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Who is a Systems Thinker?
A few decades before The Big Bang Theory introduced television audiences to fictional theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper, astronomer Carl Sagan was one of the most well-known non-fictional US scientists. Sagan was also known to have once offered his advice to chefs, specifically on how to prepare an apple pie. "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch," he offered, "You must first invent the universe." With a similar regard for seeing systems, the 19th century Scottish-American conservationist John Muir once reflected, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."
Using binary logic, one might conclude that Sagan and Muir are systems thinkers, where a system, to borrow from organizational theorist and 2006 Forum keynote speaker, Russell Ackoff, "is more than the sum of its parts, an indivisible whole. Closer to home, you might consider yourself to be a systems thinker and label your boss or another executive in your organization as "not a systems thinker". Or, could it be that all of us are thinking about systems and what differentiates us is the size of the system that we consider in a given situation - 100 feet, 1000 feet, 100,000 feet, the universe, or larger, when looking for intelligent life in other galaxies? Moving from physical size to a timescale, how far into the future or past are we looking for the system in question?
Far better would be to recognize that we are all systems thinkers and all systems are boundaryless, to borrow from Shel Rovin, one of our 2007 Forum keynote speakers.
Instead of deciding who is a systems thinker, what if we shift our focus to what is the perceived boundary of the system in question, such as a classroom or a school district, or an automobile or a transportation system, and why was this size chosen, and not something even smaller or larger? Both questions offer insights on thinking patterns that are of potential interest when systemic solutions are needed.
If you are interested in exploring and dissolving unseen forces that stand in the way of leadership and teamwork in industry, government, and education, through
thinking together about thinking, with a focus on action, we invite you to join with peers at the In2:InThinking Network's 2016 Forum in Los Angeles, California, from June 8th through 12th, on the campus of
Woodbury University. This year, our ever timely focus will be;
"Know
" Less - "Learn" More - INNOVATE!
Expand Your Future
For more information, visit our
2016 Forum website or e-mail us at
[email protected]. Our Forum registration fee is $400 for our Weekend Conference, with a $50 discount for registrations received by midnight, Pacific Time, on April 27th. We also offer a
$200 registration fee for full-time students.
Following a change we instituted for the first time in 2015, we are charging a daily fee ($25) to participate in the Pre-Conference sessions. This fee will help us to offset expenses for meals (Continental Breakfast and Lunch) and handouts associated with these sessions. As for incidental expenses, note that
Woodbury University does not charge a parking fee.
Registration Deadlines
Register by Sunday, May 15th to reserve our discounted room rates at the
Hampton Inn
Register by Monday, June 6th to attend any of our Pre-Conference sessions
Register by Saturday, June 11th to attend our Weekend Conference
For a glimpse of the excitement we offer, link
here for a photo montage from our 2012 Forum. Link
here for a complete list of our previous 2016 Forum UPDATES.
In2:InThinking Network 2016 Forum Team
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NEW - Forum Video Subscription Service
Through the services of
Vimeo on Demand, we now offer a
Forum Video subscription series. Select videos from our Forum catalog are available for online viewing for a low monthly fee (launching at $5 per month), with new videos from our 15-year library added quarterly. Eventually, our entire Forum video library will be viewable through this subscription series, with monthly rates maintained at the level at which subscribers join. This will be a great way to revisit some of your favorite presentations or see speakers you missed.
Link
here
to learn more
.
Coming Next
Through a partnership with CC-M Productions, we are proud to announce that our Vimeo on Demand library will soon expend to include the videos such as CC-M's 7-volume "Better Management for a Changing World." Our
CC-M subscription
series will include Russ Ackoff on The New World View, The Big Picture, The New Leadership, and Doing the Right Thing Right. It also includes Gerald Suarez on Managing Fear; Change, Improvement, and Fear; and Managing Fear: How to Begin.
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Deming Institute Workshop, May 23-25, New York
The
W. Edwards Deming Institute, a 15-year "Forum Partner InThinking," is excited to announce a 2.5-day workshop on Effective & Efficient Leadership.
At this seminar you will learn to look at your organization through a new lens: a lens of how to make your system better - and thus get better results. You will gain new knowledge to remove barriers, increase efficiencies, reduce wasted time, boost motivation, and provide better insight into what's
really going on in your organization.
Link here to learn more.
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Dutch Association of Research Quality Assurance
Jubilee Conference, May 26-27, Amersvoort, NL
DARQA, the Dutch Association of Research Quality Assurance, a new "Forum Partner InThinking," is celebrating 35 years of activity with a Jubiliee event, featuring a conference on May 27th, preceded by a pre-conference on May 26th.
Quality thinking and systems thinking is
universally applicable, therefore the pre-conference and conference events welcome delegates from
ALL quality driven sectors including; chemical & energy industry, ICT, aviation/aeronautics, aerospace, automotive, lithography, education, agriculture and financial institutions.
Take full advantage of this unique opportunity to learn from the experts and ask your questions during the panel discussions by preparing questions and sending cases with your registration.
Link here to learn more about these events
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