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: March 19, 1996 07:29 AM Tuesday; Rod Welch

Completed review of Bill's ideas on Asilomar agenda.

1...Summary/Objective
2...Change from Documents to Automated Knowledge
3...Thesis
4...Summary
5...Haste Makes Waste
.....Leadership, Wisdom
.....Slowing Down to Succeed Faster
6...Panels
7...Sunday Panel on Current use of Technology
8...Order of Speakers, Flow of Ideas
9...Time Analysis
.....Saturday
.....Sunday Morning panel
10...Emotional State Analysis
11...Reengineering & Communication Breakdowns
12...Group Exercises, Audience Interaction
.....Dr..Brusman
.....Nobody's Listening; It's Too Noisy - Too Much Email
.....Morris Jones
.....Pre-registration Survey
13...Communication Ideas


..............
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CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
PMI Event Program, Proposal
Contract/Charter, Buy In, Shared Vision
Theme, Agenda, Schedule, Speakers
Leadership, Slowing Down to Succeed Faster
Haste Makes Waste, Making more money
Paradigm Shifts

1408 -
1408 -    ..
1409 - Summary/Objective
1410 -
141001 - Follow up ref SDS 12 0000, ref SDS 20 0000.
141002 -
141003 - Created a revised agenda using ideas from Bill and Sherrill received
141004 - at ref SDS 19 line 72 via ref DRP 2 line 25, and new information from
141005 - recent meetings and research.
141007 -  ..
141008 - Submitted the revised agenda per discussion below, via ref DIT 1 line
141009 - 30.  Sent copy to Morris so he can see the plan for an interactive
141010 - presentation, ref OF 5 line 191, which he objected to at ref SDS 17
141011 - line 309.
141012 -
141013 -      [See another Sherrill version at ref SDS 37 line 81.]
141014 -
141015 -
141017 -  ..
1411 -
1412 -
1413 - Progress
1414 -
141401 - Change from Documents to Automated Knowledge
141402 -
141403 - Used the analysis in ref OF 4 line 149 of Bill's agenda ideas at ref
141404 - DRP 2 line 25, received at ref SDS 19 line 73, which in turn modify
141405 - the work in file ref OF 3 line 15, to create a new agenda ref OF 6
141406 - line 30 to incorporate the ideas at ref OF 4 line 10, developed the
141407 - past few days, ref SDS 28 line 111, and at ref SDS 19 line 130.
141408 -
141409 -      This seems to result in a general proposition of shifting the
141410 -      "knowledge" paradigm which presently is the accumulation of
141411 -      isolated documents, to a continuous stream of automated
141412 -      knowledge, ref OF 5 line 40.
141414 -       ..
141415 -      [Discussed with Turner at ref SDS 39 line 196.]
141416 -
141418 -  ..
141419 - Thesis
141420 -
141421 - I think we have a better explanation, ref SDS 19 line 92, but it seems
141422 - too long.  If it is for advertising, and is properly layed out, it may
141423 - be okay.  It is certainly helpful to define the Information Highway as
141424 - all the gadgets ref OF 5 line 12, ref SDS 2 line 201, plus all the
141425 - meetings and calls that have people spread too thin and stressed out,
141426 - as Sherrill says, ref DRP 1 line 31.
141428 -  ..
141429 - Developed idea at ref OF 5 line 114, for Hatch "Be Prepared" created
141430 - the other day, ref SDS 24 line 42, and ref SDS 24 line 114.
141431 -
141433 -  ..
141434 - Summary
141435 -
141436 - Since the agenda file itself has become quite large, ref OF 5 line 10,
141437 - I created a separate file to put it all on a single page, and applied
141438 - summary descriptions to see if we can tell the whole story that way so
141439 - the ideas flow well together, ref OF 6 line 14.
141440 -
141442 -  ..
141443 - Haste Makes Waste
141444 -
141445 - I added "Haste Makes Waste" to the initial paragraph explaining the
141446 - thesis, ref OF 5 line 21.  This common sense aphorism summarizes the
141447 - problem Communication Metrics seeks to address in order to form a
141448 - better partnership between leadership and technology, as discussed
141449 - with Dave Buoncristiani in our meeting a few weeks ago, ref SDS 18
141450 - line 167.  We need to slow down to succeed faster, as conveyed to
141451 - David Vannier in the Feb 23 letter, ref DIP 6 line 65 submitted at ref
141452 - SDS 14 line 241.
141454 -  ..
141455 - Many in the audience can grasp the import of "haste makes waste" as
141456 - seen from the interaction with Intel, ref SDS 14 line 170, ref SDS 14
141457 - line 245. It fits with General Hatch's opening remarks on the value of
141458 - being prepared, developed the other day at, ref SDS 25 6870.  There is
141459 - not enough time in the New World Order, ref OF 2 line 151.  When we
141460 - rush ahead to the meeting without checking the record of what happened
141461 - at the last meeting, we are not prepared.  Our haste causes mistakes
141462 - and overlooked issues that need attention.  These mistakes then
141463 - require working faster to catch up, so we have less time to prepare.
141465 -  ..
141466 - Haste then makes more waste.
141467 -
141468 -        [See letter to Hatch on this idea, ref SDS 35 line 140.]
141470 -  ..
141471 - The idea also fits with the AP story we cite that managers are wasting
141472 - 70% of the day, ref SDS 12 line 82, credited to lack of preparation,
141473 - ref SDS 12 line 99.
141475 -      ..
141476 -     Leadership, Wisdom
141477 -     Slowing Down to Succeed Faster
141478 -
141479 -     The other option is to figure out how to speed up the process of
141480 -     making connections that "slowing down" would otherwise be used to
141481 -     accomplish, ref SDS 13 1429, and to assign someone to use that
141482 -     technology to make sure it gets done under the Communication
141483 -     Manager or Intelligence model posed by General Hatch, ref SDS 8
141484 -     2036.
141486 -      ..
141487 -     This fits the Asilomar theme of leadership and technology, as seen
141488 -     from review of Robert McNamera's book "In Retrospect." ref SDS 3
141489 -     5872.
141491 -      ..
141492 -     It was originally developed in the NWO paper ref OF 2 line 762, at
141493 -
141494 -
141495 -
1415 -

