August 26 and 27: Join Ariane David, The Veritas Group and Bill Bellows, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne’s monthly “Ongoing Discussion” webinar. The topic this month is “Sustainable Thinking Transformation”.

Click here for the Participant Survey and to receive the conference call information once you complete the survey.

From Bill Bellows, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne

“Ariane and I have been meeting regularly for the past 5 years, with many conversations on the topic of culture, as well as thinking about thinking and the limitations of defining Systems Thinkers as those who “think of the big picture,” as if “big” could be enclosed and not actually be made larger and larger still, well beyond big.

“An advance might be to think of systems of all sizes as sub-systems, fitting into still larger sub-systems.

“Our topic for this month follows from designing a 3.5 hour seminar on the topic of sustainability, with respect to a thinking transformation, such as the ongoing efforts within PWR that began in the mid 1990s.

“We were moved to explore sustainability after comparing notes and sensing that much of the content of sustainability conversations that surrounded us appeared to emanate from a greater need for environmental awareness.

“Without discounting this need to explore sustainability in this context, we also saw value in expanding the conversation into other dimensions, including the sustainability of relationships within organizations, between departments, between them and their customers and suppliers, with the future, with the communities in which they operate, and with the environment as well, on a list that does not end.

“Such is the nature of the conversation we’d like to host in this month’s Ongoing Discussion, with our Thought Piece, titled Sustainable Thinking Transformation, available for download at this link.

“Our ambition is to dedicate the first hour of each day’s call to exploring the differences between two types of organizations using a simple model explained in the Thought Piece. Given this model, we’d like to end the first hour with two questions

What does sustainability mean in both organizations?

What are the obstacles to sustainability in both organizations?

“The second hour on both days will be dedicated to a conversation on the participants’ answers to these questions, with a focus on the lessons to be learned when considering the impact of Chris Argyris’s concepts of single and double-loop learning, with details on both available online at this here.”

Biographies

Bill Bellows
Bill Bellows is an Associate Fellow in the InThinking Network at United Technologies’ Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne business unit in Canoga Park. He is known within Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and his previous employer, The Boeing Company, and for his efforts to provide insights to the advantages of thinking together, learning together, and working together. Audiences for his classes have also reached after-school program in elementary schools, graduate students at Northwestern University, public workshops across the U.S., as well as corporate, university, and public classes across the U.K..

Away from work, Bill serves as a board member of the W. Edwards Deming Institute, the Volunteers of America – Los Angeles chapter, and the American Youth Soccer Organization – Valencia, California section. He is also a founding board member and current President of the In2:InThinking Network, a non-profit company dedicated to the pursuit of “better thinking about thinking,” for individuals and organizations. Bill earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

Ariane David
Ariane David specializes in Human Dynamics Strategy in organizations including the assessment of the “secret life” of organizations. She is the co-founder and managing partner of The Veritas Group, a human and organizational development consulting firm. Ariane is a Senior Lecturer at California State University, Northridge, Masters in Public Policy program, and executive director of the National University Center for Organizational Excellence.

Ariane has served as a special advisor to numerous boards of directors of non-profit and for profit organizations as well as project based groups including the SEC Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprise.

Ariane’s specialties include critical thinking, speaking, and writing, organizational change, systems thinking, organizational learning, culture development, and executive/management development. Clients, past and present, include Mercury Insurance, Fredericks of Hollywood, Amgen, Frito Lay, Geico and scores of middle market companies across industries.

Ariane holds a Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Systems. Her research and practical experience in the area of whistle-blowing has made her a recognized expert in this field. She is the developer of the Veritas Interpersonal Assessment System. She is a speaker and author.

Contact Bill and Ariane

Contact Bill and Ariane by email at william.bellows@pwr.utc.com and adavid@theveritasgroup.com, respectively, with any questions you would like to share with them in preparation for this OD session.