Once you attend a TapRooT® course and learn how to use the techniques, the real challenge begins! How do you actually start a real investigation? What do you need to know in order to efficiently lead a team of investigators? Questions like these are why so many course attendees plan to attend the TapRooT® Summit. The Summit is a place where TapRooT® users gather to discuss best practices, like innovative ideas for leading investigation teams. In 2010, Ken Reed will be teaching “Ideas for Leading Investigation Teams.” In this talk, he’ll discuss:
- Preparations required before an incident occurs
- The first steps when you receive that phone call
- How you actually use the TapRooT® tools during the course of a real-world investigation
Ken Reed is a Senior Associate at Sytem Improvements, and brings 21 years of US Navy nuclear operator and supervisor experience having served on numerous fast attack, ballistic missile, and research submarines. He is currently the Project Manager for the Equifactor® Equipment Troubleshooting module of the TapRooT® software, overseeing course and software updates and revisions. He holds a B.S. in Electronics Management from Southern Illinois University. He was born and raised in Watertown, NY, and currently resides in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Come to the Summit to learn advanced techniques like these and many more. Join us on the Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas, October 27-29. (Learn more!)
We’ve scheduled two sessions at the October 2010 Summit where attendees will have the opportunity to learn valuable coaching skills:
1) Coach for Improved Corrective Action Development Implementation
Participants walk away with coaching skills and a coaching model that can be used in any work environment to support improving human performance in the workplace.
2) Coaching Skills to Sustain Behavior Change
Participants walk away with coaching skills and a coaching model that can be used in any work environment to support creating behavioral change in the workplace.
Both sessions will be taught by Jennifer Mounce. Jennifer is the founder of Coach Effect, Inc., a leadership coaching & organizational development boutique in San Francisco, California. With more than fifteen years of corporate experience in human resources and in coaching senior executives, Jennifer uses her expertise to partner with companies and increase their overall effectiveness by coaching, training, and consulting with mid– and senior level managers. Jennifer is a published author of two books and a professional speaker. Jennifer is a graduate of the Coach University Coach Training Program. Jennifer received her Bachelor’s in Speech Communication from University of Illinois and Master’s in Human Resource Management from Loyola University Chicago. She is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources and is currently working toward her Professional Coach Certification.
Are you ready for the 2010 Summit? Learn more on our website!
Linda Unger & Michele Lindsay facilitated a TapRooT® User Best Practice Sharing Session at the 2009 TapRooT® Summit. The video below shows one of the best practices that was presented by Buck Griffith for his group. Watch and learn …
Ralph Brickey will be sharing “Ideas for Changing Behavior When Working Outside Western Culture” at the 2010 Summit in San Antonio, Texas (October 27-29, 2010).
This session will explore issues of working with conflicting cultural thought when seeking to establish norms for investigations and implementing change in other cultures. Through a simple exercise participants will first examine a few of their own western “norms” and then apply these in a case study involving an investigation of a confined space incident that resulted in the deaths of two workers in an eastern culture.
Ralph Brickey’s experience in facilitating individuals and teams through transformational change has given him an appreciation for the potential for sustainable high performance within every organization. His work with exceptional leaders at all levels has confirmed the importance of developing the spirit of leaders to enable them to inspire organizations to achieve results. Ralph works with organizations to prepare and empower facilitators and culture change leaders to effectively impact the attainment of a thriving high performance culture.
Ralph has ten years experience facilitating insight-based learning experiences and working with teams to enhance effectiveness and performance. He has facilitated numerous root cause analysis learning experiences with many corporate clients throughout the United States and Canada. He has a special interest in improving cultures to impact safety in organizations. As program manager for Tennessee Valley Authority’s STAR 7 culture-shaping program, Ralph coached both internal facilitators and executives on their leadership skills. His successful experience with executives, first line leaders, and union members has given him unique insights into thriving cultures and the ability to move comfortably from sector to sector when working with organizations.
Ralph holds a Doctor of Education in Collaborative Learning from the University of Tennessee. His research interests are dialogue and reflective practice. Ralph is curious about almost everything and interested in the rest. He is beginning to research the impact of culture on safety within high risk organizations. He has represented the University of Tennessee in facilitating two seminars on Action Research in Thailand.
