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Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's A Thinking Roadmap

Note by Timothy T. Higgins

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Beginning in 1995, colleagues within Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) in Canoga Park, California (then a division of Rockwell International) created the concept of "A Thinking Roadmap" as a means to formally integrate their classroom education efforts (both seminars and workshops), all with the aim of leading a thinking transformation, both individual and organizational. The need for the thinking transformation is to foster better thinking about sub-systems, psychology, variation, knowledge, and their interactions - elements recognized as the basis of W. Edwards Deming's R20; System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK)". In seeing the vast opportunities for simultaneously improving the thinking skills of the entire enterprise, including employees, suppliers, and customers, Rocketdyne's Enterprise Thinking Network was formed to lead a thinking transformation, with a Thinking Roadmap as a means to create awareness of the thinking of Russell Ackoff, Edward de Bono, W. Edwards Deming, Tom Johnson, and Genichi Taguchi, to name a few of the thinking pioneers whose writings and teachings they have incorporated into their roadmap.

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Some Discussions and Thought pieces:

Bellows, B. 2015. Ongoing Discussion "Thought Piece". The Good, The Bad, and The Beautiful: A Brief History of Quality.
ThoughtPiece-Bellows.pdf

Gillett, J., P. Simpson and S. Clarke. 2015. Ongoing Discussion “Thought Piece” for Aerojet Rocketdyne's In Thinking Network. ISO 9001: 2015 supports Dr. Deming’s approach. ThoughtPiece-Gillett.pdf

McKeon, A. and G. Ranney. 2013. Ongoing Discussion "Thought Piece". Thinking about management from a climate change perspective. Presentation at Aerojet Rocketdyne's InThinking Network. (September): 1-29. (Note).

Ranney, G. B. 2009. Remembering NUMMI. In2: In Thinking Network Insights. Ranney-RememberingNummi.pdf

Smith, T. 2015. Ongoing Discussion "Thought Piece". A Personal Development Strategy for Safety from Aerojet Rocketdyne's InThinking Network. ThoughtPiece-Smith.pdf

Stonefield, P. 2015. Ongoing Discussion “Thought Piece”. Judgment to Discernment by Peter Stonefield. Host: Bill Bellows for Aerojet Rocketdyne’s InThinking Network. ThoughtPiece-Stonefield.pdf

The W. Edwards Deming Institute Podcast. (Link to the podcast).