Tag: conference

Day 1 Afternoon- New Rules for Work Symposium

A Door Opens – Making Space for Innovation facilitated by Keith McCandless and Nancy White

“Notice and stop counterproductive behaviors that stifle creativity and innovation”

I felt they struggled to explain the concept of a TRIZ and the breakouts struggled to have an impact as a result. In hindsight, it was definitely a bit of my coming at the methodology a little too vigorously from my quality background. So a bit of an learning moment for me.

I’ll be contemplating this picture for weeks. There was a lot to absorb.

The NeuroScience of Teaming by Dr Michael Platt and Elizabeth Johnson

Start with the need to make time to socialize with coworkers at work. Back to the idea of fun.

Good relationships are critical in business. Finding ways to connect is critical for well-being. We are wired to connect.

The need to practice our social networking and skills. I feel that these days, so often I feel out of shape here after the last few weeks.

Our attention is one of the aspects of our neurobiology we have control over and through attention we can prioritize what our brain processes.

All about meeting structure comes back to managing attention. Discusses how eye contact causes processes in brain that link to team work and trust, and how this is an engineering challenge.

Importance of breaks.

All comes back to building relationships. I was interested in there is causal evidence here around synchronizing as a biomarker.

Perspective taking – shifting frame of reference to someone else’s.

Impact of the hierarchy on perspective taking. It’s not good.

Importance of empathy.

Facilitated Mixer: An Abundant Exchange

Fun experiment with 3 assumptions

  1. Visuals make everything easier to remember
  2. Small groups make valuable conversations easier
  3. We can create benefits that live beyond this workshop

Love the concept that the act of receiving help and knowledge is part of our being generous towards our peers. Thinking of abundance and applying it in professional development is a favorite topic of mine.

Deliberately thinking of what abundance I have that may help others fill their needs, and sharing what challenges I need help on was a powerful way to end my day.

Day 1 Morning – New Rules for Work Symposium

This will be my rough notes of the symposium.

Events should always walk-the-walk. What are we told we need to do?

  1. Ensure everyone understands the purpose, the desired outcome, the manner of interaction
  2. Cover the technology. Make sure there is room for mistakes and what to do when it happens
  3. Engage people early and often

The symposium started strong here. And it was great to see so many excited individuals ready to engage.

How to Unlock Creativity Through the Power of Play – Charlie Hoehn

Steve Job (or in this case Steve Jobs adjacent) anecdotes are usually a way to make me groan a little. The guy was not a good person to emulate. And anyone now associated with Tesla is probably someone I don’t want to meet.

I like the Stuart Brown quote of the “Opposite of play isn’t work it’s depression.”

Stresses the key of enthusiastically saying yes. Of co-workers as playmates and work as play.

We played storyspine.

Freedom, mastery and connection – three elements required for play.

Okay, people stop referencing JK Rowling! She’s a horrible person and does not deserve our attention.

Useful exercise a play history. What activities did growing up and did for fun. Jot them down and those are what you were intrinsically motivated to do. I did that here a while back – Story is critical, or why tabletop roleplaying made me the quality professional I am today – Investigations of a Dog (investigationsquality.com)

  1. Work is play
  2. Co-workers are playmates
  3. Office is a playground

If a leader refuses to be vulnerable and play it never feels right. Always an air of eggshells and fear.

Joy Bond – Psychological Safety

Be willing to play the fool

Delivering happiness.com – help for ROI discussions

  1. What stands in the way of you and team feeling safe to play?
  2. What activities would allow you to “play the fool” around your co-workers?

All work and no play leads to culture of fear. Leads to burnout.

Ways to make office creative

  1. Walking meetings
  2. Company outings during work
  3. Company potlucks during work
  4. Contests during work
  5. Playful cues with no obligations to use them

RECESS – The act of stepping away creates creativity

Great question – how do we incentive play in the workplace.

Started kind of weak (and I resicovered my dislike of quoting) but very valuable session. I’ll read his work.

When Virtual Communication Might Curb Creativity – Dr Melanie Brucks

“Can we collaborate when interact on-line”

Shared environment and visual focus and the influence on divergent thinking and convergent thinking is pretty interesting. The mimicking of experiences.