SUBJECTS
Structure, Panels
Technology & Leadership Today

1604 -
1605 - 1509 received call from Bill
160601 -  ..
160602 - He is meeting with Sherrill on Thursday.
160604 -  ..
160605 - Sherrill has not contacted any speakers to visit on anything, contrary
160606 - to understandings at ref SDS 20 line 134.  He indicated Sherrill has
160607 - strong feelings about the advantages of using Zells, Bea and Wenk for
160608 - the speakers as shown at ref DRP 2 line 74.
160609 -
160610 -     We considered the basis for such conviction in the absence of
160611 -     having interviewed anyone, or reviewing the NWO paper.
160613 -      ..
160614 -     Bill feels there may not be enough time to incorporate other
160615 -     speakers.
160616 -
160618 -  ..
160619 - Bill may be in the City on Thursday, and will stop by for a visit if
160620 - he comes into town.
160622 -  ..
160623 - I will complete review of the agenda and take it to Millie's tonight,
160624 - so Bill can pick it up tomorrow at his convenience, to prepare for
160625 - his meeting with Sherrill.
160626 -
160627 -
160629 -  ..
160630 - Panels
160631 -
160632 - I started with trying to have a panel in the morning on Saturday, and
160633 - in the afternoon.  As Morris suggested, ref SDS 16 line 451, by
160634 - forcing ourselves to budget for this, it gives the flexibility of
160635 - having something that can be reduced or eliminated if necessary.
160636 -
160637 -     Seems like the best thought might be to eliminate the afternoon
160638 -     panel on Saturday to end on high note, so everyone can get the
160639 -     social and interact, ref OF 5 line 224.  Then do the review of the
160640 -     Saturday afternoon stuff in a composite panel the next day, ref OF
160641 -     5 line 249.
160642 -
160644 -  ..
160645 - I have put myself on the panels to address Sherrill's concern from the
160646 - Project World experience that the panels will not be lively and
160647 - informative.  My grasp of the material ensures a good range of issues
160648 - will be engaged, and all of the speakers can be challenged by
160649 - questions that are of interest to the audience.
160650 -
160652 -  ..
160653 - Sunday Panel on Current use of Technology
160654 -
160655 - Followed up discussions with Ross to demo Lotus Organizer and possibly
160656 - Lotus Notes, ref SDS 29 line 71.  I penciled him in for now at ref OF
160657 - 5 line 242.
160658 -
160659 - Morris Jones has already agreed to do this, ref SDS 9 line 99.
160661 -  ..
160662 - Concepts for this panel are at ref SDS 29 line 88.
160663 -
160665 -  ..
160666 - We need to dig up some other voices for the final panel on Sunday
160667 - where technology has been applied in some manner approximating SDS, so
160668 - the closing panel is not an infomercial.
160669 -
160670 -     There is likely someone at Bechtal or some vendor who could
160671 -     support this effort.  Another approach is let the panel discussion
160672 -     focus on the step of manual Communication Metrics, and the
160673 -     evolution needed in hardware and software to reach that goal.
160675 -    ..
160676 -   [See follow up at ref SDS 30 line 111 and ref SDS 36 line 63.]
160677 -
160678 -
160679 -
1607 -

