7th Annual Bryce Canyon Deming Forum (2 Days)

Join us for this 2-day event on March 18th and 19th! Please note: Day 1 and Day 2 are in different locations. See below for details.

Day 1: From Red Square Puzzles to Blue Pen Companies – Discover and Address Hidden Barriers to Teamwork
Location: Southern Utah University R. Haze Hunter Alumni Center (405 W University Blvd, Cedar City, UT 84720)

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.

Day 2: Systems Thinking in an AI World
Location: Southern Utah University Aviation Hangar (2410 Aviation Way, Cedar City, UT 84721)

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.

Start Time End Time Activity Presenter(s)
8:30 9:00 Registration / Coffee
9:00 9:10 Opening Remarks Ravi Roy
9:15 9:35 Why Deming, Why Now? Kevin Cahill
9:35 9:45 Break
9:45 11:25 The Red Bead Experiment Bill Bellows
11:30 12:35 The Deming Difference Dennis Sergent
12:35 1:35 Lunch
1:35 2:35 Deming & Reflective Practice (Panel) 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
2:40 4:10 Round-Robin Activity Kevin Cahill, Ravi Roy, Dennis Sergent, Bill Bellows
4:15 4:30 Closing Remarks Ravi Roy

Additional details:
Both days will include lunch and beverages (please let us know on the registration form if you plan to attend one or both days.)
Free for students, faculty, and administrators, as well as Utah residents.
$600 Early Bird until March 14th / $1,000 for non-Utah residents (for one or 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
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)

Dennis Sergent
Sergent Results Group

Dennis is an advisor to senior executives and board members.  He specializes in leading organizational transformation while working with teams to facilitate learning the science of improvement and the power of methods with knowledge.

Dennis helps clients deliver better outcomes for their customers. He has served in executive operating positions in large, complex, global corporations as well as mid-size organizations including non-profits, public administrations and educational institutions.  He has deep expertise helping organizations make changes to their structure, systems, and processes to improve results.

Dennis has been a featured speaker at many conferences, universities and corporate events. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the W. Edwards Deming Institute. He has served as board member and Chair of Michigan Lean Consortium; Board member and President of Capital Quality Initiative; Board member of Dayton Defense Contractors Association.

Day 1 Program

From Red Square Puzzles to Blue Pen Companies – Discover and Address Hidden Barriers to Teamwork
Location: Southern Utah University R. Haze Hunter Alumni Center (405 W University Blvd, Cedar City, UT 84720)

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

Systems Thinking in an AI World
Location: Southern Utah University Aviation Hangar (2410 Aviation Way, Cedar City, UT 84721)

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.

Start Time End Time Activity Presenter(s)
8:30 9:00 Registration / Coffee
9:00 9:10 Opening Remarks Ravi Roy
9:15 9:35 Why Deming, Why Now? Kevin Cahill
9:35 9:45 Break
9:45 11:25 The Red Bead Experiment Bill Bellows
11:30 12:35 The Deming Difference Dennis Sergent
12:35 1:35 Lunch
1:35 2:35 Deming & Reflective Practice (Panel) 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
2:40 4:10 Round-Robin Activity Kevin Cahill, Ravi Roy, Dennis Sergent, Bill Bellows
4:15 4:30 Closing Remarks Ravi Roy

Location

March 18th: Southern Utah University R. Haze Hunter Alumni Center (405 W University Blvd, Cedar City, UT 84720)

March 19th: Southern Utah University Aviation Hangar (2410 Aviation Way, Cedar City, UT 84721)

At A Glance
Tuesday, March 18, 2025 throughWednesday, March 19, 2025
Location
Southern Utah University (Day 1: Hunter Alumni Center, Day 2: Aviation Hangar)
Who Should Attend

Students, employees and volunteers at all levels of organizations, small and large, including industry, government, education, healthcare, and non-profits.

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