Bay Area Deming Users Group - June Notes

[DanRobrtsn@aol.com]

All interested parties are welcome 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, 11 September 2000 from 6:00-8:30pm,
at Acuson in Mountain View at Shoreline Boulevard and Shorebird
Way.  Detailed directions available below.

PLANNED PROGRAMS: 

11 Sept: Peter Stonefield, B.S.E.E., M.A., Ph.D., is President
and founder of Stonefield Learning Group, consultant, speaker,
psychologist and the author of "Managing Innovation". 
Dr. Stonefield has been an electronic engineer and marketing
and sales executive for the Bunker-Ramo Corporation.  His topic
will be "iPower" -- Peter states, "What will be the next
evolutionary step in learning?  One thing for sure is that
iPower will increase your effectiveness -- your ability to get
the results you intend.  With iPower you can shift roles, mind-
sets and behaviors on the fly.  Change old habits and behaviors
that no longer work.  And you can accelerate the learning of 
what does work.  What will you do with the freedom?"  Peter was
the principal consultant to the winner of the President's Quality
Award (Malcolm Baldrige equivalent in government), and he is
currently implementing Knowledge Management strategies at Sun
Microsystems, launching Agile Communications(tm) workshop and
coaching.

2 Oct: Myron Tribus, who in recent years has shared with us
much to think about regarding learning and cognitive development,
will speak on the topic of brain research and the implications
for leaders.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

* Those interested in discussion with the BADUG Systems Thinking
Special Interest Group should call Karen Takle Quinn at
650-964-5195 or email (ktq@svpal.org) for further information.

* The W. Edwards Deming Institute will hold its 2000 Fall
Conference 14-15 October at the Georgetown University Conference
Center in Washington, DC.  The following week there will be a
Four-Day Video Seminar presented at the same location.  Contact
WEDI for registration or information -- Tel: 301-294-8405;
email: staff@deming.org; website: www.deming.org.

* California organizations recognized as leaders in quality
implementation will be showcased at CalQuest 2000 on Sept 11-12.
The conference will be held at the San Francisco Airport Westin
Hotel.  Contact CCQS at 858-486-0400 or email: ccqs@ccqs.org.
Information is also at www.ccqs.org.

* ICA's ToP Group Facilitation Methods Course, September 21 and 22,
8:30am to 5:30pm, South Bay, San Jose, CA area.  The Institute of
Cultural Affairs (ICA), Technology of Participant (ToP) methods 
help both experienced and novice facilitators and leaders gain 
insight and skills in participatory methods and practices.

The need for authentic participation in planning, problem solving
and decision making has never been clearer. People want:  -- to
become substantially involved in the things that affect their 
lives, dialogue that respects the contributions of each 
participant, genuine consensus that enables a group to move 
forward together, solid decisions and plans they can count on,
real commitment to plans and decisions, action that is effective
and gets lasting results. 

Learn to use the methods that help you achieve these results
every day in your work.The cost is reasonable:  $400.00 if
registration and payment occurs before September 11 or $500.00
if after. If three or more people come from one organization, a
fourth person can attend at no additional charge. Please contact
Debi at facilitation@multi-management.com or 408-971-5907 to
register or Jane Stallman at 408-773-1832. More information
about GFM and ICA courses is available at www.ica-usa.org.

* The 56th Deming Conference will be held by the Metropolitan
Section of the ASQ. The Millennium Deming conference will be
held from December 4th to 8th at the Holiday Inn North Hotel
at Newark Airport.  Click to http://www.metro-asq.org/WED%20Conf.htm
for details. 

