Next BADUG Meeting - 6 May

[DanRobrtsn@aol.com]

BAY AREA DEMING USERS GROUP NEWSLETTER

Our next meeting is on Monday, 6 May 2002 from
6:00-8:30pm, at Acuson in Mountain View on the corner
of Shorebird Way and Shoreline Boulevard.  Detailed
directions available below.

PLANNED PROGRAMS: 

Please note that BADUG meetings are always open to all
interested parties.  Dr. Deming's teaching extended far
beyond the traditional confines of quality.  Consider
inviting a friend or work associate who might share your
interest in learning about, and discussing, innovative
and effective theories regarding organizations, systems
and management.

6 May:  "Highlights of the West Coast Forum".  Approximately
150 people attended the "Creating New ROIs" conference in
Canoga Park this past weekend.  Marian Hirsch, Myron
Tribus, and Dan Robertson will provide highlights and share
their experiences from the weekend.  Myron kicked off the
conference with a keynote speech titled "ROI or IOU?" and
will provide a shortened version of that talk as well.
Come to hear our comments on topics such as Intelligence,
Innovation, Introspection, and Integration.

3 Jun:  Our Systems Thinking Study Group is planning to
facilitate a simulation titled The Lemonade Game.  The
Study Group has been developing their version of this
simulation over the past several months and would like
to bring it to the BADUG community.  Come share in the
learning and help provide feedback to the Study Group. 

July-August:  No BADUG sessions will be held during these
summer months.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

* The BADUG Systems Thinking Study Group meets monthly,
prior to -- and in the same building as -- the main BADUG
session.  May's session will continue with experiencing and
refining a simulation (The Beer (lemonade) Game) that the
group has been studying.  Please contact David Camp at
dcamp@ciena.com / 408-366-4863 or Karen Takle Quinn at
ktq@svpal.org / 650-964-5195 if you are planning to join
the May discussion.

* The May 15th Silicon Valley Chapter ASQ dinner meeting
will feature a Deming panel composed of Dennis Bradley,
Pat McMahon, Marcia Daszko, and Dan Robertson.  The topic
will be "The System of Profound Knowledge and the New
Economics."  The location will be the Biltmore Hotel at
highway 101 and Montague Expressway in San Jose.  Contact
the SV ASQ chapter at http://www.asq-svc.org/ to reserve
a seat for this session.

* The Annual Transformation Forum will be held in
Doncaster, UK, 15-16 May, 2002.  This popular event always
provides great value!  Practical experiences and cutting
edge theory will both be explored.  Click to
http://www.deming.org.uk/ for further details.

* The International Association of Facilitators (IAF)
Conference provides workshops and sessions to develop
effective meeting skills, improve group efficacy, mediation
and individual development.  Attend the 2002 Conference,
titled "The Quest for Transformation", to take advantage
of these sessions and give your business and work life a
boost in productivity and enrich your experience.  When
you register, you have the opportunity to select the
concurrent sessions you want to attend.  The topics will
range from facilitation and technology, large group
interventions, diversity, facilitation basics, and many
more.  Many of these will have limited seating.  Avoid
any disappointments by registering now.  The conference
is on May 23-26 in Ft. Worth, TX at the Worthington
Renaissance Hotel.  You can register online at the
conference web site http://www.iaf2002.org

* 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

April's Meeting Notes: 

Creativity For the Individual, the Team, and the
Organization - Presented by David Woodward

Lamar Van Gunten provided this month's notes:

David Woodward, a senior consultant with Right Management
Consultants, facilitated our discussion of this topic.
He has consulted and lectured in a broad range of subjects,
but his passion and main focus is creativity and
communication.  He has taught at several British business
schools, ranging from Henley Management College to Oxford.
He has also taught creativity and innovation on other
masters, doctoral and executive programs around the world.

David suggests that we need radical thinking in business
today.  While 'innovation' is practical and builds on
existing foundations, 'creativity' is non-practical and
fictional.  Creative persons 'flit' around -- They either
eventually conform to the organizational system or move
on.  Their approach has an element of play to it.

Our education system is about conforming.  Most
organizational life is conforming.  This is contrary to
creativity.

