INVITATION

January 1, 2009

To governors, executives, administrators, and managers

INVITATION TO METHODS-BASED MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE The June 1-5 2009 Conference on Methods-Based Management at Utah State University will prepare you for increased performance in your organizations in several ways. You will learn how to enrich your commercial and service offerings to clients and customers. You will learn how to match the knowledge of your organization with existing technological infrastructures and give you more grounding for future technology planning. You will also find keys to gaining higher levels of cooperation and camaraderie among your employees and partners.

In November of 1992, I learned something that rocked my world - at least, professionally. I learned that the basics of logic are simple. I learned that computerizing logic can be concise and straightforward even though the content itself can be very complex. As an MBA with a decade of experience in finance and operations, this insight was different than anything I had encountered in my education or experience. Two questions came to mind, though:

1. If the managers and overseers of organizations were to gain control over the logic of their organizations, would that be a good thing? Clearly, though my mind was racing, given the possibilities for improved performance in organizations from cognitive command of technology by those principally responsible for performance, I was soon filled with concern. I knew of no model in support of such an environment. Would chaos be the result?
   
   
2. What models, what examples could be presented to governors, executives, and managers of organizations as examples of success? Surely, though small enterprises enjoy a unified control model, large organizations suffer from cognitive overload, making it difficult for large numbers of people to work in harmony. This is a particular challenge where complexity and change are evident.

It has taken me sixteen years of work and study to arrive at a point at which these ideas and their implications can be presented. From a business standpoint, dealing with the first of the two questions, I offer a collection of models and concepts that I refer to as Methods-Based Management. This is a collection of approaches to establishing strategies and implementing policies and processes. Included are a comprehensive review of quality/lean methods at attaining control (which I refer to as Dual Control), the knowledge model referred to earlier, and social network analysis. Special attention is granted in Methods-Based Management to the work of McGregor and others in the establishment of positive, supportive organizational and network cultures.

The second question is answered in this case with music. Other examples of cooperative communities can be found in sports, certain organizations, and in some societies. Nature itself is a good example. In the conference, you will not just enjoy a symbolic rehearsal of music's salient benefits, but a studied set of performances and examples of how professional musicians operate - demonstrated by leading musicians themselves. You will experience how they achieve such high levels of performance and how they have learned to command the realities of sound and sound production. You may even have the chance to wield a conductor's baton yourself with their guidance. What musical artists have accomplished by means of their common language, we can also do with ours.

I invite you to the June 2009 Methods-Based Management Conference at Utah State University where we will present these findings and their implications. In short, the implications are thus: You can now do substantially more with less. As an organization, you can stop making costly mistakes. As a participant in a network of providers, you can anticipate and satisfy the desires of your clients and customers, though complex and changing,