* The First International Conference on the Bat'a System of
Management is to be held 16-18 May, 2001 in the city of Zlin,
Czech Republic, at the Academic Centre of the Tomas Bat'a
University.  The aim of the conference is to evaluate the
historical roots of Bata's management system, to offer practical
experiences, tried and tested through time, and current-day
entrepreneurial working-practices and, thereby, to contribute
towards the renaissance of Czech practices of management.  The
management practices of "the next man in line is your customer",
"win-win" relations with suppliers and customers, pay reductions
to avoid layoffs, best quality at the lowest price -- originated
from 1905 to 1932 by Tomas Bat'a in a shoe company that out-
produced all other shoe companies in the world -- anticipated
in practice what is now called quality management.  Speakers
already agreeing to prepare addresses for the conference include:
Yoshio Kondo, to discuss the influence of Bat'a in Japan prior
to 1932; Homer Sarasohn to relate the influence of the Bat'a
system on Dr. Sarasohn's post-war efforts in Japan; Myron Tribus
to compare and contrast the Bat'a System of Management with the
teachings of Dr. Deming.  Quality practitioners from the world
over are invited to attend.  New ideas, views and outlooks on Bat'a
are encouraged for presentation.  Interested parties should 
contact Myron Tribus at mtribus@home.com.

* An excellent opportunity for on-line learning exists at 
http://www.virtual-deming.com/ -- the site of the Deming Virtual
College, directed by Jim Clauson.  The DVC offers a number of
courses, guided by top notch facilitators.  See the site for more
details. 

* 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 of the group, past
meeting minutes, and an index of Deming-associated sites can be
accessed via your web browser.  Find the site at: 

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

June's Meeting Notes: 

The New ICE Age: The WWW as a Transformational System for
Profound Knowledge Creation and Distribution - presented by
Marty Kandes

Martin (Marty) Kandes, as a young physicist, used Varian
Associates' equipment and eventually came to work at that
company.  There, he was a product manager until 1998.  He
left to start up Internet Opportunities Options (iOO Associates),
wanting to pursue the potential of internet-oriented products
-- He describes the company he has been organizing as a "YAHOO!"
for product development specialists.  His discussion started
with experiences at Varian and provided insights to the 
development of techniques for bringing development projects
together effectively.

As Marty grew into his role as a product manager at Varian, he 
asked about the potential for developing a number of ideas.  For 
everything Marty asked about that was out of the mainstream
product plans, the response was "we can't do it; it's not what 
we do".  While all seemed to be in agreement that what they 
wanted for the company was profitable growth, Varian's vision 
and strength was in accelerators; management didn't see the 
opportunities in (for instance) software products.

Regarding 'profitable growth', Marty shared the idea of value 
growing over time in the shape of an "S" curve.  There's an 
inflection point where value starts climbing rapidly -- In 
1969, internet technology was invented; in 1985 hypertext 
mark-up language was demonstrated at Brown University; in 1990
the worldwide web was on its way into existence.  With the 
adoption of the growing technologies, profit opportunities 
develop more quickly.  New technologies come along to change 
the paradigm, and the new "S" curves can effectively "stair 
step", with new growth coming as old technologies tire out.

Fortunately for Marty, he was ultimately a part of a group in 
Varian which was able to take 1/ product vision, 2/ continual 
process improvement, and 3/ people's pursuit of happiness and 
performance; and integrate these three fundamental components 
of business into the development process.  Their approach 
recognized Integrated Therapy (accelerators being bought because 
of integration with other parts of product line) and connection 
to customers' vision within the Product component.  They used 
Kaizen methods for the process component, coupled with networked
teams, and a cross-functional/cross-geographic organization.  
For people, they made sure that skills were matched to the task,
along with dialogue groups, shared mental model work-outs,
systems thinking (Senge), and shared vision.

There were 'moments' of business success as a result of the 
approach this group took.  Greater than 70% market share was 
obtained; triple digit return on assets; recognition in state 
and national quality awards; greater than 20% annual growth 
rate over almost 20 years.

Over time, it became apparent that the need for interaction and
resolving disparate perspectives into a commonly held vision 
created some tensions. There came a realization that talking 
about the personal stuff among teams was not easy or comfortable
to do.  There was a powerful force that people were reacting to,
and it was threatening the current landscape, creating fear and
a kind of immune response within the organization -- Resistance
to change (including cultural change) was present.  Leaving the
company in 1998, Marty started working with others to develop 
I.C.E. - Internet Collaborative Environment.