Why should we be creative?  H. Igor Ansoff says that
people behave as if they live in a stable, predictable
world -- This makes for organizations that cannot change
or adapt to new circumstances.  What makes companies fail?
Assumptions are made about the existing environment.
("Our customers will never want smaller than 5.25 inch
disk drives.")  Care must be taken in how focus is
maintained upon customers, and that it not be too narrow
in scope...

Henry Mintzberg suggests that studying problems from all
imaginable perspectives - up, down, inside, outside, and
so on - can provide a superior answer to the problems
presented.

David asked us to consider how every day we are presented
with a flood of data.  We filter out large amounts of it.
We are all 'bodies of knowledge' - What are our filters?
Organizations have built-in filters, too.  They are, most
likely, not challenged.  Conformity creeps in to stifle
creativity.

Where do 'bright' ideas come from?  They can come from
anywhere in the organization.  What are the barriers to
these bright ideas? -- Self-censorship, screens built-in
by management, ignoring data when there is too much of it
(a possible cause for some failures at implementing
'suggestion boxes'), tangible cost-based accounting
methods, political behaviors that ignore any inputs that
appear to criticize the organization, competition for
rewards, lack of recognition.

David described the concept of 'lateral thinking', taught
by Edward deBono, as compared to the typical 'vertical
thinking' we usually experience.  Lateral thinking can
create allow many new perspectives into the picture. 
Creative analysis cycles between the two.  Comparisons
between the two types of thinking:

Vertical thinking is characterized by - Judgement
(Yes/no/but...), quality of ideas, choosing, information,
linear/direct flow, tests for relevance, a closed process.

Lateral thinking was characterized as - Withholding of
judgement, quantity of ideas, changing, information, jumps
in the flow and intrusions are welcomed, least likely, an
open process.

These basic guidelines for creativity were offered by David:
- It's already there; let it happen
- It needs space; set time aside for play
- Know what you really want
- Be a 'reflective practitioner'; build a toolkit of
  techniques
- Connect and be receptive
- Switch techniques
- Challenge the 'givens'
- Build up; don't knock down
- Attend closely; understand broadly
- Use all mental modes
- Aim for absorbed playfulness
- Cycle often (generate new ideas first) and close
  (analyze) late
- Involved others
- Overcome interpersonal pressures
- Manage the process

David also shared with us a few exercises that demonstrated
how creativeness could be brought out in a group. He
labeled it "absorbed playfulness".  One was an 'ice
breaker', where everyone was handed a cloth bag with a
small object inside.  Without looking, you felt the shape
of the object and then went to the others in the room to
find the one person with an object in their bag that
matched yours.  You then both tried to determine what
that object was.  We found people who had trouble
identifying their objects getting lots of ideas from
others in the room.

Another interesting exercise was to imagine we were
working on a common problem that we had not yet determined
a solution for.  We then had each person in the room write
a random word on the white board.  We all were then asked
to each create a sentence that contained as many of the
written words as possible.  After a statement from that
effort was chosen by the whole group as 'the best', we
used that statement to creatively explain a possible
answer to the problem we were working on.  The effort
brought out new perspectives and new ways of looking at
the problem.

At that point we had to wrap up with our group debrief -- 

Lessons learned:
- Methods that were fun, acceptable, relaxed, and creative
- Be clear on whether management is 'in' or 'out' of the
  process ('out' often being preferred in the initial
  stages)
- Attend to detail _and_ the bigger picture
- Use of many senses to unlock creative ideas

Links to Deming:
- Creativity is a part of the process
- "No customer asked for light bulbs" - W.E.D.
- Drive out fear
- Restoration of joy in work!
- Removal of barriers
- Equality of ideas, regardless of the source

Unanswered questions:
- How to spread this knowledge and implement -- (My own
  advice about this is to find a fairly safe and receptive
  area to test the techniques, learn what works, refine the
  process, gain support, and keep expanding the successes
  to the larger arena.  /dr)

For further information, David can be contacted directly at
-- creativity@thetokenbrit.com


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 Internet ID.  We encourage electronic distribution if
at all possible, but please select the transmission
medium that best fills your needs. US Mail distribution
will be provided for 12 months from your communication
with us.

** Directions to BADUG 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, 6 May 2002.