Bay Area Deming Users Group - December Notes

[DanRobrtsn@aol.com]

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

BAY AREA DEMING USERS GROUP MEETING

Scribe: Jim Hayes

Our next meeting is on Monday, 8 January 2001 from 6:00-8:30pm, 
at Acuson in Mountain View on the corner of Shorebird Way and 
Shoreline Boulevard.  Detailed directions available below.

PLANNED PROGRAM: 

8 Jan:  For this session we will continue our discussion about what
we want BADUG to be.  If there is time available after that 
discussion, we will also plan to view the impersonation of 
Dr. Deming on video.

5 Feb:  DeAnna DeRosa will present the topic of "Diffusion Theory".
DeAnna's background and graduate education is in Market Research,
and she is presently an instructor at Menlo College.  Diffusion 
is the process by which an innovation is communicated through 
various channels over time among the members of a social system.
Understanding diffusion means having an appreciation for a system
and a theory of psychology.  For diffusion to take place, 
barriers have to fall.  This should be an interesting dialogue!

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

* The BADUG Systems Thinking Study Group meets monthly, prior to 
-- and in the same building as -- the main BADUG session.  
January's discussion will focus on measurements for quality 
systems.  Please call Karen Takle Quinn at 650-964-5195 or email
ktq@svpal.org if you are planning to attend.

* KMCI Workshops, in Mountain View, CA - January 19th and 20th 
and February 9th and 10th  The Knowledge Management Consortium 
International (KMCI) is offering its first intensive courses in 
the San Francisco Bay Area.  For more details and registration 
information visit their website at: 
www.kmci.org/Institute/institutecoursesschedule2001.htm.  The 
first workshop is entitled Managing Best KM Practices.  It will 
be offered as a full one day session in Mountain View on Friday,
January 19 and repeated again on Saturday, 20 January.  The 
second will be KM Concepts, Tools &  Methods; offered as a full 
one day session on Friday, 9 February and repeated on Saturday,
10 February.  These courses are based on the management 
philosophies and strategies of continuous quality improvement.
They are theory-practice based workshops which examine and 
explore various ways of improving processes used to produce, 
manage, and utilize knowledge within different organizations.  
The January Managing Best KM Practices workshop will employ the
Knowledge Management Assessment Tool (KMAT)" jointly developed 
by the American Productivity & Quality Center and Arthur 
Andersen.  The workshop leaders will encourage participants to 
use this tool and other techniques to self-assess where the 
strengths and opportunities lie in managing knowledge within 
their individual organizations.  Knowledge sharing will be 
encouraged as an organizational behavior. 

* 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.  Speakers already expected to address 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 also encouraged for presentation -- 
Presenters' expenses (except travel) will be paid by the 
conference hosts. Interested parties should click to 
www.spoluprace.cz/2-08.htm or 
www.bata-konference.utb.cz/pages_en/00_about.php.

* The Deming Forum 2001 will be held 9-10 May 2001 in 
Loughborough, UK.  Speakers to include:  Prof. H. Thomas Johnson,
Portland State U -- new approaches to life-system; Superintendent
Mark Sheasby -- CI in West Midlands Police Force; Jane Seddon, CEO
of PMI -- linking Business Goals and Process Improvement; 
Debbie Ray, Good Samaritan Hospital, Ohio -- Getting better with 
Dr D.; Alan Winlow -- Experiences and Transition in the 3rd Age; 
plus many more.  Obtain details about the conference at: 
http://freespace.virgin.net/demingforum.uk/

* 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. 

* Another online opportunity for courses based on Dr. Deming is 
available from American River College near Sacramento (course fees 
for California residents are a mere $11 per unit).  Del Nelson is 
facilitating 3 courses on various facets of Dr. Deming's System of 
Profound Knowledge.  For more information, or to receive 
application paperwork, contact Del at Nelsond@exi.arc.losrios.cc.sa.us,
or the ARC Business Area secretary at SnoddyM@exi.arc.losrios.cc.sa.us.

* 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 info.