Marty enjoys metaphors, and there isn't room to describe all of 
them within these notes, but it was very effective when he 
described the worldwide web as being made up of threads of data,
with information held together by keywords.  One can think of it
as a tapestry of potential to transform ideas into information,
knowledge, understanding and wisdom that creates value for people.
To realize this potential requires new thinking and new ways in 
leadership.  Underneath the ICE are new ways to create, 
communicate, organize, learn and perform.  Marty's claim is that
it is an "e-Everything" world where any product (the technology),
any process (the way), and any experience (the people) can be
turned into e-Something!

Taking the I.C.E. acronym a step further, he used the letters 
to articulate the elements that will need attention in an 
e-business environment.

For the "I":
- Interconnection will be access, anytime and anywhere
- Insight will be required (yet, not provided by many...) -- a
   depth and detail of data, information, knowledge, understanding,
   (Myron recommends adding 'know-how'), and wisdom
- Intimacy will be sought after in relationships (and this is
  something Marty's organization has tried to build into their
  offering...)

For the "C":
- Content: "Is King" (when it is in the desired context) and
  will have to be relevant
- Connection will have to occur.  The effective e-business will
  touch people both pragmatically and emotionally
- Collaboration will be a necessity.  Relationship enables 
  communication.

And for the "E":
- The Experience of finding what you want will be easy, with
  tools for intuitive navigation
- Enjoyment will come from the fraternization with others
- It will be at the leading Edge for education, learning and
  competitiveness
- The Environment will be provided for getting information and
  resources that you really need.

With the above in mind, Relevance, Reach, and Relationships are
key elements describing the environment that provides value to
the organization and its partners.  

A triangle can be visualized with the components of 1/Improve,
2/Organize, and 3/ Operate to describe the areas that need to
be paid attention to for an e-business in order to adapt and 
thrive.  "Improve" relates to education/training, access at 
work to people and information, ongoing dialogue, shared vision
and mental models of the business to be - an overall appreciation
for systems thinking.  "Organize" relates to the natural,
financial and intellectual resources at the disposal of the
business.  (In 1900, the order of those were first, second and
third in importance; but in 2000 the key resource is intellectual!)

In understanding the dimension of "Operate", Marty discussed 
how the e-business leader must have a transformation in thinking
from today's model to the future.  Today we have a customer 
focus across a group of customers; tomorrow will see business 
dealing with the personalization of everything.  The time to 
market attention of today will be replaced by the time to 
continuous satisfaction.  Quality in everything will transform
into quality required.  Fast and flexible processes will be 
surpassed by a need for work "at the speed of thought".  Better
teaming will lead into better connecting in all possible 
dimensions of the word.

In wrapping up his formal remarks, Marty offered some questions
to consider as we look into the new "ICE Age".  How do we handle
the acceleration of activity in a humane way?  How do we create
"pathfinders"?  How do we organize for the acceleration?  How
do we nurture continuous learning (when less time in the 
classroom is encouraged...)  How do we explore trends, not 
events?  How do we create new ways to engage in the "pursuit 
of happiness"?

In our dialogue after the presentation, we discussed that we 
need to identify and use tools/techniques/methods that help 
people learn how to learn.  We also need to look into how to 
develop their intelligence (what you use when you don't know 
what to do).  The experience for each person will be unique.
The challenge is in providing the opportunity for all people 
to develop to their full capability.  As leaders, one of our 
strategies must be to encourage an environment that will be 
conducive to the 'revival' referred to in the quote by 
Buckminster Fuller - "We humans in the universe are designed 
for complete success.  All we need is revival."  How will we 
know what to do? - Work on it, and use PDSA...

Our thanks go to Marty for an enjoyable and thought-provoking
session.

Suggested reading:  "Stewardship" by Peter Block; 
"The 5th Discipline" by Peter Senge

After discussion with Marty, we used the later part of our 
session to view one of the Deming Library video tapes -- 
"Putting Deming and the Baldrige Award Together".  Thanks go
to Bob Mason for loaning us the tape.

/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

Please supply us with a US Mail address, a fax number or an 
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fills your needs. US Mail distribution will be provided for 
12 months from your communication with us.

** Directions to the 11 September 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 direct you to the meeting room. 


The next BADUG meeting is Monday, 11 September 2000.
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