Next BADUG Meeting - 7 October

[DanRobrtsn@aol.com]

BAY AREA DEMING USERS GROUP NEWSLETTER

Our next meeting is on Monday, 7 October 2002 from 6:00
-8:30pm, at Sun Microsystems, Building 10, in Menlo Park
at the intersection of Willow Road and Highway 84. **Note
the new location.**  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.

7 Oct:  Dr. Bill Bellows, Process Leader for the
Enterprise Thinking Network at Boeing's Rocketdyne
facility in southern California, will highlight the
theories involved in "Enterprise Thinking" and share
examples of the power of Enterprise Thinking within and
across organizations and communities.  In the new
economy, the proficient utilization of thinking will
be a necessary condition -- fundamental to business
efficiency and competitiveness.  The aim of "Enterprise
Thinking" is to organize the consciousness of collective
thinking about sub-systems, variation, knowledge,
numbers, and interactions. This session will attempt
to review and explore past, present, and future thinking
models.  With this intent, the thinking of Gregory
Bateson, David Bohm, Edward De Bono, W. Edwards Deming,
H. Thomas Johnson, Peter Senge, Genichi Taguchi, among
others, will be touched upon and associated in new ways.

4 Nov:  Jessica Fullmer, Founder and Director of the
Sustainable Business Institute, will bring us an update
on Sustainable Business.  Sustainability has been
defined as: "the ability to meet today's global economic,
environmental and social needs without compromising the
opportunity for future generations to meet theirs."
Business Sustainability is an economic opportunity for
business to improve its competitiveness and market share
by incorporating and improving sustainability practices.
A sustainable business is a business entity that has
strategized, created, and implemented the means to pursue
its economic agenda and business opportunities in a manner
that incorporates sustainable business practices.  With
Hewlett Packard, Dow Chemical, and General Motors being
only a few of the many companies investing in sustainable
business practices, Jessica will have ample information
to both explain the concepts and provide some interesting
examples.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

* The BADUG Systems Thinking Study Group meets monthly,
prior to -- and in the same building as -- the main BADUG
session.  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 October
discussion.

* The previously announced Enterprise Thinking workshop
to be held in October in the Bay Area and led by Dr. Bill
Bellows will be postponed.  Watch for an announcement
this fall regarding plans for holding the workshop in
early 2003.

* The W.E. Deming Institute is holding its fall conference
in Washington, DC October 12-13.  Click www.deming.org
or call 301-294-8405 for further info.

* The next offering of the Deming 4-day video seminar
will be held October 14-17 in Washington, DC, following
the weekend conference noted above.  Contact the W. E.
Deming Institute for details and to register. 

* The 15th Annual Hunter Conference will be held October
16-17 in Madison, WI.  For more information, see the
Madison Area Quality Improvement Network (MAQIN) website
at www.maqin.org or call 608-277-7800.

* October 29, a Symposium on Dr. Deming's Analytic
Papers will be held in New York City.  Contact the Deming
Institute for further details.

* CALL FOR PAPERS - The W.E. Deming Institute will
sponsor the Ninth Annual Research Seminar February 24-25
in New York City.  The Institute is seeking research
papers that link Dr. Deming's work to the academic
literature, or works of other great thinkers.  The
Research Seminar will bring together people from around
the world, from a variety of specialties, to enhance and
extend Dr. Deming's theories.  Suggested areas for
exploration include Psychology, Statistics, Systems,
and Theory of Knowledge.  Papers must be original work.
Abstracts of 200 words or less should be sent by
October 1, 2002 to orsini@fordham.edu or mailed to
Research Coordinator, The W. Edwards Deming Institute,
PO Box 59511, Potomac, MD 20859.  Telephone 212-636-6219
for further 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

September's Meeting Notes: 

Notes contributed by Danette McGilvray.

