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Aim and Stats
Now in our sixteenth year of operation for our "OD" sessions and the fourth year for our "TTA" 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 "TTA" sessions along with additional "thinking" opportunities for 2015 can be found in this announcement.
OD + TTA Stats
For an update on OD and TTA statistics, this month's invitation is going out to 2,000+ 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 TTA
If you would like to receive meeting notices on your Microsoft Outlook schedule for upcoming Ongoing Discussion conference calls and Thinking Together About... webinars, reply to Bill Bellows at william.bellows@rocket.com and your name will be added to our meeting notice list.
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International Participants
Our conference call sessions are toll-free within the U.S. and Canada.
Link here to find your time zone in comparison to the Pacific Time zone, where the Ongoing Discussion conference calls are hosted every month from 12-2pm.
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 will 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.
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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, from June 2015, In Search of Excellence, presenting a contrast between "Contextual Excellence" and "Compliance Excellence," and a suggestion that we honor the difference and chose the needed excellence for the given context.
Contact Bill Bellows with questions, comments, or observations about this article.
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Aerojet Rocketdyne's InThinking Network welcomes Peter Stonefield, from San Ramos, California, to lead our last Ongoing Discussion conference call of 2015 on December 17th and 18th and also our 192nd session since we began in January 2000. As for a topic, Peter has selected From Judgment to Discernment in his fifth time with us as a Thought Leader.
Peter and I met at the In2:InThinking Network's 2005 Forum, when we were introduced by Marcia Dazsko. We have remained in touch ever since, all the while sharing and attempting to advance our respective world views. Beginning in 2009, Peter has returned every year to Los Angeles to present a Pre-Conference seminar, sharing his insights on psychosynthesis. He will return for the In2:InThinking Network's 2016 Forum to present a Pre-Conference session as well as lead the Forum's Networking Session.
Peter's latest Thought Piece, with a focus on judgement and discernment, begins with:
As we move throughout our day, we typically encounter situations where we jump to conclusions or attribute errors, biases or other faults to ourselves and or other people. In interpersonal situations we interrupt, talk over or cut people off to push our viewpoint and try to avoid being seen as wrong or not knowing. In other situations we may just shut up and judge ourselves. Frequently we don't even realize when we are doing it. Even when we do, we lack the will to stop it. Typically negative judgments carry with it some kind of rejection and castigation. It may simply be the act of pulling ourselves back from the other person, creating separation. Or it can involve the spewing of a lot of negative attitude and lack of cooperation. It can also just be self-directed. No matter how much we improve organizational structure and process our planning and decision making cannot thrive without altering these defensive patterns. We will continue to experience limited results if we do not move from judgment to discernment.
He follows with, "What to do about it?," offering this advice,
Learn how to become a "fair witness" by peripherally observing your mind chatter as you move throughout your day. Discovering a deeper sense of "I" in this way enables you to notice when and how often your "Judge" is in play. For example, when you experience some tightness in your body and hear "How could you be so stupid?" or "Oh, yuck, it's raining" or you are, somewhat bluntly, telling someone "That won't work" your "Judge" is probably in play. At the end of each day do an evening review and make notes about what you observed as a "fair witness." After a week or so, during your evening review, imagine what your "Judge" might look like. Give it a face or image and then open a conversation with it. Ask it what it wants. It typically wants to feel correct, in control, superior and perfect. Then ask it what it really needs. What it typically really needs is to feel secure and safe. Reassure it that you will keep everything safe.
Link here to download Peter's Thought Piece
Link here to register to attend
Contact Peter by e-mail at peter@slgllc.com with any questions or comments you would like to share with him in preparation for this OD session.
Biography
Peter Stonefield, BSEE, MA, Ph.D. is President of Stonefield Learning Group, consultant, psychologist and author of Managing Innovation and numerous articles. He was an electronic engineer and marketing director for the Bunker-Ramo Corporation. He has successfully completed over 250 consulting engagements, created more than 20 different training and development programs and coached over 250 executives. He has facilitated the development of 20 knowledge leveraging "Communities of Practice" in engineering and marketing organizations. His client list includes Apple Computer, Baxter Laboratories, Dow Chemical, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Motorola, US Government, PPG, Sun Microsystems and several startups like Plaxo and Liquidity. He was the principal consultant to the winner of the US President's Quality Award for Managing Change in government. He taught graduate-level courses on the Cognitive and Creative Process, Leadership, Collaboration, Counseling Skills including Guided Imagery and the Purposeful Imagination. He was a director of the Learning In New Dimensions, a company that imported and evolved `super-learning´ techniques for use in business and education.
His current focus is on Agile Leadership a breakthrough leadership development program. Peter's mission is to catalyze and accelerate the evolution of organizations and people.
Looking ahead, our next event is the Ongoing Discussion in January, set for the 28th and 29th, with Bill Scherkenbach as our Thought Leader. While the topic is yet to be determined, expect a preview of his keynote presentation at the In2:InThinking Network's 2016 Forum, set for June 8th-12th.
Link here to see the details of his keynote
Link here to register for his Ongoing Discussion
Meanwhile, Happy Holidays!
Cheers...
Bill
Associate Fellow and Lead
InThinking Network
Aerojet Rocketdyne
Canoga Park, California
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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.
To view a 10-minute video of John Pourdehnad's fond memories of Russ, follow this link on YouTube.
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" and is available from the W. Edwards Deming Institute at this link.
