On Wed morning I took a few free minutes to visit the famous St. Louis Arch.

The first item of interest I came upon was a Merchantile which spelled its name incorrectly but the message was clear...it called itself Levee Merchantile when we all know it should be Levy!

The ride to the top is amazing, so long as you are neither claustrophobic nor afraid of heights (which I am not). Sitting in the tiny 5 seater pod I felt as if I were being ejected from an Imperial Cruiser along with R2D2 and C2PO...

The views from the top are amazing as can be seen in the below images and I was amazed at how many WCQI conference attendees I ran into at the top! I guess I wasn't the only one playing hooky on Wed morning!

As I was exiting the elevator area I came upon some friends as can be seem below.

I always find Tuesday at WCQI to be the busiest, fullest day of the conferrence and this year was no exception.

The keynote speaker, Geek Squad CEO Robert Stephens, was entertaining and informative. One of my favorite comments was basedon an observation that Stephens made after watching Apollo 13 and he saw the uniform for his Squad. After all, "NASA is the ultimate Geek Squad." He also commented that Culture is Language. If all your team members are speaking the same language then they are establishing an organizational culture.

I attended and moderated several sessions throughout the day. I found that the residing theme through all my sessions this year was Root Cause analysis, regardless of the defined topic. I see this as a positive trend toward continual improvment.

Of course the day ended with receptions and banquet. I was invited, as a guest this year, to the President's reception. This year the event was handled quite differently than in the past. After a brief hour of snacking on finger food all the attendees joined the pre-banquet reception for an hour then we all entered the hall together. I was invited to sit with ASQ Chairman Roberto Saco and his chosen guests. While at the table I asked (and video taped) Mike Nichols and Aimee Seigler then Jim Odom and Ron Kingen about their impressions of the conference this year.

After the banquet I took some time to hang out with some old friends, to catch up...Kristen Case, you are among the best!!!!

I had several 'working' responsibilities this year at WCQI as follows:

1. Blogging - as you can see, I am fulfilling this responsibility (I hope you are enjoying!!!
2. QMD council meeting - this will happen later today.
3. Meet with the other members of the Consultants Network Leadership team.
4. I signed on to moderate several sessions for the Institute for Continual Quality Improvement conference within the conference as a member of the Quality Management Division leadership team.

• The sessions that I moderated today were both presented by Duke Okes and involved Root Cause Analysis. Following the first presentation Duke's book, Root Cause Analysis - The Core of Problem Soving and Corrective Action was available for sale and signing by Duke. I captured a bit of video during the signing.
• I also had a chat with Matt Maio about his impressions of the conference so far.
• The final session I will moderate is on Tuesday.- Sampling Plan for Process Audits by Gurbachan Chadha.

David Levy

One of my favorite parts of ASQs WCQI has always been time in the Exhibits Hall. This is where I get to see products and services available to the Quality Industry, watch demonstrations and presentations on tools, learn what's new with ASQs Divisions, see what new (and vintage) books are available from ASQ Press, grab a beverage and boxed lunch and most of all meet with friends (new and old).

Today I had lunch with the other members of the Consultants Network leadership team. We are a group of member leaders involved with developing and launching the ASQ Consultants Network. We rarely (once per year at most) meet face to face. Today we discussed how we can continually improve the network. Watch for great things to come!!!

David Levy

I thoroughly enjoyed Alan Mulally's keynote presentation this morning. For one thing he is a dynamic, lively, entertaining speaker. For another, he spoke at us for a short time and then opened the mics for Q&A. For the most part he stayed on topic and answered some thought provoking questions from the attendees.

Some of the thoughts that Mr. Mulally shared with us were:

• Ford has given him a 'Second chance to lead a global Icon'. His first being Boeing.
• At Ford they are continuously improving the business plan
• The team members both individually and collectively improve the business plan
• We 'never want to have brackets around your numbers because that means you are not adding value for your customers (he also reminded us that Ford lost $17 billion in 2006 and is now profitable once again).
• Design and produce 'best in class' product only
• Use global resources to increase intellectual property and assets
• Henry Ford practices Lean manufacturing before we knew what Lean was
• Bob King from GoalQPC told Mr. Mulally that "with a history of variong leaders at Ford and based on Demings statement that 50% are above average and 50% below average, you (Mulally) are way above average".
• Joe DeFeo from the Juran Institute asked who Ford looks up to in terms of Quality. Mulally responded that he's been a student of the Toyota System for 40 years. He also stated that he "thinks the world of Boeing".
• On the ASQ Brand, "I've been a fan fro a long time and thank ASQ for their commitment to Quality Improvement."
• 'Enjoy the journey, everybody is on board for the ride'.
• Continuous Quality Improvement is the essence of everything. Either you are improving or you are not."

