Fee - there is NO fee for employees to attend. Visitors are asked to bring a copy of the course textbook (Donald Wheeler's
Understanding Variation), which can be purchased online for as low as $25. Follow this link to Amazon for one purchase option.
Prerequisite - there are NO prerequisites
Format - three 3-hour sessions over three days, presented as an in-person event
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Kepner-Tregoe Problem Solving and Decision Making
Description: The seminar presents more rational approaches to problem solving, decision making, and successful planning. The seminar content is based on the work of Charles Kepner and Ben Tregoe who studied the methodology of "successful" managers and concluded that better skills in problem solving, decision-making and planning were a key distinction.
Registration Fee - there is no fee for PWR employees to attend. For visitors, we charge $330, payable to Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
Prerequisite - there are NO prerequisites
Format - three 7-hour sessions over three weeks, presented 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 |
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The New Economics Study Session
Description: A group of participants assembles, some in-person and some via teleconference, for this 14-hour series. Participants discuss W. Edwards Deming's last book, The New Economics, in which he introduced his concept of a "System of Profound Knowledge." The group reads specified chapters before each session and discusses the meaning and application of the ideas, as well as personal reactions to the ideas. Supplemental reading material become part of the conversations, as do reactions to video tapes of Dr. Deming.
Registration Fee - there is NO fee to attend. 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. PWR attendees will be given copies of The New Economics. Non-PWR attendees can purchase copies on Amazon at this link, with used copies selling for $15 and Kindle copies available for $15.95.
Prerequisite - there are NO prerequisites
Format - seven 2-hour sessions over three and a half weeks, presented as a teleconference event
Presented by: Tim Higgins
Schedule for The New Economics Study Session
Class #CP-2013-01
Starting on 25-Feb, seven sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays, from 3:00-5:00pm
Register to attend the TNE Study Session |
Design of Experiments & Taguchi Methods -An Overview
Description: This seminar introduces the fundamentals of both Design of Experiments (DOE) and Taguchi Methods and also serves to relate both bodies of knowledge to PWR's InThinking Network efforts. This course is a condensed version of two extensive 40-hour Taguchi Methods seminars. The shorter overview is designed to provide a strong foundation in the thinking and applicability of DOE and Taguchi Methods for both process and product improvement.
Registration Fee - there is NO fee to attend Prerequisite - there are NO prerequisites
Format - eight 2-hour sessions over four weeks, presented both as an in-person event and through web meeting for off-site participants, both inside and outside of United Technologies.
Presented by: Bill Bellows
Schedule for Design of Experiments & Taguchi Methods - An Overview
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