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Aim and Stats
Now in our fifteenth year of operation for our "OD" sessions and the third year for our "BTA" sessions, the aim of both 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 2014 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 2200+ 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
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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 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. |
Additional Reading
Beginning in 2009, a series of articles have been prepared for the Lean Management Journal (LMJ) to share InThinking insights with the Lean community. This month's feature LMJ article,
(released with the permission of the LMJ), was prepared to highlight the concepts of interdependence and teamwork.
Contact Bill Bellows with questions, comments, or observations about this article. |
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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 Bill Cummins, from Valencia, California, to lead our sixth Ongoing Discussion conference call of 2014 on June 26th and 27th and also our 173rd session since we began in January 2000. As for a topic, Bill has selected Using Customer Journey Mapping to Create New, Innovative Ideas, in his first time with us as a Thought Leader.
Bill and I met several months ago during an InThinking Together seminar hosted by College of the Canyons. We later met to explore in more detail the innovation concepts he has developed for his marketing consulting company. In short order, his efforts and applications emerged as an ideal focus for an Ongoing Discussion exploration.
As for his role as an Ongoing Thought Leader this month, Bill begins his Thought Piece (link to the 8.5x11 format) with these ideas:
There are various methods to approach the creation of new ideas (or solutions) in pursuit of innovation. What you will see in this paper is the method that I have created for use in my consulting practice. It is a variation on "Customer Journey Mapping", a term used in Design Thinking. After reading this paper, you will be able to apply this method yourself, to create innovative ideas in a new way. The over-arching principle of what we will talk about can be summed up as follows:
The catalytic root(s) of an innovative idea can often be found in one or more components of the status quo. Methodically challenging these catalytic roots can generate "out of the box" perspectives, and ideas.
Several authors have created their own variations on the above principle. Other variations include Edward deBono's
Concept Fan and Flowscapes, Bryson/Ackerman's Cog Mapping, and Quesenbery/Brooks' Storytelling for UX. (See Appendix #1: "Auxiliary Resources" for a list of books that outline their methods.)
My method is called the 2-D Imaginarium. Let's get started to see what it's all about, and how you can use it in your own innovative pursuits.
Outline
1. What is Customer Journey Mapping ("CJM")?
2. The 2-D Imaginarium ("2-DI") application of CJM: what it's about.
3. When to use 2-DI.
4. How to use 2-DI to generate new ideas.
5. How to use it to get "buy in" from the top decision-maker(s).
The Thought Piece continues with these comments,
My method of applying the CJM involves the thorough and relentless "challenging" of every one of the 60 components of the CJM. This is how it enables us to get "out of the box ideas" (notice I don't say "think out of the box" - - more on that below). What do we mean by "the box"?
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Our minds think in habitual ways, driven by limiting factors of instinct, intuition, and experiences. We naturally follow a "proven", "logical" path of thought, and when that produces success, we tend to "double down" on it. We become fully "oriented" in our habitual thought patterns. This is the box.
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Deliberate creativity always involves disorienting our minds in one way or another. Every creativity technique in every book ever written about deliberate creativity involves a way to produce "forced disorientation" as the platform for new ideas. It is from a disoriented state that our minds are forced to drop the limiting factors (noted above), and, to some extent, regain the creativity we all had as children.
- It is impossible to think out of the box (that would imply being out of our minds). But, with forced disorientation, we can explore new, non-habitual territory of thought, then expand our box to include the new territory, and create within the expanded space. That's how deliberate creativity gets "out of the box ideas."
Link here to register to attend.
Biography
Bill Cummins is President of Cummins Marketing Consulting, Inc.,(CMC) a California corporation founded in 1997. Consulting clients have included large corporations in the U.S. and Japan, including J.P. Morgan, MasterCard International, Hewlett-Packard, and Yokohama Rubber Company.
Bill began his career in the early 1970s at Market Research Corporation of America, and at Market Facts Inc., both large consumer market research firms. He moved to California in 1975, as market research manager at Hunt Wesson Foods in Fullerton, CA. From there, Bill moved to Toyota Motor Sales USA, in Torrance, CA. His first position at Toyota was in market research; he was then promoted to long range market planning manager. He did the first research into the market for Toyota-produced luxury automobiles (later named Lexus) in the U.S. in 1982.
In 1985, Bill moved to Needham, Harper, Steers advertising agency (which later became RPA), as head of account planning. He managed a department of 12. The account planning department developed national and regional strategies for Honda advertising, as well as for other accounts such as Disney Channel and US WEST.
In 1997, Bill founded CMC, based in Valencia, CA. He has provided insights, ideas, and advice to a wide range of clients. Bill specializes in the fields of ethnographic market research and new idea/solution generation. He has designed and developed his own proprietary methods of ethnography ("Joint Field Investigations") and idea/solution generation ("2-D Imaginarium"). Bill is a long-standing member of the American Marketing Association and the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Contact Bill by e-mail at bill@cmc-marketing-consulting.com with any questions or comments you would like to share with him in preparation for this OD session.
Looking ahead, our Better Thinking About... webinars continue next month, with a focus on Positional and Non-Positional Thinking, hosted by Ariane David on Thursday, July 10th, from 11:30-1pm.
Link here to register to attend this webinar in advance of the announcement.
Associate Fellow and Lead
InThinking Network
Aerojet Rocketdyne
Canoga Park, California
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Memories of Beth Thompson
"As life-long learners, many of us attend conferences and workshops in an effort to enhance our leadership skills. We hope that our learning will enable us to lead in new ways that will improve our workplaces and work lives."
Beth Thompson
Two life-long learners: Beth with Russ Ackoff, during Russ's 2005 visit to Rocketdyne
News of Beth Thompson's sudden passing have left her many fellow life-long learners at a loss. For those who would like to honor her with a charitable donation, her family suggests Ryan's House for Youth, an organization on Whidbey Island, where she lived, which is dedicated to supporting local youths. Add a note on your check (In memory of Beth Thompson) and mail the check to: Ryan's House for Youth PO Box 551 Langley, WA 98260 For those who would like to attend a celebration of Beth's life, plans are underway for her family to participate in an event in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 13th. Contact Audrey Murphy to be added to a mailing list for updates on this event. |
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June 26th - 27th 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 - Thursday, June 26th, 12:00-1:00pm
2 - Thursday, June 26th, 1:00-2:00pm
3 - Friday, June 27th - 12:00-1:00pm
4 - Friday, June 27th - 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 Wednesday, June 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 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
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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):
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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):
September 11, Gipsie Ranney, Causes
October 9, Don McAlister, the Interdependency of Project, Risk, and Knowledge Management
November 13, Tim Higgins, Thinking Tools and Processes
December 11, Bill Bellows, InThinking
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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-2014-07 (to be hosted by College of the Canyons in Valencia)
Part 1 - 24-Jul - 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 25-Jul - 7:00-11:30am
Class #CP-2014-08 (to be hosted by College of the Canyons in Valencia)
Part 1 - 14-Aug - 7:00-11:30am
Part 2 - 15-Aug - 7:00-11:30am
Register to attend InThinking Together
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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. 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-2014-03
Starting on 8-Sep, seven sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays, from 3:00-5:00pm (ending on 29-Sep)
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