SUBJECTS
Order of Speakers, Time

1803 -
180401 -  ..
180402 - Order of Speakers, Flow of Ideas
180403 -
180404 - Worked at developing a consistent flow of ideas based on meetings and
180405 - materials received from speakers.  Made Walsh the only speaker for
180406 - Friday night, so we end on a high note, per Morris' recommendation at
180407 - ref SDS 16 line 498.
180409 -  ..
180410 - I added the titles of talks from the work at ref SDS 15 line 62.
180412 -  ..
180413 - Decided to go with Tom's description of his presentation, but added
180414 - the solution as Gilder's "Power of the Microcosm," ref SDS 15 line 133.
180415 - Someone needs to make this point, and Tom is the scientist.  I am
180416 - hopeful David Vannier will support the idea by recounting the
180417 - exponential increase in CPU power as a function of scaling down the
180418 - components, per our discussion in Sep and with Marcy last week, ref
180419 - SDS 22 line 362.
180420 -
180422 -  ..
180423 - Time Analysis
180424 -
180425 - Developed a preliminary time analysis so speakers can plan the length
180426 - of their presentations, based on ideas at ref SDS 16 line 499.
180427 -
180429 -      ..
180430 -     Saturday
180431 -
180432 -     This pass looks tight.  The social hour seems like it is usually
180433 -     done earlier.  This problem can likely be solved by shaving 10
180434 -     minutes off the speaker presentations, and putting Turner in the
180435 -     morning, rather than the afternoon.
180437 -      ..
180438 -     A better idea would be to eliminate the Saturday afternoon panel,
180439 -     because the Intel presentation will be exciting, and entertaining.
180440 -     We could close there on a high note, and let everyone adjourn to
180441 -     the social hour.
180443 -      ..
180444 -     We could combine the scope of the Saturday afternoon panel with
180445 -     the Sunday panel which is mostly comprised of the same speakers.
180447 -      ..
180448 -     Or we could eliminate the early morning panel as suggested by
180449 -     Sherrill McDonald.  The early morning panel is useful because
180450 -     these speakers are mainly informational. David is an exciting
180451 -     speaker, Dr. Brusman is a professional, so he should be okay also.
180452 -     Dr. Landauer is a professor who has done a thouand of these
180453 -     affairs, so he should deliver something that holds the audience.
180455 -      ..
180456 -     Still it would helpful to engage the audience in the debate and
180457 -     dialog about reengineering, leadership, skills deficits and poor
180458 -     technology, so they can grasp the connection with the afternoon
180459 -     program on new skills and better technology. Additionally, many in
180460 -     the audience will have pent up questions even anger on the matter
180461 -     of reengineering, which Brusman will present as failed leadership.
180462 -     They should have an opportunity to vent those feelings which are
180463 -     actually a source of energy essential to launch a new direction.
180464 -
180466 -      ..
180467 -     Sunday Morning panel
180468 -
180469 -     I am developing today the agenda that applies recent ideas from
180470 -     discussions with Intel and Ross last night.  I am thinking of the
180471 -     panel Sunday morning.  We need someone to demonstrate how
180472 -     executives today are using technology.  Morris and Ross have
180473 -     agreed to do this. Would be nice to get someone from Microsoft.
180475 -      ..
180476 -     There would be a second panel Sunday morning to discuss how to get
180477 -     from here to there, and answer questions about issues between
180478 -     segments A and B the previous day, Saturday.
180480 -      ..
180481 -     General Hatch would have 30 minutes to an hour for his comments.
180483 -      ..
180484 -     Ahmet Taspinar should close the proceedings and set an agenda for
180485 -     follow up.
180486 -
180487 -
180488 -
180489 -
180490 -
180491 -
1805 -