* 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

Other websites to note:

www.deming.org -- The W. E. Deming Institute website has been 
recently upgraded.  Go there for information on the Institute and 
links to various Deming resources.

www.spcpress.com/scrap.html -- The folks at SPC Press have put up 
a tribute to Dr. Deming on their scrapbook page.  Point your 
browser to this URL and you will undoubtedly learn something new 
about WED.

http://deming.eng.clemson.edu/pub/den/ -- The Deming Electronic 
Network -- This moderated internet discussion group is the 
ultimate gathering place for those interested in ongoing dialogue 
about the implementation and analysis of Dr. Deming's teaching.  
Go to the site listed for links to archives and to subscribe to 
the list.

New Book:

Tom Coens and Mary Jenkins have recently released "Abolishing 
Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead".
Peter Block, management consultant, says their book "is an 
extremely important contrary voice; a magnificent book."  Published 
by Berrett-Koehler, the ISBN is 1576750760.

December's Meeting Notes: 

"Where is BADUG today, and where would we like to see it go?"

Dan Robertson facilitated a discussion on the topic.  Much of what
prompted this discussion has been a drop in attendance in BADUG 
meetings.  Although attendance numbers have never been a key 
metric of the group, data from our sign-in sheets indicate that 
the number of meeting attendees have dropped by 50% or more over 
the past year or so.  One concern is that lower numbers of people 
attending will make it difficult for presenters to prepare their 
material -- We end up with a lack of people to participate 
interactively and less diversity of perspective for the dialogue 
we enjoy having.  There is possibly some minor correlation with 
a change in meeting time, from late afternoon to early evening, 
instituted about 2 years ago.  A review of topics offered over 
the 4 year period the data was collected seem to indicate the 
shift in attendance is not driven by any fundamental change in 
what is covered in the meetings.  Attendance at meetings during 
2000 have ranged between 6 and 12, while only a few years ago 
we rarely had fewer than 20 (and often 30+) attending.  With 
distribution to hundreds of people locally, we get praise for 
the notes sent out, but without physical presence at the meetings,
we will eventually have very boring notes...

It appears we are seeing fewer "new" people inquiring about 
BADUG and coming to learn what it's about.  There is a "core" 
group of 5 to 10 people, but that's not enough of a critical 
mass to sustain significant dialogue over a long period.

Our December meeting had 20 people, with many responding to a 
personal invitation to come join in this discussion (and we 
offered extra treats, too).  For most of the session we looked 
at 1/ what kind of interests have drawn people to attend BADUG 
sessions, 2/ what some of the causes in lower attendance might 
be, 3/ where might there be opportunity to attract more interest
in BADUG sessions, and 4/ what do we do next.

What has drawn people to BADUG over time?:

Several people mentioned that their initial interest had been 
because their job was directly involved with quality and they 
hoped to learn new theories and tools they could use in their 
work.  When they had started coming to BADUG meetings, Dr. 
Deming was recognized as a leader in the quality world, and 
they wanted to learn more about him and his theories.  What 
they later came to appreciate was the passion of the people 
they met with and the cause they pursued; there was intrinsic 
value in sharing and learning with people having similar 
outlooks and beliefs.  The interaction with other participants 
in a stimulating environment, with a chance to connect with 
other resources, was also cited as a factor attracting attendees.

We noted that sessions at certain company sites drew a larger 
than usual number of people from within that company, from a 
conscious effort made to publicize the meeting in-house.  We also
know that some of our sessions on education-related topics have 
had higher attendance because we put in an extra effort to get 
the word out to teachers and education administrators.

Speakers at BADUG meetings have often been drawn because of the 
opportunity to both present a topic and have discussion about 
the topic with attendees -- Everyone in the room is a learner. 
Lower attendance has created less opportunity for meaningful 
exploration through discussion.

Possible causes of lower attendance:

Relative to the people who mentioned that their initial BADUG 
interest had come from their jobs being directly involved with 
quality -- It seems that today more and more organizations 
encourage people to look upon quality as something that is 
imbedded and part of everyone's job.  An individual's 
responsibility for quality is vague and implied, rather than 
explicitly defined.  With workers now having a broader set of 
responsibilities, have they ended up choosing to hone the skills
of their position title at the cost of other aspects of the job?
See the article "The War For Better Quality Is Far From Won" in 
the December 18th issue of Business Week for some further 
commentary on this particular thought.

Another observation was that commute hours traffic has 
significantly increased for the Bay Area in the past few years.
People have less discretionary time with longer commutes, and 
there is no one location that will work for everyone.

