HOLIDAY SPECIALS END DECEMBER 31!

These powerful video programs introduce new ideas on crucial topics that will help your organization succeed. Don't miss this important opportunity to make them part of your training tool chest!

DVDs or VHS cassettes from the Leverage Points for Change Video Series are $175/each or $249/set (regularly $295/$499) (Order Leading in a Complex World or Teams That Work)

DVDs or VHS cassettes of Senge on Leadership or Senge on Change and Learning are $259/each or $399/set (regularly $395/$595) (Order)

Offer good through December 31, 2003—simply use Priority Code DVDLEV03 when you place your order.

PEGASUS CONFERENCE CORNER
Early Highlights of the 2004 Pegasus Conference and Special Conference Registration Offers

LEARNING LINKS
Managing Delays

FACE TO FACE
The Spirit of Giving at UPS: Doing Well by Doing Good
by Kali Saposnick

Evern Cooper, president of The UPS Foundation for the last five years, oversees the strategy and implementation of all global philanthropic programs at UPS. In her role as vice president of corporate relations, she also manages UPS's relationships with major civic and community organizations nationwide. Evern will be a keynote speaker at Reshaping Corporations: Adding Value Through Responsible Business Practices, a hands-on, two-day workshop in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 25–27, 2004 (learn more about the workshop), where she will touch on the future of corporate social and environmental responsibility, its key challenges, and the opportunities it creates for businesses and society at large. The following article highlights some of the efforts UPS has made in the last 52 years to establish itself as a responsible corporate citizen.

Many large corporations today are engaged in formal initiatives to contribute to the well-being of their communities and society at large, but the ability to effectively carry out such initiatives still eludes many organizational leaders. Part of the reason is that implementing responsible practices while managing the financial, social, and environmental bottom lines may seem too incongruent a goal. One company that might serve as a model for integrating the two is UPS.

In November, UPS released its first ever sustainability report. The report, called "Operating in Unison," provides a detailed look at the company's impact on communities worldwide, both progress made and areas where the company remains constructively dissatisfied (the company's report is available online). The third largest private employer in the United States, UPS has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to help nonprofit organizations address urgent human needs. Community service comprises 25 percent of the company's mission statement, and more than 30,000 employees volunteer their time to nonprofits each year. Today the company is known as a caring, responsible corporate citizen to the people and communities it serves.

A Legacy of Philanthropy
To what does UPS attribute its philanthropic legacy? According to Evern Cooper, a key reason the company has maintained its spirit to give is because it continues to aspire to UPS founder Jim Casey's goal of "doing well by doing good." She says, "In 1951, Jim Casey established The UPS Foundation because he understood that the financial bottom line and community service are not mutually exclusive and that, in order to do both, you had to do them together. He believed in doing the right things for the right reasons, and today's UPS leadership has built on his efforts."

Read the complete interview.

Learn more about or register for the workshop, Reshaping Corporations: Adding Value Through Responsible Business Practices, or call Pegasus at 1-781-398-9700.

PEGASUS CONFERENCE CORNER
Early Highlights of the 2004 Pegasus Conference and a Special Conference Registration Offer

Building Collaborations to Change Our Organizations and the World: Systems Thinking in Action®
December 1–3, 2004, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Recognizing that none of us can transform our organizations—or the world—on our own, the 2004 Pegasus Conference will build on last year's theme, "Changing Our Organizations to Change the World," by exploring the vital role of building collaborations in creating better futures for ourselves, our organizations, and the world.

At this early stage of planning, we have confirmed keynote speaker Deborah Meier, author of In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization. Deborah is principal of the Mission Hill School in Boston and will be looking at the role of communities of practice in education. Also, Peter Senge will be with us again, and Harry Spence and Shayne Hughes have agreed to return and present a three-session skill-building track on authentic leadership. We are going to utilize the World Café methodology in some of the general sessions and add an experiential learning component as well. We will also focus on the ways systems thinking can bring more rigor and effectiveness to our collaborations.

We're delighted to host the 2004 Pegasus Conference in Boston in December. It's a magical time of year, with wondrous decorations, brilliant cultural opportunities, and fun-filled New England winter festivities. Even better, we have negotiated rock-bottom hotel room rates at the fabulous Hyatt Regency in Cambridge (only $135 per night). So plan to join us in the bright, cozy, comfortable environs of the Hyatt, where your most insightful colleagues from around the world will create a learning experience like no other.

The current special registration offers include:
• Register for the 2004 Conference now through December 19, 2003, for only $950. If you attended the 2003 conference, you can register for only $895 through December 19. (Note that these will be the lowest available rates to attend the conference.)

• Register from December 20 to December 31, 2003, for $995 and receive an audiotape or CD of your choice from the 2003 conference. (When you register for the conference using our web site, on the check-out page, enter Priority Code STA041231. In the comments field, indicate title, item #, and type of product, either audiotape or CD.)

• When you register, you will receive 10% off Pegasus products purchased on our web site, from the day you register until the conference starts on December 1, 2004. (This offer is not applicable to other conferences or newsletters and cannot be combined with volume discounts.) The sooner you register, the sooner you'll start saving on your Pegasus purchases, so sign up today!

Register on our web site, or call 1-781-398-9700.

LEARNING LINKS
Managing Delays
by Sharon Eakes

My husband, Hal, and I rented a houseboat in Florida. I knew that there was a delay between turning the steering wheel to the left and actually going to the left, yet when the boat headed toward shore, I got scared and turned sharply. I zigged and zagged down the river, finding it impossible to wait long enough after each correction.

One of the best ways to improve a system's performance is to manage its delays—the time between an action and its effects. But most of the time, when we try to manage delays, we're in crisis mode. We move quickly, coming up with fixes that may have negative, unintended consequences. When we don't immediately see results, we feel compelled to do more before we even experience the outcome of our initial intervention. Doing something reduces our anxiety and makes us feel more in control, but may make things worse over the long run.

So how can we overcome our impulse to act, whatever the consequences? A good first step is to see and acknowledge the delays in the system. Especially if we can't change a delay, we must respect and trust it. A second step is to manage yourself. Sitting on my hands and breathing deeply eventually helped me stop overcorrecting the houseboat. As I learned, when we stop spending energy trying to change things that are not going to change no matter what we do, we have more energy to work on those things on which we can have an impact!

Read the complete article, or see The Systems Thinker, V13N8 (October 2002).

Subscribe to The Systems Thinker.

AT ANY RATE
You Need More Than Brilliant Ideas
by Bill Harris

Knowing how to gauge the effectiveness of financial and resource investment—when faced with long time delays before seeing a profit—is key to successful product development. In his latest column, Bill Harris takes us through HP's process for deciding whether to invest in a new product. Bill plugs the Bagley Return Factor—a rule of thumb that HP's Al Bagley used to decide whether a new product should be developed—into a computer simulation, and invites you to test the model and try your hand at managing a product development organization.

Read the column and test the model.