Bay Area Deming Users Group - March Notes

[DanRobrtsn@aol.com]

All interested parties are welcomed to attend our meetings.  
Please pass this on to those who may have an interest.  

NOTES FROM THE BAY AREA DEMING USERS GROUP MEETING

Our next meeting is on Monday, 3 April 1999 from 6:00-8:30pm, at 
Acuson in Mountain View at Shoreline Boulevard and Shorebird Way.
Detailed directions available below.

PLANNED PROGRAMS: 

3 Apr: Pat McMahon will facilitate a discussion on the topic of 
Variation.  Pat has been involved with BADUG since its early days
and brings a long career in Quality at IBM and Acuson to the forum.
The topic of Variation was discussed in a session this past 
December, with many participants feeling we could easily cover 
more in a second session.  Some possible areas to address in this
session include understanding the difference between various 
control charts, looking at process capability, and developing 
examples that can make variation something that those not 
familiar with the concepts can relate to.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

* The Systems Thinking Special Interest Group meets each month: 
The BADUG Systems Study Group will meet at Acuson in the same 
building prior to the regular BADUG meeting.  Please call Karen
Takle Quinn at 650-964-5195 or email (ktq@svpal.org) if you are
planning to attend.
* An E-Commerce Symposium will be co-hosted at Acuson on 
April 28th, 8am-5pm.  With Silicon Valley at the center of 
paradigm shifts, revolutionary thinking is moving organizations 
into the "Internet Age".  What new business models, strategies 
and methods of management will be conducive for the Internet Age?
Deming-educated CEO Rob Rodin will be one of the symposium 
speakers and join executives from Cisco, National Semiconductor,
etc. in sharing their stories.   Conference fee is $495 before
April 7th. Marcia Daszko at 408-247-7757 (email: MDaszko@aol.com)
or Marty Kandes at 510-487-3811 (email: mjkandes@ncal.verio.com)
can be contacted for more details or to register.

* Those interested in practical applications for systems thinking
might consider attending a conference in Cambridge, MA to be held
April 4-7, 2000.  Linkage, Inc. presents the conference, and
keynote speakers will include Russell Ackoff and Peter Senge.
For further information link to 
http://www.linkageinc.com/systems2000/reminder.htm.

* The Ohio Quality & Productivity Forum will hold the 14th Annual
Deming Conference in Cincinnati, OH, August 13-16.  The conference
will offer another great lineup of speakers and plenty of 
opportunities to interact with fellow practitioners -- A complete
list of speakers will be available at the OQPF website.  Students
of Dr. Deming's work come from all over the globe to attend.
Further details and reservation information are available at 
www.oqpf.com, or ring (606) 344-1698.

* Call for conference papers -- "Challenges for Science and 
Engineering", organized by the International Network of Engineers
and Scientist for Global Responsibility, will be held in Stockholm,
Sweden, 14-18 June.  It is intended for participants who are 
professional, students, or otherwise active in society and 
concerned with sustainable development and a responsible use of 
science and technology.  Details can be obtained at www.ines2000.org.

* Drs. Donald Wheeler and Sophronia Ward are offering public
seminars on Statistical Process Control, Continual Improvement
and Industrial Experimentation, with a new schedule released for
the year 2000.  Phone (800) 545-8602 for registration information
or check the SPC, Inc. website at http://www.spcpress.com/semi.html

* The ASTD's Total Quality Management Special Interest Group holds
its meetings at National Semiconductor's "National Semiconductor
University" site in Santa Clara, the 4th Monday of each month,
6:30-8:30pm.  Ring Betsy Wolf-Graves at (408) 294-5779 for more
information.

* WE ARE VERY INTERESTED IN GETTING YOUR INPUTS FOR UPCOMING TOPICS
and SPEAKERS. If you have inputs, please contact Marcia Daszko.
Also contact Marcia for details about upcoming programs.  Her
number is 408-247-7757; e-mail address is MDaszko@aol.com. 

Surf the Worldwide Web to BADUG.  An overview, past meeting
minutes, and an index of Deming-associated sites can be accessed
via your web browser.  The site was recently updated with all of
our notes from the past year.  Find the site at: 

http://www.cafm-services.com/badug/BADUG-TOC.htm

March's Meeting Notes:  Systems and Organizations

Our discussion leader for March was Dr. Susan Osborn, with the 
discussion covering the concept of systems as applied to
organizations.  Earlier in her career, Susan was Involved with
NASA.  After the Challenger shuttle incident, everything changed
for that organization -- Susan shared with us her perception of
how, after the Challenger explosion, people who worked in NASA
were no longer friendly and collaborative.  Susan went on to
Sun Microsystems, consults, and has pursued studies with the
Fielding Institute.

Reflecting on her work, Susan described how she would see leaders
who were not 'in sync' with the system.  She at times also found
herself not in sync and wondering why.  Susan found a model to
describe the different types of people (based on their preferences)
who exist in an organizational system -- That model will be
outlined later in these notes.  It helped provide her a handhold
with which to characterize how people feel and react within the
system.

We discussed how we may feel forced to accommodate within an 
organizational system, and how much we may find we are different
than that system.  Every situation is different for each of us
-- The match may be close to perfect for some, or completely
opposite for others.  Sometimes the awareness is only at the 
subconscious level, and other times very evident.  We have to
look at how much change is required for ourselves to conform,
and how comfortable that change is for us.

As an organization grows in size there seems to be a natural
progression from 'fast and loose' to 'structured and restricted'.
People who fit the organization at one stage of its existence
may eventually find, if the organization grows enough, that
their preferences no longer fit with the evolved characteristics
of the organization.

