7th Annual Bryce Canyon Deming Forum (2 Days)

Day 1: From Red Square Puzzles to Blue Pen Companies – Discover and Address Hidden Barriers to Teamwork

Learn about the foundations of teamwork and the connecting power and potential this provides to all organizations. As Dr. Deming believed, working together is fundamental to both solving and preventing problems while providing the ability to improve how they operate continually. Using interactive activities, participants will learn how to discover opportunities for moving from the “Old Economics” of managing actions (parts, tasks, and milestones) to the “New Economics” of managing interactions.

Note: Day 1 is limited to 60 participants.

Location: SUU Great Hall

Day 2: Systems Thinking in an AI World

Join us for Deming’s famous Red Bead Experiment, an introduction to how systems thinking is different from other management practices, and a panel of practitioners putting systems thinking to work in government now. Spend the last hour of the day in a structured round-robin with presenters, including Dr. Deming’s grandson and Executive Director of The Deming Institute, Kevin Cahill, and long-time Deming practitioner Dennis Sergent.

Panelists:

  • Rob Dotson, City Manager, Enoch, Utah
  • Ravi Roy, Professor of Public Administration, Southern Utah University
  • Don Wood, IT Executive Director, Wasatch County & Commissioner, State of Utah’s Privacy Commission
  • David Zook, County Executive, Cache County, Utah

Location: SUU Aviation Hangar

Lunch and beverages are included on both days.

Facilitators

Bill Bellows, Ph.D.
President, InThinking Services, Inc.

Bill Bellows is 35+ year specialist in the fields of Quality and Engineering Management. In addition to his role as Adjunct Professor for California State University, Northridge and Southern Utah University, he serves as President of InThinking Services, partnering with clients to facilitate both the understanding and application of the Deming Philosophy and integrating this philosophy within a greater framework of “better thinking about thinking,” a concept known as “InThinking.”

Bill’s career includes 26 years of employment with Rocketdyne, the world’s premier liquid rocket engine company, providing leadership for “InThinking.” In addition to extensive application experience in the continual improvement of Rocketdyne’s products, processes, and services, these efforts included the design of a highly integrated curriculum of 200+ hours of learning events, known as “An InThinking Roadmap.”

Upon retiring Rocketdyne in 2016, Bill joined the The W. Edwards Deming Institute® for 2.5-years as Deputy Director to share his lessons learned within a worldwide Deming community. Today, as a member of The Deming Institute’s Advisory Council, he continues to tirelessly coach, mentor, facilitate, and advocate for the Institute’s aim.

Audiences for Bill’s presentations and seminars include after-school programs in elementary schools, graduate students at Northwestern University, as well as corporate, university, and public classes across the United Kingdom. Bill earned his BS, MS, and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. In addition to his employment by Rocketdyne, Bill worked as a heat transfer engineer in the gas turbine industry for Textron Lycoming in Stratford, Connecticut. In this role, he gained experience as an in-house problem-solving consultant, facilitator, and instructor, working in critical Engineering-Manufacturing Task Forces.

Away from work, Bill serves as a member of the Deming Medal Committee for the American Society of Quality. He was also the founding president of the In2:InThinking Network, a position he held from 2001 through 2016.   He lives in Santa Clarita, California with wife, Monica.

 

YouTube video

 

Bill’s presentation at The W. Edwards Deming Institute’s 2017 Bryce Canyon Society Conference

YouTube video
Dennis Sergent
Sergent Results Group

Dennis Sergent is President and Principal Consultant with the Sergent Results Group (SRG). In this role, he integrates the efforts of a team of contractors to a common aim: serving customers and clients with quality consulting, learning, and coaching.

Dennis has over 20 years of knowledge with experience in delivering operations leadership, consulting, and learning programs in manufacturing, service, education, non-profit, and governmental economic sectors.  He has considerable knowledge and expertise from his work with companies and organizations like Accu-Tool, America By Rail, Ameritraining, AT&T, Chemical Bank, Cisco Systems, Dayton Defense, Michigan Department of Health & Human Services, Michigan Good Government, Southwest Bell Corporation, Speedway, and numerous others.

He’s published several research papers, has delivered hundreds of keynotes, and learning workshops, and his The Science of Improvement – A Guide to Continual Quality Improvement (CQI)” is in its 7th edition.  He teaches the 12-week curriculum from it 2-3 times a year.

Dennis has also volunteered at the Northern Illinois Food Bank, the Midland Lions Club, and has served on the boards of Dayton Defense, was chair of the Capital Quality Initiative, and chair of the Michigan Lean Consortium, where he remains as a Board Advisor.

Dennis joined The Deming Institute Advisory Council in 2023.

Kevin Edwards Cahill

Kevin Edwards Cahill is Dr. Deming’s grandson and Executive Director of The W. Edwards Deming Institute®. He also serves on the Board of Trustees, where he is president and a successor founding trustee.

Kevin is responsible for guiding the global efforts to achieve the aim of The Deming Institute and leads their strategic planning, management, operations, marketing and communications efforts. He travels, speaks, writes and presents on behalf of The Deming Institute® and in support of his grandfather’s message. Kevin is a member of the ASQ Deming Medal Committee.

Previously, Kevin was co-founder and CEO of ViewBridge, Inc. The company was founded in 1999 and through its operating division, AdConnections, launched the first large-scale web-based sales system application for the broadcast television industry in 2001. AdConnections’ technology and approach helped streamline existing business practices, communications and negotiations in the US broadcast business.

