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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 Aerojet 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 1900+ 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, Kuwait, 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 GenCorp, United Technologies, GM, IBM, General Electric, NASA, Bechtel, Kuwait Energy Company, Philips Electronics, and The Boeing Company.
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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 Aerojet 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 |
Meeting Notice Service - OD and BTA If you'd like to receive meeting notices on your Microsoft Outlook schedule for upcoming Ongoing Discussion conference calls and Better Thinking About... webinars, reply to Bill Bellows at william.bellows@rocket.com and your name will be added to our meeting notice list. |
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. |
| Good morning from the Los Angeles campus of Aerojet Rocketdyne, located in Canoga Park, California, on the western end of the San Fernando Valley.
Aerojet Rocketdyne's InThinking Network welcomes John Carlisle, from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, in the UK, to lead our twelfth Ongoing Discussion conference call of 2013 on December 16th and 17th and also our 168th session since we began in January 2000. As for a topic, John has selected "From Negotiation to a System of Profitable Collaboration", in his first time with us as a Thought Leader.
I was introduced to John by Alan Winlow, a founding member of the North of England Transformation Network (NET2, net2.org.uk) some 10 years ago, most likely at the annual UK Deming Forum. Fast forward to the fall of 2012, when our paths crossed again. I took the opportunity to invite John to join us as an Ongoing Discussion Thought Leader and to also present at the In2:InThinking Network's 2014 Forum, set for June 18-22 in Los Angeles. John begins his Thought Piece with these reflections, The following piece describes the journey that I undertook when I began to study negotiation as a phenomenon in the 1970's as part of trying to understand the West's conflict-ridden economic system. The paper lays out a background to the ontology of negotiation as a relationship activity and then proceeds, using examples and data, to its role in understanding genesis of a collaborative system in organisations. Epistemology, which Deming calls Theory of Knowledge, is a constant companion on my journey. INTRODUCTION: the importance of understanding Negotiation So, when do we negotiate? Well, simply when we have to. In business we have to for a number of reasons, which include: - We need the other party in order to achieve our goal and we do not have enough power to coerce them.
- We need to achieve our legitimate goal as a junior partner in a business relationship.
- We need to build an enduring relationship that will deliver a stable business or state of affairs which will profit both/all parties (for whatever reason) in the long term.
- Politically, when we want to finish a conflict or to avoid having one.
But, why negotiate? Because of the intentionality contained in the usage, i.e. the very use of the term or its equivalent, parley, indicates that, not only do you see the need to talk (The root of the word parley is parler, which is the French verb "to speak"; specifically the conjugation parlez "you speak); but that you are prepared to be flexible or to trade.
A little (political) history of Negotiation The activity of negotiating was once the preserve of the powerful only. The word is thought have originated from Rome when the Greek slaves were getting their freedom, which left the Roman nobility less time to enjoy and educate themselves, so they engaged in a friendly dispute with their friends (and perhaps the ex-slaves) to find more time for leisure (otium). The situation they found themselves in was neg (no) otium (leisure), so the discussion about this predicament became negotium, and eventually, negotiation. This found its way into the lexicon of the monarchs in the Middle Ages who used heralds to issue ultimata, and when these did not work, they used agents from the nobility to conduct negotiations. It was a very high flown and ritually elaborate activity, the key principle of which was the impunity granted the agents. (A marvellous modern example was in Season One of HBO's The Wire by Stringer Bell, Avon Barksdale, Proposition Joe and Omar when arranging a meeting between Stringer and Omar where the latter demanded assurances of their own safety.) John follows with this process perspective for a successful negotiation; The first step is to identify the criteria of a successful negotiation. Ultimately there was only one criterion: A successful negotiation was one where the agreements were implemented by both parties. Now, an argument against this parsimonious definition may be that it may not be a win/win, e.g. Singapore; but that only reveals the skill or lack of skill of the negotiators. So, what is a skilled negotiator? This, Deming would call an Operational Definition. In the initial negotiation research carried out in the late 1970's by Neil Rackham the successful people selected for study were: 1. Someone who both sides agree is good. Having your own side say that you are good may just mean that you set your targets too low. When the other side says you're good it is with professional respect, usually accompanied by qualifications such as "I had better get my homework right before we meet" or "it's always tough; but it always works." 2. Someone who negotiates for a living as a key part of their work. What happened here was that in the heady days of 25% growth for some organisations it was all too easy for a high flyer to negotiate what on the face of it was a brilliant deal; but was in fact a win/lose, knowing that they would have moved up and away from it by the time the manure hit the fan. So one-shot deals were ignored and instead only those commercial negotiators who were consistently involved in deals of $100,000 and over, or those labour negotiators who were full-time (both union and management) were included in the research as possible skilled performers. 3. Finally, and this really is the key, a successful negotiator was identified as someone who did not only get good agreements; but also had the highest hit rate of successful implementations. Just as you judge the best sales people on their conversion ratio of calls to sales ' so you judge the negotiators on their conversion of agreements into implementations. And the very best were those whose outcomes were seen as win/win. Link here to download John's Thought Piece. Link here to register to attend.