Regardless of where we are starting from, there can be value in
identifying the strengths of the present structure; regardless
of where it is in the growth/evolution spectrum.  When acting
as a change agent, one should start with changes that will be
compatible with the existing system.  Initial changes will need
to take into account the current language and notions of what
is right and fair as seen from the perspective of the current
system.

It can be very helpful to start the change process with people
offering stories from their experience.  The stories describe
the beliefs and values of the organization (Peter Senge calls 
it 'surfacing assumptions') -- They can get the awareness of 
the system up to the surface where it can be more objectively 
discussed and analyzed.  (It is important to note that doing 
this requires an element of trust and an atmosphere of community
for the process of inquiry to be successful.)  Calling out what
the system is can in itself be threatening to the system.  We
must realize that naming the system is also naming ourselves.

Another thing that change agents have realized is when they come
into the organization assigned with the responsibility to make
the change happen, there often will be failure.  It is a situation
where the system repels them and the change they represent.  All
participants in the system have to see themselves as agents of
change, committing themselves as part of the process to improve
the organization and make it viable.

Some more advice about promoting change in an organizational
system: Tune in to what's going to push people's buttons 
(particularly managers) and make sure that change in those areas
is done with their awareness (especially if it's a hierarchical
organization).  There are a lot of things that can be done in an
organization -- Much more than we might suppose under the
constraint of being observed and judged by others.  There are
different kinds of power beyond 'position power'.  Receiving
an 'empowering' "Be your own CEO!" from the boss can have its
downside -- An individual change agent must figure out how to
institutionalize change, otherwise the system will revert back
to its previous state once the change factors (and their creators)
have been removed or leave.

To the question, "What can one person do?", our discussion can be
summarized in starting with something small and specific in the
organizational system that would benefit from change.  Also, make
sure what we start with is something we have control over.

We spent the second part of our session looking at Susan's
management systems model of different organization types.  We
asked the question, "How would Quality look through these 5
different lenses?"

The first management type is labeled "King of the Mountain" and
is characterized by hierarchy, tradition, control and firm
boundaries.  We discussed how quality in this type of
organization would be identified by conformance, a central
quality office, the "quality police", and responsibility for
quality resting with a few people.

The next type of system is labeled "Motocross" and characterized
by learning to think and move quickly, power brokering,
confrontation, ego, and results-orientation.  Quality would
most likely be involved with process monitoring, measurement
of results and effect on the bottom line, "Band-Aid" versus
systemic solutions, expertise in quality lying within company
not with customer, SPC to make sure you fit within the bandwidth
of quality standards.

The third type of organization that Susan identified is labeled
"White Water Rafting".  It has the characteristics of there
being a sense of common challenge, interwoven tasks, self-
management, information sharing, feedback and continuous 
improvement.  We felt that quality in this type of organization
would include teams taking responsibility for quality, 
collaboration to achieve solutions, root cause analysis, 
feedback present in the system, cross-functional team design,
sharing quality information, and the quality department (if 
it exists) is advisory versus judgmental.

Susan's fourth type of organization is called "Magical Mystery
Mime Troupe and Jazz Band."  It is characterized by a strong
sense of collaboration and community; vision and intuition are
valued; shared values and beliefs, flexible boundaries, diversity
as a resource, and a 'both-and' perspective.  Quality would be
shared throughout the organizational community, addressing 
broader issues than just product/service quality.  Quality would
be at the heart of the community, with trust and shared 
responsibility that extends to working relationships; an 
overarching part of everything that goes on.

The last type of organization is labeled "Dance with Gaia" and 
has as its characteristics a sense of all forms of life being 
sacred, eco-consciousness, worldwide alliances, life-serving 
solutions to problems, flexible and resilient structures, and 
a long term, global perspective.  In this organization we 
thought that quality would equate to sustainability, and a 
'dark green' approach to resource utilization.  The practice of
quality would intuitive and rooted to the planet, clearly making
a difference to the environment.

As a final question, Susan asked the group where we thought we
saw Deming's work in terms of the 5 approaches:  It certainly
seems to be with the holistic and organic side of the spectrum
-- within the range of the last 3 types listed.  With 
Dr. Deming's approach at its best,  both individuals and
community thrive; everything is connected to everything, with
an open system perspective and an appreciation for psychology
of people and society.

Our thanks go to Susan for sharing her research and prompting
our discussion.  Those with further interest in her management
systems model might want to pick up her book entitled 
"The System Made Me Do It!" published by LifeThread 
Publications in 1997; ISBN 0-9655368-0-7.  Susan can be 
reached via email at: sosborn@ix.netcom.com


/s/ Dan Robertson

To receive the Bay Area Deming Users Group's newsletter, contact:

Dan Robertson          -or-        Marcia Daszko
1141 Bruckner Circle               2752 Glorietta Circle
Mountain View, CA   94040          Santa Clara, CA  95051
650-964-9186                       408-247-7757
DanRobrtsn@AOL.com                 MDaszko@AOL.com
                                   www.mdaszko.com
                                   www.itslonelyatthetop.com

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** Directions to the 3 April meeting **
Venue: The Acuson Corporation Education Center, Building I,
at 1393 Shorebird Way in Mountain View.  Contact 
Dan Robertson if you have questions.

1/ From freeway 101 take Shoreline Boulevard, "Amphitheatre"
direction (toward the bay).

2/ Turn right, off Shoreline, onto Shorebird Way (Shorebird
is the next street after Spacepark).

3/ Building I is the first building on the right. "BADUG"
signs will be posted directing you to the meeting room. 



The next BADUG meeting is Monday, 3 April 2000.
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