ASQ Section 1309 Section Member Meeting

Time: 5:30-7:00 pm
Date: Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Please RSVP by Tuesday March 23 to info@asq1309.com

Schedule:
5:30-6:00 Dinner (drinks and pizza or subs to be provided)
6:00-7:00 Main presentation (0.3 RCU)
Speaker: Russ Johnson, Improvement Quest, Inc.
Topic: Dealing with Half-Baked Solutions

Description:

Have you ever been presenting what you believe to be a great idea to another person or group and had someone have the audacity to question your idea? They may even say that they agree with what you're proposing, but have some concern or reservation. Do we receive this person as an ally who is merely trying to identify a potential side effect that could derail our proposed solution and embrace them and encourage them, or do we see them as the opposition and take actions to shut them down or attempt to dismiss their concern? Wouldn't it be nice if we had a simple tool that would allow us to quickly and logically verify their concern and even engage this person in helping us find an action that would negate the side effect that they have identified thus making them an ally in our solution rather than an enemy to it?

How often has someone come to you, whether a subordinate, equal, or supervisor, with an idea about how to deal with a particular situation that, for some reason, causes you to hesitate before just endorsing or rejecting their idea? Maybe there was no hesitation; you just knew you didn't have time to deal with the issue at the moment. In either case, to buy some time, you responded with "let me think about it". This actually does two things:
1. It usually gets the person to go away, or at least back off, for the moment; and
2. It means we have actually made a commitment to this person.

Unfortunately, the reality is that we seldom actually follow through and think about it and get back to them. This failure to follow through on the commitment we made also reduces the likelihood of getting item 1 above in the future, especially if we seldom follow through. The person with the idea quickly comes to the conclusion that "let me think about it" is actually a rejection of their idea, or worse the messenger. What we really need is to first realize that we have actually made a commitment and the person expects us to follow-up on that commitment. Then we need some technique/tool that lets us quickly verbalize to ourselves what our hesitation or reservation was and then to help us be able to communicate our reservation to the person who came with the idea. That same tool should help us get the initiator of the idea to at least realize that it is incomplete and enable us to work with that person to fully develop their idea into a viable solution or get them to withdraw the idea for further work.

The purpose of this month's presentation is to present and practice just such a technique. One of the logic based thought process tools of the Theory of Constraints called the Negative Branch Reservation (NBR) will be studied. The basic principles and mechanisms behind the tool will be presented and then participants will have time to apply the tool to circumstances that they have found themselves in from the workplace, home, church, school etc. The process is very simple and allows us to layout and check the logic and linkage of the action being proposed and where we are and where we are trying to get to. This allows us to check whether or not the proposed action actually accomplishes the desired outcome and also does it create any undesirable effects along the way. Participants will not only learn how to construct the NBR but also how to present it to others in such a way as to create buy-in rather than resistance.

Speaker Bio: The session will be led by Dr. Russell Johnson, a certified Jonah in the concepts and applications of the Theory of Constraints. Dr. Russ Johnson has over twenty-five years experience applying, researching and teaching a wide variety of organizational improvement strategies and tools in manufacturing, service, construction and educational environments. He has worked with all sizes of companies from Mom and Pop operations to international corporations such as Boeing. He brings a unique blend of management and engineering concepts and skills made practical by extensive hands-on experience with a broad range of materials and processes as well as business ownership and bottom line responsibilities. Dr. Johnson is the president of Improvement Quest, Inc. In that capacity he has been involved with several Viable Vision Projects in association with Goldratt Consulting. He became a Certified Jonah in the application of the tools and techniques of the Theory of Constraints in 1991 and has been actively involved with linking those concepts with Lean and Six-Sigma. In addition to his industry experience he was Associate Professor of Management with the Metropolitan State College of Denver for 7 years and Industrial Technology Management at Colorado State University for 13 years prior. He taught operations management, project management and productivity improvement as well as facilities planning and materials science and processing. Dr. Johnson has been an active member of several professional organizations including ASQ, APICS, and SME as well as several academic based organizations and is a frequent speaker at their meetings and conferences. He can be reached via phone at: (970) 581-0075 or via email at: ImprovementQuest@aol.com

Location: Boulder Scientific Company, 4161 Specialty Place, Longmont CO.
Directions: From I-25 and Hwy 119 (Longmont exit), go 1 block east to the Frontage Rd. Take the Frontage Rd south for slightly over 1 mile, then turn east onto Specialty Place. Take Specialty Place until it dead-ends into the Boulder Scientific parking lot, 4161 Specialty Place.