Ralph lives in Kingston, Tennessee with his wife Janice. Ralph enjoys traveling and exploring out of the way places. He is very interested in amateur archaeology and has visited the Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia, Authyia in Thailand, the Khyber Pass in Pakistan/Afghanistan, and most of the major pyramids and sites in Mexico and Central America. He enjoys playing with his three young grandsons and introducing them to bicycles, motorcycles, jeeps, caves, cliffs and kayaks, just a few of his many and varied interests. He frequently rides long distance bicycle tours both solo and with groups. His longest ride was a 3,000 mile Pacific to the Atlantic coast ride in 27 days.
“As an explorer, I am excited about partnering with organizations to explore and appreciate together what I believe is the unlimited potential for growth and excellence of performance in both individuals and teams to create healthy high performance safety cultures.”
“Best Practices for Implementing TapRooT® into an Existing Incident Management System” is just one idea that will be discussed October 27-29 at the 2010 TapRooT® Summit in San Antonio, Texas.
At this TapRooT® Summit session, Patrick Fortune will be speaking on the “exhilaration and tribulations” of incorporating TapRooT® into an existing Incident Management System. Expect to take away some Best Practices and even some learnings from Patrick’s mistakes, giving you the freedom not to repeat them yourself! Patrick describes his focus as a mix of “speaking truth to power, no matter what the consequences” and “let’s work the problem people.”
Patrick began his industrial career in the Operations department of a “state of the art” pulp mill. Midstride in his career, he moved into the Oil & Gas industry with EnCana Corporation. He progressed through a variety of Operations positions in Heavy Oil, Sour Gas and Power Generation with EnCana. Patrick was then enticed to join the “dark side” as a Safety Coordinator with EnCana’s EH&S division, where he has been for 5 years. Last year Patrick successfully challenged the Canadian Registered Safety Professional Designation (CRSP). He also has a liberal arts degree in Biblical Studies, and a 2nd Class Power Engineer Certificate of Competency.
Patrick has been the “go to guy” for the integration of TapRooT® into the existing Crisis Response and Incident Management Systems, within EnCana’s Canadian Division. He is a certified In House Trainer for TapRooT® and has been involved with numerous serious incident investigations across two provinces in Canada. Patrick has also served as on scene liaison with Police and anti terrorist task forces, during the investigation of several domestic terrorist attacks against EnCana.
On a personal note Patrick has enjoyed a wide variety of activities including hiking, snowboarding, hang gliding, flying small aircraft and sailplanes, rock climbing, motorcycling, martial arts, drama, and now has his eye on powered paragliding (and a bigger bike … ). When questioned about the dichotomy between “safety guy” and his love of higher risk activities he will respond with “risk management, it’s all about risk management.” His marvelous (& patient) wife of 25 years will roll her eyes at that statement, given that their two teenagers are unfortunately now using similar rebuttals …
Come to the Summit in October and meet Patrick for a fresh set of ideas about investigations! Learn more about the Summit on our FAQs page.
Linda Unger & Michele Lindsay facilitated a TapRooT® User Best Practice Sharing Session at the 2009 TapRooT® Summit. The video below shows one of the best practices that was presented by Steve Cavanaugh for his group. Watch and learn …
Have you created some corrective actions that look great on paper, but when implemented have had little or no effect? You may be missing a very important, yet often overlooked, aspect to your organization … its culture.
Brian W. Tink will be presenting “Corrective Actions for Culture Problems (Fixing Employee Communications NI + More)” at the 2010 TapRooT® Summit.
Organizational culture has been proven to have a measurable and significant impact on safety, job performance, and the organization’s bottom line. Find out how you can create corrective actions that can improve your performance while positively shaping your organization’s culture at the Summit.
About the presenter:
During the latter part of Brian Tink’s career at Hydro One (starting in 1994), he specialized in health, safety and environmental matters. Before pursuing other interests, he held the title of Manager of Health, Safety & Environment Field Support for Hydro One Networks, Inc. This branch of Hydro One delivers electrical service to homes and businesses across the province of Ontario, Canada. Hydro One owns over 90,000 miles of Transmission and Distribution Lines, serves 1.3 million customers with 4,600 regular employees.