Prior to that, Kevin was vice president and regional sales manager for the media rep firm, Katz Communications. His study and application of Dr. Deming’s philosophy led to his 1988 selection as a founding member of the Katz Kosmic Committee, a group tasked with providing guidance and leadership in the transformation to a new sales system. As chairman of the committee from 1995-1998 he helped guide the design and implementation of various sales, technology, and management systems.

Kevin was born and raised in Washington DC and graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in history. He currently resides in Ketchum, Idaho with his wife Judy, who volunteers full-time for The Deming Institute and serves on their Advisory Council.

In July of 2022, Kevin had the exciting opportunity to speak at the Tugboat Institute’s Evergreen Conference. He discussed his grandfather’s philosophy, his impact on the world, and how modern businesses can grow and thrive by putting people first.

 

Kevin Cahill standing in front of a screen, in the middle of his presentation.

Click here or on the image to view the video on the Tugboat Institute’s Evergreen Journal online.

 

YouTube video

 

YouTube video
Dr. Ravi Roy
The W. Edwards Deming Institute®

Ravi is The Deming Institute’s inaugural Fellow. He is also Director of the W. Edwards Deming Quality, Innovation & Leadership Incubator (QUIL), and Senior Consultant of Quality of Management in the Department of Aviation at Southern Utah University. (Read More)

Day 1 Program

This year’s Bryce Canyon Society Deming Forum features an in-person 7-hour seminar on the foundations of teamwork and the connecting power and potential this provides to all organizations. As Dr. Deming believed, working together is fundamental to both solving and preventing problems while providing the ability to improve how they operate continually.  Towards this end, individual and group proficiency in the principles and examples of “thinking together” is fundamental to organizations that “work together, learn together, and think together” and how they share and deploy resources.  In the new economy, the systemic utilization of resources will be a necessary condition, fundamental to how all organizations operate.

This highly interactive learning event aims to reveal blind spots to teamwork and presents new fundamental concepts and strategies from the Deming philosophy. These strategies will shift organizations in a new direction, embedded with the vibrant benefits of a collaborative environment. This powerful new framework, enables leaders to better manage their resources, including, but not limited to, time, money, knowledge, equipment, and people.

As designed, this seminar presents Dr. Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge both implicitly and explicitly, with the significance of each element of the four elements (systems, variation, knowledge, and psychology), plus their interactions, revealed through a series of “Organization Simulations.”

Learning Objectives:  Attendees of this seminar will take their “next steps” in;

1. Understanding the leadership skills for managing interdependent actions, as defined by an evolving understanding of W. Edwards Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge

2. Learning how to discover opportunities for moving from the “Old Economics” of managing actions (parts, tasks, and milestones) to the “New Economics” of managing interactions

3. Discovering how traditional management systems are designed to manage an endless list of symptoms, resulting from not knowing how to lead with a “systems view”

4. Gaining an appreciation of two fundamental modes of thinking which operate in our blind spots, an awareness of which allows for shifting from a focus on “siloes” and “big problems” to “synergy” and “great opportunities” (for investment)

5. Recognizing the competitive advantage of understanding the differences between Compliance Excellence (a focus on Actions, in isolation) and Contextual Excellence (a focus on Actions, viewed as a system, also known as Interactions)

 

Day 2 Program

Kevin Cahill: “Why Deming, Why Now?”

Dr. Bill Bellows: “The Red Bead Experiment”

Beginning in 1980 until his passing in December 1993, Dr. Deming presented a transformative seminar known as “Four Days With Dr. Deming.”  A cornerstone of this event was a simulation of factory life, his famous “Red Bead Experiment,” with seminar attendees serving as the factory’s willing workers and Dr. Deming as the foreman.  With implications expanding far beyond the manufacturing environments of factories, Dr. Deming used this experiment to remind us that the performance of any organization is a function of how well the overall system is managed. This fun activity will quickly show why managers need to understand the Deming philosophy.

Dennis Sergent: “The Deming Difference”

This session will help you and your team explore the integration of people, systems, and processes. Together, you’ll gain exposure to the principles of managing variation and encouraging continual improvement, sparking a shift in perspective that reveals new possibilities for action. This introduction to Deming’s philosophy aims to inspire a deeper curiosity and a yearning to explore how these ideas can transform your organization’s future.

Dr. Bill Bellows: “Beyond Looking Good”

Over 40 years ago, Dr. Deming stated, “We are in a new economic age. We can no longer live with commonly accepted levels of delays, mistakes, defective materials, and defective workmanship.”  One way to test for what is commonly accepted problems is to ask “How much time is spent every day in organizations discussing parts, tasks, suppliers, customers, activities, and program milestones which are going well?” Often, very little.  Although introduced in the 1980s as a better way to manage quality, the Deming philosophy is gaining momentum in the 21st century as a better way to manage systems. Guided by Dr. Deming’s insights, organizations possess limitless opportunities to shift their efforts from problem solving to problem prevention and continual improvement and thereby move beyond “looking good.”

Deming & Reflective Practice (Panel)

Panelists:

  • Rob Dotson, City Manager, Enoch, Utah
  • Ravi Roy, Professor of Public Administration, Southern Utah University
  • Don Wood, IT Executive Director, Wasatch County & Commissioner, State of Utah’s Privacy Commission
  • David Zook, County Executive, Cache County, Utah

Round Robin with the Presenters 

Registration

Please click here to register.

 

Registration fees:

  • Students/Faculty/Administrators: Free
  • Utah residents: Free
  • Non-Utah residents: $1,000

Lunch and beverages are included.

At A Glance
Tuesday, March 18, 2025 throughWednesday, March 19, 2025
Location
Southern Utah University
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