SUBJECTS
Emotional State

1903 -
190401 -  ..
190402 - Emotional State Analysis
190403 -
190404 - I took a stab at evaluating the impact on the audience of the speaker
190405 - agenda, by placing an identifier in the right margin next to the
190406 - description of each speaker, per ideas developed at ref SDS 16 line
190407 - 460.
190409 -  ..
190410 - Looks like we could have a good mix of information, entertainment and
190411 - inspiration to make the event a worthwhile experience for the
190412 - membership.
190414 -  ..
190415 - Brusman is a key player on emotional state (see below), to engage the
190416 - audience and help them connect their feelings with the ideas we want
190417 - to present.
190419 -  ..
190420 - Starting off with General Hatch will help with this, but even if we
190421 - omit the General starting off, or if he cannot make two days, Brusman
190422 - alone may be adequate to create an open mood for the other speakers.
190423 -
190424 -
190425 -
190426 -
190427 -
1905 -

SUBJECTS
Brusman, Dr. Maynard
Chips, Morris Jones, V.P., Founder
Survey of Attendees
Information Revolution
Noisy, It's too noisy
Biography
Audience Participation
Email Does Not Improve Productivity,

3310 -
331101 -  ..
331102 - Followed up work at ref SDS 27 line 143.
331104 -  ..
331105 - Received Maynard's biography per our discussion yesterday.  It seems
331106 - to show the experience in addressing public settings on issues needed
331107 - for Asilomar.
331108 -
331109 -     [See follow up at ref SDS 32 line 66.]
331111 -  ..
331112 - Reengineering & Communication Breakdowns
331113 -
331114 - Dr. Brusman's experience with reengineering issues in the workplace,
331115 - shown in his biography, ref DRT 1 line 70, and in solving the kind of
331116 - communication problems reported at Lillick & Charles, and Chips &
331117 - Technologies, ref SDS 4 line 144, evidenced further at ref SDS 34 line
331118 - 64, provides an opportunity for the first speaker to connect with the
331119 - audience through interactive exercises and dialog on the relationship
331120 - between poor communications due to a hectic work pace from fewer
331121 - people chasing more information on Information Highway, and poor
331122 - performance that leads to losses that cause more reengineering.  This
331123 - defines the "spiral of implosion" set out in the thesis.
331125 -  ..
331126 - The reasons for using Brusman are that we have no other speakers who
331127 - can accomplish the scope discussed with Bill at ref SDS 23 line 76.
331128 -
331129 -     [Brusman can present "Feel Good" management ideas on better
331130 -     listening from WSJ article cited by Sherrill McDonald, per ref SDS
331131 -     31 line 176, and the notion that "talk is cheap" from review of
331132 -     Stephen Covey, ref SDS 1 line 394.]
331133 -
331134 -
331136 -  ..
331137 - Group Exercises, Audience Interaction
331138 -
331139 - The committee has recommended audience participation.
331140 -
331141 -        [See Asilomar results at ref SDS 41 line 794.]
331143 -      ..
331144 -     Dr. Brusman
331145 -
331146 -     The group exercises developed on 951114 with Bill, ref SDS 5 line
331147 -     270, and with Dr. Brusman on 951117, ref SDS 6 line 253, meet the
331148 -     objective of the Asilomar committee to engage the audience.
331149 -
331150 -     They will show how haste makes waste, how handwritten notes are
331151 -     inadequate for the Information Highway.
331152 -
331154 -      ..
331155 -     Nobody's Listening; It's Too Noisy - Too Much Email
331156 -
331157 -     Following up on correlation of email with noise, reviewed on
331158 -     951214. ref SDS 7 8402.
331159 -
331160 -        [On 960410 General Hatch complained about too much email, not
331161 -        enough time to understand it. ref SDS 38 7739.]
331163 -         ..
331164 -        [On 960627 applied in Intel's Asilomar outline on "data
331165 -        pollution." ref SDS 40 8488.]
331167 -         ..
331168 -        [On 970707 PMI paper on information entropy causing "noise"
331169 -        that hampers communication, ref SDS 42 0611.]
331171 -         ..
331172 -        [On 970728 Intel managers get 70 email a day, ref SDS 43 3325.]
331174 -      ..
331175 -     Another exercise would be to illustrate this idea in the thesis,
331176 -     ref OF 5 line 18, by asking all attendees to stand and take 30
331177 -     seconds to tell the person next to them what route they drove to