In this position, while reporting to the VP HSE, he was called to analyze and investigate safety incidents that occurred. He has facilitated or been part of the action plan development for numerous investigations, approximately 30-40 per year since 2000. The position involved working with and reviewing incident reports and action plans with other Line of Business VP’s and Directors. The lines of business included Construction, Lines, Station Maintenance and Forestry type work activities. He has also been called to lead or participate in investigations where a high level of scrutiny is expected for the results or there is significant need to identify areas of improvement.
During his career, he had the opportunity to attend an extensive amount of training and seminars. The training resulted in becoming a Certified Registered Safety Professional in Canada and a Certified Utility Safety Administrator through the National Safety Council in the USA. Both of these certifications require safety management theoretical knowledge, testing and several years safety management experience.
Rob Fisher and Ron Pryor will discuss how Alcoa Davenport Works improved performance by using TapRooT® tools to identify vulnerabilities, and known error reduction techniques to reduce the probability of events related to human errors during their “Combining TapRooT® with INPO’s Error Prevention Tools to Improve Human Performance” session at the 2010 TapRooT® Summit.
Ron Pryor is a Senior Staff Safety Engineer, and the facility’s Human Performance Coordinator, at Alcoa’s Davenport Works aluminum rolling mill in Bettendorf, Iowa. Ron’s 29 year Alcoa career has included assignments in Operating Line Management, Production Planning and Supply Chain, and over 17 years in Health and Safety, where he has worked with the full spectrum of safety programs and initiatives. Ron is currently leading and coordinating the integration of human performance concepts, including root cause analysis, across all organizational functions. Ron is a Certified Safety Professional, a Certified TapRooT® Instructor, and a member of ASSE. Ron attended Wittenberg University (BA Business Administration) and West Virginia University (MS Safety Management). After spending a significant portion of the past 20 years coaching and officiating youth soccer, volleyball, and basketball, Ron completed a 300 mile bicycle ride across Iowa in the summer of 2009.
Rob Fisher is currently the owner and president of Fisher IT, Inc. and Global Procedure Services, LLC. Rob has extensive experience in performing event investigations, designing performance improvement systems, designing and improving corrective action programs, designing and running procedure programs, and educating staff. He is a sought after trainer, and is routinely invited to speak at international, national and regional conferences on safety, procedures, performance improvement, human performance and event investigation.
For more information about presentations planned for the 2010 TapRooT® Summit, visit our website.
Linda Unger & Michele Lindsay facilitated a TapRooT® User Best Practice Sharing Session at the 2009 TapRooT® Summit. The video below shows one of the best practices that was presented by William Missal for his group. Watch and learn …
Having trouble getting away from those old, standard corrective actions that don’t seem to last? Get a glimpse on how to best use your most valuable resource, your intellectual capital in coming up with corrective actions that are new, different and effective. Tap into the creativity that we all have, but often can’t find in this fun, fast moving and innovative session.
Michele Lindsay will be teaching “Get ‘Outside the Box’ Corrective Actions” at the 2010 TapRooT® Summit (October 27-29 in San Antonio, Texas).
Michele has been a certified Instructor for the TapRooT® System since 1998. As an “outside of the box” thinker, Michele was formally trained in creative thinking techniques in 1994. Recognizing innovation as a key competency in the “new” economy and the challenges and limitations of improvement teams to come up with effective and innovative solutions to problems, Michele leads and facilitates improvements with teams. She a Certified Instructor of the Six Thinking Hats™ and teaches an Innovation and Creative Thinking Workshop that helps individuals and teams break out of the limits of day to day thinking.
Learn more about Michele and our other speakers on our website!
These don’t have to happen. We know how to stop these fatalities. No new science needs to be invented. Each trench collapse fatality is a needless loss of life.
Here’s a video demonstrating a collapse…
And here’s a trench cave in that occurred while an Oregon OSHA Inspector was filming…
Luckily the man “in-the-hole” was not killed in the second example. But many are not as lucky.