The rating scale for creativity is fascinating. Something we talk about a lot in idea management. Need to followup on this.

Great science dose to start thinking about creativity and work.

Understanding the Power of Environmental Space on Creativity, Collaboration, and Innovation – Matt Chadder

Environmental space capturing attention is a critical thing for design of workspace. I’m shocked we aren’t talking about this more in Lean circles.

I need to read more about this. There’s something deep here for GxP spaces and human error reduction.

Rest spaces – the company cafeteria – as the number one place to manage stress. Looking forward to discussing that in a continuous improvement issue. No surprise hospitals are Matt’s reference.

Environmental spaces to reset culture (3-4 days to seed the new behavior)

New Ways of Working Symposium

It is critical to carve out the time to develop and challenge oneself, to listen to external exertise and to share with peers. You cannot wait for others to make the time for you to engage in learning.

The learning I am looking forward to is the New Way of Working virtual conference next week co-hosted by two of my favorite thinkers in this space – Elise Keith and Dave Mastronardi.

I’m looking forward to challenging myself on the best ways to work in-person, virtually and hybrid.

I’m told there is still time to register!

ASQ Poster Session

In 2023 I start my leadership cycle through the Food, Drug and Cosmetic division, starting as chair-elect. This means time to do some content creation! Here’s the first thing I have planned.

The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Division will be hosting a poster share on February 28th from 3-5 pm in Boston, with a cocktail hour afterwards (5-6). The event is being sponsored by Veeva Systems and will be free (big shout out to Veeva!)

We are looking for individuals and companies to share a poster on the theme of “What are you proud of in your eQMS? What about your implementation or continued use stands out and that you want to share?”

If interested in presenting a poster, please complete this form.

We ask that all posters be completed by the 22nd of February so we can get them printed.

We will record the poster presentation and make them available through my.ASQ after the event. Poster presenters must sign a standard ASQ waiver (we will make it available before the event).

An event sign-up will come out in January.

The event is open to all. While I’m thinking the focus will be heavily focused to FD&C and medical device members, other quality professionals will get value.

So please present a poster! I am very excited about this sort of sharing of ideas. I want to keep experimenting with alternative ways to share information and network, and I think the old poster session is something that has renewed utility in this day-and-age. Sort of a speed conference. Easier to create a poster and can be a compact event.

Boscon 2022

I am pretty excited that Boscon, the local ASQ section’s conference is back on and calling for proposals. So for local folks, a good time to share some best practices and case studies.

BOSCON is an annual quality conference hosted by ASQ Boston. BOSCON is the New England signature event where national and international quality professionals hear speakers discuss different quality topics and network with them. The conference focus for 2022 is Navigating Quality Performance in a post-Pandemic World (Risk management, Impact/risk & mitigation of pandemic on companies, Work-life balance, Resource management, Employee Safety, Virtual/ remote workspace, Customer satisfaction, Supply chain).

Tracks and possible focus

  • Technical Quality tool (CAPA, 5S, SPC, Lean 6 sigma, etc);
  • IT/Software (Cybersecurity, cloud, virtual workspace, etc);
  • Pandemic Supply Chain (Lean reconsidered, Change management);
  • Personnel/People (Work-life balance, resource management).

Not interested in presenting, but want to participate as a volunteer?
Contact Snehal Rane  Snehalrane90@gmail.com BOSCON 2022 Chair

B0SCON 2022 PRESENTATION PROPOSAL FORM

We invite you to submit your proposal(s) for BOSCON 2022 oriented towards one of the track areas above.  Please provide a concise and clear description of your session topic and the values it provides to our attendees. 50 minutes are provided for your presentation and any Q&A.

KEY DATES

  • August 15th => Please complete the form referenced below and submit to both Snehalrane90@gmail.com and dmanalan@alum.mit.edu as soon as possible, and no later than August 15th.
  • September 1st => Applicants will be notified if the submitted proposal was accepted, confirmation requires a signed speaker agreement.
  • September 15th => Sign speaker agreement and submit.
  • October 1st => Submit final set of slides by October 1st.

Fill out the form- Word version at

https://1drv.ms/w/s!Aq7kI8QOQQN5hD-FL4JLDqGKF8yc?e=USkE6y