David Levy

Sunday, May 23, 2010 St. Louis, MO

ASQ inducts 21 new Fellows

At the annual Fellows luncheon, ASQ Chairman, Roberto Saco read the Citations while President Pete Adres inducted the 2009 freshman class of ASQ Fellows.

As a sophomore Fellow I attended the luncheon and induction ceremony. This event is always a pleasure to be a part of as it recognizes a handful of members for thier life achievements within and outside of ASQ.

Over a superb lunch I had the pleasure of sitting and chatting with my friend Elizabeth Burns as she awaited her induction. I took a few minutes to record Elizabeth's indication.

Following the induction of all 21, we assembled them for the paparazzi to snap away...

I also had the opportunity to speak with John Mascaro, Chair of the Audit Division while he shared with me his thoughts on being elected Fellow.

Congratulations to the 21 new ASQ Fellows!

David Levy

I should start by saying that I'm referred to people I connect with by first name just because those people could be anyone. It's not intended to be something for insiders only, just a sampling of the interactions that might occur.

Sunday started with the Ideas to Action gathering. While I attempted to sit with people I didn't know, given that I've been an ASQ member since 1998, I've gotten to know quite a few member leaders. We talked at our table about collaborations that work outside of ASQ, and then talked about obstacles we might have as member leaders to perform at the same level. During lunch, the membership committee got together to prepare for the Community Leadership Institute, and then until 5pm, the member leaders there had the opportunity to choose a session and learn. After a mad dash back to th room and change, we attended the Awards presentations for sections and divisions.

Next was dinner, and although there was entertainment provided afterwards, Dani and I headed to work on our presentation again.

Aimee Siegler

A quick note to share with you some views around St. Louis:

The view from my hotel room:

Signs all around town:

Just for grins:

I arrived in St. Louis in the mid afternoon on Saturday. After using Dennis Arter’s blogged instructions for taking the MetroLink from the Airport to the downtown area I eventually arrived at the Community Leadership Institute (CLI) at about 3 pm. Before I could even get into any learning session I was happily approached by dozens of smiling faces wishing me a warm welcome. In other words, many long standing friendship continue and that is another discussion…

I finally got into the second to last session of the day targeted to Section Web Sites. As the Webmaster for the Tappan Zee Section I was quite interested to hear what Shirl Furger had to share with us. Notes to self:

· Add a link to the ASQ Calendar to my section’s web site

· Review Content Editor for validity / used by the section

· Create a regular back up and schedule to back up current site

Next it was on to the last session of the day on Using Community to Grow: Engaging the Quality Community presented by Jeanine Becker. Jeanine shared with us the newly launched socially based networking site for members and non-members alike. The tour allowed us to see various parts of ‘The Port’ including how to develop a Network (which anyone can do at any time, live!).

When the sessions were completed I had a chance to speak with a couple of attendees at the CLI. Yan Wen, a Student Member for southern California and Fred Schenkelberg, Chair of the Reliability Division shared with me their thoughts on CLI. (If you click their names above you can watch the video and hear what they had to say).

Next I took time to register for the conference…then it was off to the Quality Management Process (QMP) awards ceremony, recognizing member unit performance for the fiscal year 2008-2009.

I am thrilled to report that Division performance included:

· 15 J.S. McDermond Total Quality awards

· 4 Gold Excellence awards

· 4 Silver Excellence awards

· 6 Bronze Excellence awards

I am equally thrilled to report that Section performance included:

· 89 Total Quality awards

· 39 Gold Excellence awards

· 34 Silver Excellence awards

· 27 Bronze Excellence awards

There were additionally numerous pats of the back to highly engaged member leaders. Belinda Chavez, Steve Wilson, Marc Kellemen and Ray Crawford were excellent MCs for the event with ended with a superb dinner buffet. A fine ending to a wonderful day!

David B Levy

Ideas and Sharing, by Dennis Arter

Today started with the "Ideas to Action" gathering. Several hundred member leaders (officially and unoficially) gathered to address strategic issues in a structured - but also free form - way. Young and old, American and Croatian, male and female. All focusing our collective energy on two big topics: collaboration and global presence. As an aside, we use many acronymns in our professions. Naturally, there's an acronym for this: I-Tag.