Back in 2003, I wrote an article called “Stop the Sacrifices.” It was an emotional appeal to the construction industry to stop these needless deaths. It caused a lot of controversy.
Perhaps the construction industry has improved since them. I know that some companies have. But others continue to put peoples’ lives at risk by promoting shortcuts (or at least turning a blind-eye to their workers’ taking shortcuts) and not promoting best practices to keep people safe.
If you are responsible for construction work and trenching, take a moment to review what you are doing to keep workers safe. A new sewer line or a broken water pipe isn’t worth someone’s life.
If you would like to learn more about best practices to improve safety, consider attending the 2010 TapRooT® Summit. The Safety & Risk Management Track has these Best Practice Sessions that will give you ideas to improve performance:
No, Poka-Yoke is not an exciting new dance like the TapRooT® Shuffle we saw at the 2009 Summit (but you can be sure the reception planned for 2010 will also exceed your expectations!).
As much fun as the Summit is, the real reason we all come together is to learn new skills to save lives, reduce risk, improve safety, change behavior, stop human errors, improve production (and more!)
Poka-Yoke (pronounced POH-kah YOH-kay) refers to mistake-proofing techniques that either keep mistakes from occurring or indicate immediately when mistakes do occur. Dr. John Grout will be teaching how mistake proofing techniques can be used to improve patient safety and to stop human error at the 2010 TapRooT® Summit, October 27-29 in San Antonio, Texas. Summit attendees will have the opportunity to add these two informative best practice sessions to their custom schedule:
1. Using Mistake Proofing to Improve Patient Safety
The remedy for many of healthcare’s ills “is in changing systems of work. The remedy is in design,” says IHI’s Don Berwick. Healthcare needs a diverse set of tools that will help their personnel know what to do differently; to give them a different “vocabulary” of responses to medical errors that lead to lasting improvements. Rick Croteau of the Joint Commission states, “techniques for designing safe processes are also known, waiting only to be adapted to health care.” Mistake-proofing is one such technique that is a crucial addition to the tools used to improve patient safety. Mistake-proofing is a very powerful set of techniques that either keep errors and defects from occurring or indicate immediately when they do occur. It relies on creativity and common sense to create low cost, effective design changes that reduce errors. If you wish your organization’s personnel would just pay attention or if mistakes happen repeatedly, mistake-proofing provide a better solution.
2. Using Mistake Proofing to Stop Human Error
Significant injuries are avoided and dollars are saved by companies around the world when they implement simple ideas that either eliminate the chance for a mistake to occur or make a mistake easy to detect. This concept (and the techniques that generate these simple fixes) is called Mistake-Proofing. It is also known as Poka-Yoke (pronounced POH-kah YOH-kay). This session will help you find practical, effective ways to remove the opportunities for error. What will you learn?
· Why we make mistakes
· Basic concepts of mistake-proofing
· Where mistake-proofing works well and where it does not
· Where mistake proofing fits in your quality or safety toolbox
· How to create poka-yokes that solve quality or safety problems
John Grout is Dean of the Campbell School of Business at Berry College, Rome, Georgia, and the David C. Garrett Jr. Professor of Business Administration.
Dr. Grout has researched mistake-proofing extensively for the past 16 years. In 2004 John received the Shingo Prize for his paper, The Human Side of Mistake-Proofing with Douglas Stewart. The Shingo prize is named after Shigeo Shingo, noted industrial engineer and one of the developers of the Toyota Production System. The Shingo Prize has been described by Business Week as the “Nobel Prize of Manufacturing.”
LEARN MORE about Dr. Grout and our other exciting line-up of Best Practice presenters on our webpage!
Linda Unger & Michele Lindsay facilitated a TapRooT® User Best Practice Sharing Session at the 2009 TapRooT® Summit. The video below shows one of the best practices that was presented by Ryan Cezair for his group. Watch and learn …
Effectively communicating HSE risks to senior management is critical. Their support for resources (time and money) is necessary to implement actions that reduce risk. Strong visual communications and other techniques are needed to get the message across in a way that leads to action and increased credibility for HSE issues. One of the keys is to present HSE information from a business perspective.