Link here to find a 1949 article in the Detroit Times about Wayne University's pending decision to drop Russ Ackoff from their faculty over a dispute within the Philosophy department. |
Video - If Japan Can, Why Can't We, from The W. Edwards Deming Institute
On June 24, 1980, Americans widely viewed a NBC documentary called "If Japan Can... Why Can't We." The program, part of NBC's White Paper series, prominently featured Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Produced by Clare Crawford-Mason and narrated by Lloyd Dobyns, this documentary has been unavailable for public viewing for the past 35 years.
The W. Edwards Deming Institute (WEDI) is proud to announce that it has secured the perpetual rights for the program and has made it available on the WEDI website at this link.
This compelling documentary, about the ever-increasing industrial competition between the United States and Japan, introduced Dr. Deming to Americans. For the first time, they learned of the then 80-year old American who was widely credited with the Japanese industrial resurgence after WWII.
Viewers were astounded to learn that it was this American, Dr. Deming, who went to Japan in 1950 and began teaching his philosophy to their leadership. They listened and learned as he taught them about quality and productivity. When the program aired, the most coveted industrial award in Japan was The Deming Prize. Named in honor of Dr. Deming, the Deming Prize is still awarded, and highly esteemed, today.
Near the close of the program, Lloyd Dobyns asks Dr. Deming, "Would the same methods work in the United States...?" Deming's reply was the catalyst for relentless requests for Deming to help American businesses. Soon the icons of American industry, such as Ford, General Motors, Dow Chemical Company, Xerox and Hughes Aircraft were asking for his help.
Now you can view the video that started it all.
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Podcasts from The W. Edwards Deming Institute
Beginning in 2014, The W. Edwards Deming Institute has recorded podcasts on a monthly basis, featuring 20 to 30-minute interviews by Tripp Babbitt with members of the Deming Community who are advancing the use and explanations of Dr. Deming's ideas.
This week's podcast features the first episode of our "Knowledge In Variation Series" with Lynda Finn, President of Statistical Insight, LLC and facilitator of The Deming Institute's 2.5 Day Seminar. Lynda discusses the importance of moving from spreadsheets to plotting data, and the common mistakes that organizations make if they aren't charting their data.
Lynda's Deming journey began when, shortly out of graduate school, she met Dr. Deming at one of his public seminars. From that point she has been helping spread his ideas through her own consulting company and her work with The Deming Institute.
She starts by sharing some of the hardest things for people to grasp about the Deming philosophy. Though it varies, Lynda finds it's most difficult when Deming's ideas don't align with the practices people feel have contributed their success.
The episode centers on why organizations should be plotting their data on charts rather than just using spreadsheets. She feels that if the number is important enough to have on a table, then it should be important enough to see it in its proper context.
Lynda outlines the mistakes people make if they aren't charting their data, starting with not caring enough to see what the data is telling them. The most important reason for charting data is so that everyone sees the same thing and can come to a common conclusion about what's happening and how to improve. How can you "see" what the data's telling you if you don't make a picture of it?
Link here to find the podcast with Linda.
Link here to find the previous podcasts, featuring Lisa Snyder, Ron Moen and Cliff Norman, Alfie Kohn, Jim Benson, Louis Altazan, Bob Mason and Clare Crawford-Mason, Paula Marshall, Bill Bellows, Bob Browne, Kelly Allan, Kevin Cahill, Andrea Gabor, Steven Haedrich, David Langford, and Dan Robertson.
Link here to find these podcasts on iTunes.
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Leader of One, by Gerald Suarez
"Endorsements like these are seldom needed. Heed this one, read, study, and learn. Gerald Suarez is the future."
Russ Ackoff
Gerald Suarez, our inaugural "Better Thinking About..." in February 2012 on the topic of Leadership, has released his first book, titled "Leader of One: Shaping Your Future through Imagination and Design." Find it on Amazon at this link. Link on the book image to learn more about Gerald.
With endorsements from two of his mentors, Stephen Covey and Russ Ackoff, Gerald has fulfilled his dream of "writing a book that reflects my philosophy and experiences in the White House, the boardroom, and the classroom and to pay tribute to the major influences in my thinking."
This 18-chapter book offers a 4-phase "methodology" that consists of a cycle of activities that "work together in a holistic fashion"; Contemplation, Desire, Design, and Creation.
Gerald offers this advice at the outset:
Becoming a "Leader of One" and taking on the challenge of shaping your future is not easy. Transformative efforts never are. The task ahead will feel overwhelming, but commitment to initiate and sustain action, no matter how small, will move you closer to a new and desired reality.
There are no short cuts. Every building begins its steps upward with a single brick, every marathon race with a single step, and every book with a single word. The same can be said for every minute of your life, so seconds count. The first steps are always the most difficult, but each one will bring you closer to "there." |
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December 17th-18th 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, December 17th, 12:00-1:00pm
2 - Thursday, December 17th, 1:00-2:00pm
3 - Friday, December 18th - 12:00-1:00pm
4 - Friday, December 18th - 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, December 16th 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 Thinking Together About...
Webinars
Mark your calendars - future Thinking Together About... (formerly 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):
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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
Class #CP-2015-12, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Canoga Park
Part 1 - 17-Dec - 7:00-11:30am (Pacific Time)
Part 2 - 18-Dec - 7:00-11:30am
Class #CP-2016-01, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Canoga Park Part 1 - 28-Jan - 7:00-11:30am (Pacific Time) Part 2 - 29-Jan - 7:00-11:30am Class #CP-2016-02, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Canoga Park Part 1 - 25-Feb - 7:00-11:30am (Pacific Time) Part 2 - 25-Feb - 7:00-11:30am
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The New Economics Study Session
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-2016-1
Starting on 11-Jan, seven sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays, from 3:00-5:00pm, Pacific Time (ending on 3-Feb and skipping 18-Jan)
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