Short Course

From Statistical Consultant to Effective Leader

Monday, May 24, 2010
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Workshop Purpose

This workshop is designed to enhance the leadership skills of statisticians working in business, industry, and government. The goal is to help statisticians transition from being viewed as passive consultants to being viewed as proactive leaders within their organizations. Issues addressed include: understanding what statistical leadership is and how it differs from consulting, why it is important to be viewed as leaders, and critical leadership skills required. As part of the course, each participant will develop a personal action plan to enhance their leadership in their own work environment.

Workshop Design

The workshop will use an integration of presentation and discussion of material from critical books and articles on leadership, sharing of personal experiences (participants and workshop leaders) in leading and working with leaders, brainstorming of problems and solutions and development of action plans. The session will be highly interactive enabling extensive participation by all.

References

Articles on Statistical Leadership Published by Ron Snee and Roger Hoerl

Snee, R. D. and R. W. Hoerl (2004) “Statistical Leadership – as Traditional Workplace Roles Change, Learn to Transition from Consultant to Leader”, Quality Progress, October 2004, 83-85.

Snee, R. D. (2005) “Leading Business Improvement: A New Role for Statisticians and Quality Professionals”, Quality and Reliability Engineering International, Volume 21, 2005, 235-242.

Snee, R. D. (2007) “Turning Shewhart’s Challenge into Opportunity – Statisticians Must Step Forward and Lead Management to Become More Statistically –Minded”, Quality Progress, May 2007, 70-72.

Snee, R. D., R. W. Hoerl and A. N. Patterson (2008) “In with The Right Crowd; Getting Management on Board to Support Statisticians’ Roles and Initiatives”, Quality Progress, May 2008, 70-73.

Books on Statistical Leadership

Bennis, W and Nanus, B. (1985) Leaders - The Strategies for Taking Charge, Harper-Row, NY. Bennis has several other books on leadership.

Covey, S. R. (1989) The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Fireside, Simon and Schuster, New York, NY

Hayword, F. (1997) Churchill on Leadership, Prima Publishing, Rocklin, CA

Kotter, J. (1997) Leading Change, Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, MA. Also see Harvard Business Review, March-April 1995

Kouzes, J. M. and Posner, B. Z. (1995) The Leadership Challenge, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco

Phillips, D. T. (1992) Lincoln on Leadership, Warner Books, New York, NY

Snee, R. D. and R. W. Hoerl (2003) Leading Six Sigma – A Step-by-Step Guide Based on Experience With GE and Other Six Sigma Companies, FT Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ

Instructor Biographies

Ron Snee and Roger Hoerl are recognized leaders in the statistics profession having a combined experience of more than 70 years in leading organizations and individuals in the use of statistical thinking and methods for improving performance. Snee has held leadership positions in statistical organizations at DuPont and Bell Atlantic, prior to launching his consulting career. Hoerl held leadership positions at Hercules and Scott Paper prior to his current assignment at General Electric as leader of GE Global Research Applied Statistics Laboratory. More details on their backgrounds are contained in the following biographies.

Ron Snee is Founder and President of Snee Associates, a firm dedicated to the successful implementation of process and organizational improvement initiatives. He provides guidance to senior executives in their pursuit of improved business performance using Quality by Design, Lean Six Sigma and other improvement approaches that produce bottom line results. He has played a leadership role in 28 major improvement initiatives for firms such as W. R. Grace, Kraft Foods, GE, DuPont, Bell Atlantic, Novartis and Schering Plough. He recently authored three books on Lean Six Sigma with Roger W. Hoerl of General Electric. Ron received his BA from Washington and Jefferson College and MS and PhD degrees from Rutgers University. He is an academician in the International Academy for Quality and Fellow of the American Society of Quality, American Statistical Association, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been awarded ASQ’s Shewhart and Grant Medals, and ASA’s Deming Lecture Award as well as numerous other awards and honors. He is a frequent speaker and has published 4 books and more than 200 papers in the fields of performance improvement, quality, management, and statistics. Snee was recently received the Institute for Validation 2009 Speaker of the Year Award.

Roger Hoerl leads the Applied Statistics Laboratory at GE Global Research, which focuses on new product and service development within each of the GE businesses. He has been named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Society for Quality, and has been elected to the International Statistical Institute and the International Academy for Quality. He has received the Brumbaugh and Hunter Awards, as well as the Shewhart Medal, from the American Society for Quality, and the Founders Award from the American Statistical Association. In 2006 he received the Coolidge Fellowship from GE Global Research, honoring one scientist a year from among the four global GE Research and Development sites for lifetime technical achievement. He used his six-month Coolidge sabbatical to study the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, spending a month traveling through Africa in 2007, and recently publishing a book on the subject entitled Use What You Have; Resolving the HIV/AIDS Pandemic. Roger has also authored five books in the areas of statistics and business improvement, two book chapters, and over 40 refereed journal articles.

Additional Information

The regular registration fee for the short course is $160 with discounts for students ($80), seniors ($40), and members of the sponsoring ASA sections ($20). The registration fee includes a continental breakfast, coffee breaks, and lunch. Transportation between the conference hotels and NIST will also be provided.