A couple of participants who are involved with other associations
made the observation that some of those other associations are 
also seeing a decline in meeting attendance -- The experience 
BADUG is having may partially come from factors we have no control
over.

Later in the discussion, a participant suggested using the idea 
of environmental pressures to describe the environment that BADUG
exists within and interacts with.  We should further explore what
those pressures might be for business organizations, education,
medical providers, and others.

Opportunities to attract more interest in BADUG sessions:

If we could figure out how to spread knowledge to more people 
about the broad range that Dr. Deming's System of Profound 
Knowledge covers, we might be able to encourage people in Human 
Resources (for instance) to see what they could pick up that 
relates to their field.  The same could be true for anyone with 
a job responsibility that includes management (of people, 
projects, products, programs, systems, etc.).

Reevaluate the time our meetings are held -- Would an earlier 
start time attract more students?  What time of day would best 
serve people who work but want to learn more about Deming?

Many people expressed a desire to have more sessions be 
participatory or of a workshop nature -- This is clearly a type 
of session where higher attendance enhances the experience.

With the thought stated earlier about quality today being more 
imbedded in everyone's job, one of the apparent challenges for 
BADUG is to market through this barrier.  Various ideas for 
creating additional exposure of BADUG and what it's doing were 
discussed.  It would probably help to place notices for the 
meeting schedule and topics in local daily and weekly papers.  
Another barrier is that quality is still perceived by many to 
be a manufacturing/production discipline.  Other terms, like 
improvement or development, appear more attractive to those in 
medical, government, education and so on.

It was observed that fewer people today might be able to identify
Dr. Deming, and what he represents.  Doing more to promote his 
key areas (improvement, systems, collaboration) -- even changing 
BADUG's name and/or associating with other quality/improvement-
oriented associations (like ASQ or AQP) -- may help attract 
attention to who we are and what we do.  (There were also concerns
expressed that tying in with another association would dilute the
emphasis on Dr. Deming's work.)  At the very least, we could 
explore the sharing of resource lists, calendars, publications 
and knowledge with other groups having a central aim of 
improvement.  For business leaders, the critical need is not 
about giving credit to Dr. Deming; it's about their improvement
efforts being effective.

Those who do come to BADUG sessions could make a directed effort
toward inviting friends and/or work associates to join them.

One participant said they would like to see an outreach program 
designed to find a way to participate in a real world application
of Dr. Deming's principles.  (There are examples of this where 
BADUG participants have helped facilitate improvement groups 
involved with schools and non-profit organizations.)

What do we do next?:

How might we revolutionize and transform (a keyword!) the group?
During the course of the discussion we looked back to the 
statements of BADUG aim that were developed by a group of BADUG 
participants almost 10 years ago: Learn about, and deepen our 
understanding of, Dr. W. Edwards Deming's philosophy and methods;
Apply Deming's methods in our businesses and communities; helping
people live better by acting as an information resource on 
Deming's philosophy; 

The group gathered for this session seemed to believe that we 
could still be guided by that aim.  "By what process" is what 
we have to determine, and we will work on that in January.

A few of the questions we will look into at our next session: 
What are the environmental pressures we can respond to?:  Needs,
compelling factors; What would 'moving beyond' and 'new discovery'
look like?; How does BADUG fit into the political, social, 
financial, business and other systems around us?  What are 
the opportunities we can pursue?

Final comments:

No attempt was made to draw any immediate conclusions from the 
session.  There were so many good observations shared about what
is happening and about what should be done...  Take a look over 
the notes above and let us know if you have any input on where 
we go from here.  We will continue the topic in January, and try
to reach some conclusions about what's next for BADUG.  Lest it
be overlooked, given the volunteer nature of the group, we also
should all realize that BADUG will only be carried forward by 
what its participants want to personally put into it -- There 
must be a minimum number of involved associates, for the sake 
of keeping the momentum of the group going.

Scribes - Jim Hayes / Dan Robertson 
------------------

With the new year and a time of holiday cheer upon us, I want 
to take this opportunity to wish all of you the very best.  My 
thanks go out to our hosts at Acuson, our presenter/facilitators
over past year, Marcia for her excellent choice of topics and 
speakers, and all the rest of you who have provided much 
appreciated support through your presence and encouragement!
 /Dan R.

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

Dan Robertson              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 January and February meetings **

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, 8 January 2001.