Pat McMahon led discussion on the topic "Human
Competence - the Human Performance Theory of Dr. Thomas
Gilbert".  The late Dr. Gilbert, regarded in some
circles as "the father of performance improvement,"
summarized his thinking in the book, Human Competence:
Engineering Worthy Performance (reprinted in 1996 by
the International Society for Programmed Instruction
(ISPI), Washington, DC; www.ispi.org).  Pat presented
the highlights of Gilbert's work.

Core concepts include understanding that there are both
organizational and personal factors to appreciate.  Pat
presented a simple 2x3 matrix that clearly classifies
those factors that must be present in order to achieve
high performance.  Imagine the horizontal axis with 3
categories of Information, Instrumentation, and
Motivation.  The vertical axis has 1/ Environmental
Supports: Data, Instruments, and Incentives, plus
2/ Person's Repertory of Behavior: Knowledge, Capacity,
and Motives.  Management's job is to manage the context
of the environment surrounding the workers, so the
workers can manage the content of the job itself.

Some of the discussion that followed:

- Data: People shouldn't just do their best; they need
  to do what is needed.
- Suggested adding a column for culture; another for
  passion, etc.
- Think of a situation encountered and consider where
  in the 6 boxes would the root cause seem to lie.
  - Studies tend to indicate that 70-85% of the causes
    are in the Environmental tier.
- "No news is good news" is not an appropriate feedback
  mechanism.
- Knowledge is the only box where training is an
  appropriate intervention.
- Accounting methods know the cost of training, but have
  never been good for showing the value that comes from
  training.

Another concept was that of the "exemplary" performer,
as a standard for defining realistic, achievable levels
of performance, and for determining the "performance
improvement potential" for individual performers.  When
there is a gap between exemplars and individual
performers, try to understand what leads to the gap
and decide whether it is worth investing in actions to
close the gap.  Look at all factors in making the
analysis.  Discussion at this point looked at the
question of how "organizational" potential could be
evaluated, as opposed to only looking at "individual"
potential.

In the closing discussion, several points were made:

- Understand what is needed to do good work, provide it
  and good work will follow
- Potential to apply social learning theory
- The matrix was a practical way of looking at the theory;
  can see the value of investing in environmental factors
- Links to Deming:
  - What's missing is trust
  - Inseparability of different subject areas
  - Variation in performance
  - Systems thinking
- As significant improvement with large populations, will
  still end up with normal curve (higher mean)
- How to get to exemplary?
- Where can coaches come from within the organization?
- What leads exemplary people/teams to do what they do?
  (Look at the environment.)
- Look upon an exemplar as one who accomplishes; it's not
  a matter of behavior

Thanks to Danette for taking notes, and to Pat for
bringing this interesting topic to the group!

Pat is presenting a paper on this topic at the Latin
American Congress of Quality convention in Monterrey
City, Mexico this October.  He can be reached at Sun
via email: patrick.mcmahon@sun.com

---------------------------

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contact:

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1141 Bruckner Circle               2752 Glorietta Circle
Mountain View, CA   94040          Santa Clara, CA  95051
650-964-9186                       408-247-7757
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** Directions to BADUG's Fall meetings **
       ** NOTE THE NEW LOCATION **

Venue: Sun Microsystems, Building 10, at 1601 Willow
Road in Menlo Park.  Contact Dan Robertson if you have
questions.

1/ From freeway 101 take Willow Road exit at Menlo Park/
East Palo Alto, toward the Dunbarton Bridge.

2/ Take Willow Road to the Highway 84 intersection and
continue straight ahead.  The Sun campus will be
directly in front of you after crossing 84.

3/ Building 10 is straight ahead as you enter Sun's
parking lot.  Find a parking spot and enter the
Building 10 lobby.  Signs will direct you to the BADUG
meeting.

4/ From the East Bay, take the Dunbarton Bridge
(Highway 84) across the bay to Menlo Park / East Palo
Alto.  Turn right at the intersection with Willow Road.
You will be turning into the Sun parking lot.  From
there follow the instructions in Step 3 above.

The next BADUG meeting is Monday, 7 October 2002.