Collaboration: What factors generate success in collaborative activities? What barriers currently prevent ASQ member units (Divisions and Sections) from achieving collaborative success? As you might imagine, several themes emerged. Success comes from 1) solid and understood goals, 2) sense of urgency that the goal is worth undertaking, and 3) good marketing for acceptance of the resulting ideas and plans. Well duh! But also profound, in that our ASQ member leaders still have a long way in perfecting these principles. Barriers include lack of transparency and poor communications. Both of these factors generate distrust. We are also using the top-down leadership models (often called command and control) to implement projects and resulting change. But our member expectations have changed with technology advancements. This generates unhappiness.

Global presence: Our Executive Director, Paul Borowski, reminded us of the top three areas of focus for our limited Society resources. Delivery of education - everywhere and many ways. Delivery and stewards of knowledge - to make theory and tools available to all. Global community - to embrace the world. Our tables were asked to explore the factors currently standing in the way of achieving a global presence. Three suggestions grabbed my attention, 1) more sharing of speakers, knowledge, and ideas for free or at-cost, 2) removing American from the name and communicating in more languages, and 3) generating credibility amongst politicians, media, business execs, and other power centers.

Of course, all these issues - in both areas - are tough to solve. It will take time and energy to turn things around. At the end of the morning's activities, we were asked, "Who is willing to come up here on the stage and be part of a team to provide some ways forward. 14 brave souls came forward. I am pleased to tell you that I was one of these brave souls. Using the huge bank of ideas generated this morning, we promised to come out with some first recommended actions in two months. Wow!

It was nice to return to St. Louis (the Customer-Supplier Division had a planning meeting here last fall), but I was somewhat surprised to see how high the water was here. If you can see what looks like a fence in the water, there should be a parking lot on the other side of that line. It was also nice to see old friends, starting in the airport in Detroit, where I stopped after the first leg of my journey.

After a metro ride to the hotel with Lori, Teresa, Gary and Dennis, Gary and I headed down by the river to find lunch with a view. There was some demolition work going on near the hotel with a big party to launch it, so we got to enjoy some free, fabulous local music.

After I took a brief nap, Dani arrived, and we dashed down to the meeting rooms as I was scheduled for my first meeting, assembling materials for the Community Leadership Institute and stuffing badges.

Our work complete, Darlene arrived, and Darlene, Dani and I headed out to have a bite to eat. Since the three of us were in the same college sorority but at different schools, it was a fun time.

Finally, Dani and I headed back to the hotel to work on our After 5 presentation on Monday, the Lean Lady Travels. It was a little later evening than we had planned, but I was fun to put our creative energies to work and enjoy some high quality chocolate at the same time.

Aimee Siegler

Yesterday, I looked at the calendar and realized that I would be leaving for St. Louis on Friday. This Friday. It reminds me of the sign on your side view car mirror that says "Objects in Mirror are Closer than they Appear."

I'm looking forward to meeting new people, learning new things, participating in the board meeting and member leader activities, and spending time with old friends. What are you looking forward to the most?

Aimee Siegler

I fly out lin less than 3 weeks and my calendar is beginning to fill up. While I do not have as many commitments as I've had in the past several years, it does look like I will have a full schedule. I look forward to see you all in St. Louis and sharing my experiences with those that do not make it to WCQI this year.

David Levy

Hello readers,

So, as usual Dennis and Aimee both arrived at the WCQI blog page before me. So my first questions is will Dennis be FIFO or FILO this year and will I be LIFO or LILO?

Big week for me, I finally made my arrangements for WCQI 2010 with plans to arrive on Saturday and stay until Wed evening. Now I just have to register for the conference. I am volunteering with the QMD as a moderator for the conference in a conference and the sessions I'll be moderating look amazing!

Meet me in St. Louis! May 22 - 26...

David Levy

Want a challenge? The ASQ Technical Program Committee is looking for a few brave souls. We are planning an Excite @ Nite! session during the WCQI opening reception on Sunday evening. Similar to Pecha Kucha and Ignite!, ten people will have an opportunity to tell a story for five minutes -- your 20 slides will automatically advance every 15 seconds! Talk about any topic of interest to you, but keep it short and exciting. Great presentations have covered: Lies I Told My Children, Quitting Smoking, My Cabin in the Woods, Riding the Subway to Work, and Exotic Foods. Expect audience feedback. More details can be found on the wiki page: http://auditguy.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Excite/Excite. Or contact Dennis Arter (dennis@auditguy.net).