THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
rodwelch@pacbell.net
S U M M A R Y
DIARY: July 14, 1990 09:03 AM .......;
Rod Welch
PMI Asilomar conference on methods for communication and management.
1...Summary/Objective
2...Bob Gillis and Russ Archibald showed how to conduct planning meetings
................Management Communications
................Trends, Tools, and Techniques for the 90s and Beyond
3...TQM Goals and Methods Supported by Conference Presentations
4...Strengths of Papers
5...Limitations of Papers
6...Feel Good Management and Group Think Do Not Establish Truth
7...Meetings and Communications
8...Investing Intellectual Capital
9...Plan, Perform, Report
10...Welch Management Method
11...Human Memory is Transitory - Needs Help
12...The challenge of discussion is to achieve shared "meaning",
..............
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CONTACTS
SUBJECTS
SDS, Marketing, Sales
Developing Leads
Asilomar Seminar, 900714
0505 -
0505 - ..
0506 - Summary/Objective
0507 -
050701 - Follow up ref SDS 5 0000, ref SDS 3 0000.
050702 -
050703 - Russ cited Dan and AT&T as examples of applying the methods he
050704 - explained in the session today. He feels Dan is open to trying new
050705 - ideas.
050706 -
050707 -
050708 -
050709 -
050710 -
050711 -
0508 -
SUBJECTS
Personnel, Training, Management,
Leadership & Change; Change & Buy In
TQM; Project Management, Methods, Procedures
Executive Training; Project Planning & Oversight, Teamwork
Meetings, Welch Management Method
Feel Good Management - Social Constraints
Facilitator Improves Meetings Without
TQM Made Practical with SDS Metrics
1910 -
191101 - ..
191102 - Bob Gillis and Russ Archibald showed how to conduct planning meetings
191103 - in order to accelerate project completion. This supports the
191104 - conference theme...
191105 -
191106 -
191107 - Management Communications
191108 - Trends, Tools, and Techniques for the 90s and Beyond
191109 -
191110 -
191111 - ...in the brochure. ref OF 5 5838 ...
191113 - ..
191114 - Their ideas are formalized in papers provided to attendees via
191115 - ref OF 5 0000, beginning with Gillis' paper at ref OF 5 5838 ...
191116 -
191117 - Management Communications
191118 - Trends, Tools, and Techniques for the 90s and Beyond
191120 - ..
191121 - The conference brochure generally presents papers on how to conduct
191122 - planning meetings with a facilitator, advantages of getting key people
191123 - together going off-site, using large scale flow diagrams for mapping
191124 - reasoning, etc., although the Gillis' paper covers some theory on how
191125 - human memory works relative to "communicating" with others (discussed
191126 - in the next record segment, ref SDS 0 7402). Evidently remarks were
191127 - delivered on "communications", per se, according to the schedule of
191128 - speakers at ref OF 5 9277, but there is nothing in the documentation
191129 - on this. The papers offer important ideas on how to achieve effective
191130 - communications in planning meetings.
191132 - ..
191133 - Russ Archibald credits Bob Gillis with pioneer work on this subject.
191134 - ref OF 5 0700
191135 -
191136 - [On 911009 used this method on Broadwater Dam. ref SDS 6
191137 - 7308
191138 -
191139 - [On 960308 scope of service published by Dialogos offers
191140 - similar ideas. ref SDS 16 0000
191142 - ..
191143 - [On 950618 called Bob about presenting his ideas for 1996
191144 - Asilomar Conference. ref SDS 15 6883
191145 -
191147 - ..
191148 - TQM Goals and Methods Supported by Conference Presentations
191149 -
191150 - TQM is only mentioned once in this material, ref OF 5 8222, and there
191151 - is no general explanation or citation to Deming or these methods.
191152 - However, the focus of the Conference and the papers presented is on
191153 - "team building," "planning for change," and leadership through
191154 - consensus decision making, using a facilitator, which falls within the
191155 - mantle of TQM.
191156 -
191158 - ..
191159 - Strengths of Papers
191160 -
191161 -
191162 - Directed planning is essential for complex undertakings.
191163 -
191164 - Planning must be conducted at different levels and phases.
191166 - ..