331178 -     reach Asilomar.  Let this occur for a minute, so everybody is
331179 -     talking at once.  This illustrates:
331180 -
331181 -        •  When there is a lot going on, people have the capacity to
331182 -           filter out everything but what they are immediately doing.
331184 -            ..
331185 -        •  People cannot connect up information coming in from other
331186 -           sources so it has meaning.  As a consequence the ability to
331187 -           make connections is a criteria for evaluating "listening."
331188 -           People cannot "listen" when it is too noisy!  Information
331189 -           that is not connected up is just noise.
331191 -            ..
331192 -        •  Since we cannot slow the pace of communications down, maybe
331193 -           we need to speed up the process of making the important
331194 -           connections that convert constant stream of information
331195 -           into useful knowledge.
331197 -      ..
331198 -     What is the solution?
331200 -      ..
331201 -     We need a "metric" for communication, that measures understanding
331202 -     and provides an opportunity to get it proactively, rather than
331203 -     discover it by encountering extra cost and delay from mistakes,
331204 -     as explained in the POIMS paper. ref OF 1 1106
331206 -      ..
331207 -     We cannot repeal the Information Highway. Information will not
331208 -     slow down, so we need "intelligence" to make the connections
331209 -     faster that convert all the "noise" into useful knowledge, as
331210 -     explained in the POIMS paper.  ref OF 1 0582
331212 -      ..
331213 -     We have the tools and the people.
331215 -      ..
331216 -     Do we have the leadership and the will to succeed?
331217 -
331219 -      ..
331220 -     Morris Jones
331221 -
331222 -     I have also penciled in similar interaction for Morris Jones to
331223 -     draw from the audience their ideas on what support they need in
331224 -     order to do a better job given the hectic pace of business life.
331225 -     The audience can help build the system they need to save their
331226 -     jobs from reengineering by designing a new job for those who have
331227 -     been reengineered out of a job.  This is a classic process of
331228 -     bottom up design, improving productivity by re-allocation of
331229 -     resources.
331231 -      ..
331232 -     He can enlist the audience in naming this new role: Communication
331233 -     Manager, Process Analyst, Communication Analyst.
331235 -      ..
331236 -     Morris has objected to doing an interactive presentation on the
331237 -     grounds this would entail being a facilitator which would detract
331238 -     from the time available for remarks, ref SDS 17 line 309.  We need
331239 -     to visit with him about the advantages of using his spot for this
331240 -     audience participation for the reasons described here.
331242 -      ..
331243 -     I disclosed these ideas in an email to Bill with cc to Morris this
331244 -     evening via ref DIT 1 line 46.
331245 -
331247 -      ..
331248 -     Pre-registration Survey
331249 -
331250 -     Consideration is needed of developing input from attendees through
331251 -     the event notification and signup.  Possibly a survey form could
331252 -     be prepared for attendees to fill out in registering for the
331253 -     event.  This would be another form of input that would take up
331254 -     less time from Morris' remarks.  I have noted this in the current
331255 -     schedule at
331256 -
331257 -
331258 -
331259 -
3313 -

SUBJECTS
Turner, Alan Wetzel, Steve Rule

3403 -
3404 - Summary/Objective
340501 -  ..
340502 - Followed up work at ref SDS 26 line 124 and ref SDS 20 line 197, and
340503 - ref DIP 8 line 27.
340505 -  ..
340506 - Bill said Steve Rule called him today and advised they are still
340507 - waiting for one of the team members to complete some work on their
340508 - presentation.  This follows up my email to Bill at ref DIP 8 line 27.
340510 -  ..
340511 - Steve will call Bill or me to advise when the material is ready and
340512 - schedule a meeting for review.
340513 -
340514 -     [See follow up at ref SDS 33 line 100.]
340515 -
340517 -  ..
340518 - Communication Ideas
340519 -
340520 - The ideas and procedures I want Turner to present per ref SDS 10 line
340521 - 154, are evident in the procedures manual for the NBD v. S&W matter at
340522 - ref SDS 11 line 254.
340523 -
340524 -
340525 -
340526 -
3406 -