As a reminder, this month's Better Thinking About... webinar, with a focus on InThinking, has been moved to Thursday, December 19th, from 11:30-1pm. Link here to register to attend.
Looking further ahead, mark your calendars to join us on January 30th and 31st, when Gipsie Ranney, from Brentwood, Tennessee, will join us for the our first session of 2014. She will lead us in a conversation on the question of "What World Are We In?" to borrow from an inquiry by Dr. Deming. Link here to register to attend in advance of the announcement.
Biography
John Carlisle's work has always been in the realm of Applied Research. His early work was researching the Zambian mining industry in the late 1960's to identify black school leavers who would replace the less educated white supervisors and managers. Primary tools were education, aptitude and intelligence tests that were normalised for the Zambian conditions. It was here in 1969 that he discovered the link between nutrition and intellectual performance, including innovative thinking - and the negative consequences of not working on changing the organisational culture to one that allowed black Zambians to succeed.
Later, working with behaviour analysis in the Huthwaite Research Group, they identified the importance of skilled behaviour in team innovation and negotiation, as opposed to relying only on innovative aptitudes. In the 1980's the work with supply chains, and later on, with major projects, revealed cooperative organisational cultures that suppressed or encouraged innovative thinking and application.
John has delivered over twenty papers on this topic across the world, discussing over 200 (mainly construction) projects and applications of Dr. Deming's System of Profound Knowledge. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Sheffield Hallam University for his work internationally on delivering profitable cooperative projects. Associate Fellow and Lead InThinking Network Aerojet Rocketdyne Canoga Park, California |
| December 16th-17th OD Details Please join us for one or all of this month's series of OD conference calls. As always, you are invited to participate for as long, or as short, as you can in one or more of these sessions, Options 1-4. Note that these conference calls are "conversations, not presentations," which vary from session to session, due to a variety of causes, such as who participates, what questions are asked, and what learning transpires. This diversity is captured every month, as the calls are recorded, with links to these audio files shared with all who register to attend. Option - Date/Time (Pacific Time); 1 - Monday, December 16th, 12:00-1:00pm
2 - Monday, December 16th, 1:00-2:00pm
3 - Tuesday, December 17th - 12:00-1:00pm
4 - Tuesday, December 17th - 1:00-2:00pm The agenda for each option will be: Opening 15 minutes: Call in and Introductions Next 40 minutes: Ongoing Discussion Last 5 minutes: Farewells and Close
Please reply to this note by noon, Pacific Time on Sunday, December 15th 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 Canoga Park 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 |
Future Ongoing Discussion Conference Calls Mark your calendars - future Ongoing Discussion conference calls 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 (link on each session to register): |
Future Better Thinking About... Webinars
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 session to register):
March 13, Paul Hollingworth, Systems Thinking - Part 1 |
InThinking Together Seminar 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 as well as Purposeful Resource Leadership. 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 Aerojet Rocketdyne Class #CP-2013-12 Part 1 - 16-Dec - 7:00-11:30am Part 2 - 17-Dec - 7:00-11:30am Class #CP-2014-01 Part 1 - 30-Jan - 7:00-11:30am Part 2 - 31-Jan - 7:00-11:30am Class #CP-2014-02 Part 1 - 27-Feb - 7:00-11:30am Part 2 - 28-Feb - 7:00-11:30am
Register to attend InThinking Together |
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. Aerojet Rocketdyne attendees will be given copies of The New Economics. Non-Aerojet Rocketdyne 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-2014-01 Schedule to be announced soon. Register to attend the TNE Study Session |
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