191167 - Planning benefits from integrating different levels (shared
191168 - vision, understanding, cross-fertilization), see "comparison
191169 - with other planning methods at ref OF 5 line 500.
191170 - ..
191171 - Defining objectives, methods and terms is essential.
191172 -
191173 - "Impact" methods, including a "Facilitator," developed by B.
191174 - Gillis, ref OF 7 3449, improve the chances of effective
191175 - planning.
191177 - ..
191178 - Limitations of Papers
191179 -
191180 - There is not an evident presentation on:
191181 -
191182 - Other forms of communications via observations, discussions,
191183 - phone calls, documents, records management.
191185 - ..
191186 - Integrating communications at planning meetings with other
191187 - sources, i.e. checking the record, as discussed in reviewing
191188 - Covey's work on "emphatic listening" at ref SDS 10 5903.
191190 - ..
191191 - Implementing the results of the meeting, i.e. updating the
191192 - record.
191194 - ..
191195 - Applying the communications ideas for planning meetings, to
191196 - plan and carry out the follow up.
191197 -
191199 - ..
191200 - Feel Good Management and Group Think Do Not Establish Truth
191201 -
191202 - This approach seems to rely on conversation to build the job, rather
191203 - than the record. It therefore falls prey to the very thing it seeks
191204 - to avoid: transitory human memory. ref SDS 0 2299 Merely because
191205 - everyone agrees that something is so, does not make it true. Often
191206 - organizational "group think" has a negative effect of creating an
191207 - "official view of reality" that conflicts with the actual record of
191208 - events.
191210 - ..
191211 - [On 921021 problem analysed at Cal Tech seminar.
191212 - ref SDS 9 5692
191214 - ..
191215 - [On 911123 Feel Good management defined. ref SDS 8 1331
191217 - ..
191218 - Practices for Impact planning meetings might be strengthened by
191219 - setting out that once consensus is reached, participants will meet
191220 - later after investing time to verify agreed upon understandings by
191221 - finding support in the record. The impression conveyed today is that
191222 - after a common understanding is acheived, it is acted upon without
191223 - verification.
191225 - ..
191226 - I don't think this is part of the intended process though because
191227 - the "planning theater" concept implies this is a one time event.
191229 - ..
191230 - [On 911009 applied "planning meeting" idea. ref SDS 7 7308
191231 -
191232 -
191234 - ..
191235 - Meetings and Communications
191236 -
191237 - Better meetings and other communictions is a goal of SDS, as set out
191238 - in POIMS. ref OF 2 V8P1
191240 - ..
191241 - The seminar presentation today seemed to recognize the traditional
191242 - problems of hierarchy, ref OF 3 8274, and the discursive, amorphous
191243 - character of speech, ref OF 3 8555, which impedes careful analysis,
191244 - and good decisions; but seminar speakers did not offer an adequate
191245 - "communication metric," which is central to the theory of POIMS, where
191246 - participants write out their understanding of what transpired, and
191247 - connect it up to organizational objectives, history, and support
191248 - sources. ref OF 3 8208
191249 -
191250 - ["Communication Metrics" was later considered at the Cal Tech
191251 - seminar, ref SDS 9 7200; and evolved into the concept of
191252 - "converting information into knowledge", in an article on the
191253 - "Knowledge Revolution" at ref SDS 11 4757, which was then applied
191254 - in the SDS & POIMS scope statement at ref OF 1 8551.]
191256 - ..
191257 - [The weakness as well as the dominance of speech, as the primary
191258 - management medium, was later developed in the SDS & POIMS scope
191259 - statement at ref OF 2 4079.]
191261 - ..
191262 - [On 950426 executive training teaches conversation skills for
191263 - communication. ref SDS 14 4392]
191264 -
191266 - ..
191267 - Investing Intellectual Capital
191268 -
191269 - There is a clear recognition of the need to create a "shared visual
191270 - memory" ref OF 5 9358, as a means to capture and identify (keywords,
191271 - diagrams) information and ideas that can be re-arranged to create
191272 - "understanding" and new ideas. See also below. ref SDS 0 2299
191274 - ..
191275 - These ideas were used during the presentation. Large size sheets of
191276 - paper were pasted to the walls with lists of ideas presented by the
191277 - speakers, and questions raised by attendees, as a form of common
191278 - notetaking that comprised a form of "shared meaning". I asked Roger
191279 - Bush if this information would be provided as a seminar deliverable to
191280 - attendees, so that the ideas could be captured and assessed more
191281 - carefully in attendee notes. Roger said this information would be
191282 - provided.
191283 -
191284 - [PMI never provided this information.]
191286 - ..
191287 - This supports the POIMS notion of investing intellectual capital, see
191288 - also SDS Theory at ref OF 2 0793, ref OF 2 1101.
191290 - ..
191291 - The author's do not explain the scope, deliverable and disposition of
191292 - the "shared visual memory trace." How is the "memory" applied after
191293 - the planning meeting is over? Where is the follow up?
191294 -
191296 - ..
191297 - Plan, Perform, Report
191298 -
191299 - Another quibble I have with this approach is that it presents an auora
191300 - of planning as a separate and special activity performed by a select
191301 - cast of characters, requiring special facilities, that produces a
191302 - "plan" which is then implemented.
191303 -
191304 - This is really a "project" to produce a macro plan, that fosters
191305 - in some a mind set after the planning meeting is over, that there
191306 - is no need for more planning.
191307 -
191309 - ..
191310 - Welch Management Method
191311 -
191312 - POIMS supports planning as an essential step of every activity
191313 - undertaken by every human being, everyday, all day long. It is mainly
191314 - performed by automatic pilot, subconsciously relying on our experience
191315 - and view of the world, personal values, biological drives and lastly
191316 - work objectives (taken together - paradigms). If we can each do a
191317 - little better job of doing this micro-planning, productivity will
191318 - improve. SDS provides tools to enable everyone to "automatically"
191319 - apply many the concepts advocated by Gillis and Archibald, without
191320 - assembling special meetings and facilities. Plus it adds the new
191321 - ingredient of integrated scheduling and reporting, that leverages
191322 - intellectual capital.
191324 - ..
191325 - This does not mean that directed planning efforts are not needed, but
191326 - it does mean that the conclusion of such efforts do end the planning
191327 - function, but merely give guidance. Elements of a macro plan become
191328 - the subject of detailed planning in SDS, i.e. we plan the work with
191329 - CPM, WBS and Org charts; then we work the plan with SDS.
191330 -
191331 - Actually, Russ Archibald makes this point as well, noting this is
191332 - a top down involvement to launch the planning process, and
191333 - achieve some buy-in, ref OF 9 1538. I don't think however that
191334 - most people have the sense that their everyday lives can be
191335 - enriched by continuing the planning process at the level of
191336 - performing their work day-in and day-out.
191337 -
191338 -
191339 -
191340 -
1914 -
SUBJECTS
Human memory limitations and theory
Communications
2304 -
230501 - ..
230502 - Human Memory is Transitory - Needs Help
230503 -
230504 - A principal idea advanced by Bob Gillis is the transitory nature of
230505 - memory, ref OF 5 9388, and the consequent need to develop means to
230506 - "capture" ideas, ref OF 5 9358, and also at ref OF 6 3888, which is a
230507 - central theme of POIMS technology.
230509 - ..
230510 - These ideas are similar to Jeremy Campbell's book....
230511 -
230512 - The Improbable Machine
230513 - Simon & Schuster, copyright 1989
230514 -
230515 - ...analysed at ref SDS 1 0000.
230516 -
230518 - ..
230519 - The challenge of discussion is to achieve shared "meaning",
230520 - ref OF 5 7834, which the seminar tried to accomplish per above,
230521 - ref SDS 0 2770,
230522 -
230523 - This perspective is reflected in POIMS technology as a derivative
230524 - of knowledge and human memory, see ref SDS 2 0702.
230526 - ..
230527 - [Note: subsequent analysis of Peter Drucker's book on Management
230528 - Responsibilities, reviewed at ref SDS 13 6150, further identifies
230529 - the distinction between information and knowledge, though Drucker
230530 - uses the term "communications" to mean "understanding".]
230532 - ..
230533 - [Subsequent review of Stephen Covey's book:
230534 -
230535 - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
230536 -
230537 - ...proposes "emphatic listening" to achieve better "understand-
230538 - ing," which is reviewed at ref SDS 10 5903.]
230539 -
230540 -
230541 -
230542 -
230543 -
2306 -