Dennis Osmer, former Worldwide Head of HSE, will be teaching “Communicating with Management About Risk” at the 2010 TapRooT® Summit (October 27-29 in San Antonio, Texas). If you attended the Summit last year, you may remember his presentation, “Pursuit of World Class EH&S” (if not, you may view the presentation here). In 2010, he will be back to review development of several risk communication techniques (risk assessment in terms of organizational impact & degree of control vs. probability & severity, use of site risk analysis, score cards, involvement in accident notifications, etc.).
Dennis is a TapRooT® Instructor with over 40 years of industrial experience - the last seven years of his career as the World Wide Head of Health, Safety, Environment (HSE) and Emergency Management at CIBA Vision (a business unit of Novartis). There, he was responsible for the HSE activities for all of CVs operations (14 supply chain sites, 37 sales and marketing group companies, 11,000 employees on 3 continents). He has a pragmatic approach to developing and implementing HSE strategy which balances employee safety, environmental protection and business needs. He is a recognized expert with a track record of delivering performance.
His most recent activities were with Pandemic Preparedness, energy efficiency improvements, auditing, due diligence, new site start-up and HSE strategies for world class performance. While with a different business unit, he was the deputy chief of an industrial brigade and part of a community outreach program.
Dennis has an MBA in general management and finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and a BA in mathematics from the same university.
What’s the most effective way to learn how to communicate with management about risk? Attend the 2010 Summit! View our schedule of best practice sessions and hand pick one that answers your most pressing questions today!
Quality Improvement can be applied to your personal life and your business. It’s sequential—inside out, not outside in. George Burk was critically burned and severely injured, the sole survivor of 14 passengers in a military plane crash. Learn how several of W. Edward Deming’s 14 Points for Quality Improvement assisted him in his recovery, rehabilitation and transformation from victim to survivor. Hear and learn how you can apply several of Deming’s points—to help you and help you assist others to achieve success in life and business. Burk will be teaching, “Quality in Life and Work” at the 2010 TapRooT® Summit, October 27-29 in San Antonio, Texas.
George Burk (Scottsdale Arizona) is a nationally recognized motivational speaker, author and trainer.
In May 1970, he was the sole survivor of 14 passengers in a military plane crash. The crew was enroute to Spokane, Washington to conduct an operational analysis. Ascending through 3000’, the aircraft experienced rapid de-compression and massive structural failure, crashing in the hills near Schellville, California. He suffered severe burns and multiple internal injuries. Captain Burk spent 90 days in Intensive Care where he had two Near Death Experiences, and spent 18 months in the hospital. He was medically retired from the Air Force in 1971. Learn more about Captain Burk on the Summit Website.
Linda Unger & Michele Lindsay facilitated a TapRooT® User Best Practice Sharing Session at the 2009 TapRooT® Summit. The video below shows one of the best practices that was presented by Renauld Washington for his group. Watch and learn …
How do high performing organizations design their continuous improvement systems?
How do these organizations use and improve their continuous improvement systems over time?
What options exist for setting up a high impact continuous improvement system?
What types of teams do you need?
Learn the answers to these questions while also providing an overview of the tools and processes necessary to implement and sustain a continuous improvement system that meets your needs in a value added manner.
Kevin McManus is the President of Great Systems! and provides performance improvement coaching from his office in Rainier, Oregon. He is a TapRooT® instructor, and has served as an Industrial Engineer, Training Manager, Production Manager, Plant Manager, and Director of Quality during his 29 year business career. He has served as an Examiner and Senior Examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for ten years. Kevin also writes the monthly Performance Improvement column for Industrial Engineer magazine and is a regular speaker at a variety of regional and national events.
Kevin has taught many innovative Best Practice sessions at the annual Summit, including 8 Reasons Why People Don’t Report Problems & 8 Solutions to Improve Employee Involvement (View presentation) and Finding Time for Process Excellence - No Fuel, No Progress (View presentation).
Don’t miss an opportunity to set-up and sustain a continuous improvement system at your facility! LEARN MORE about the 2010 Summit!
The value of determining corrective actions and making recommendations is directly correlated to having senior leaders in an organization “buy in” and support implementing change. The fact of the matter that in today’s business environment that even competition within a company for funding is fierce.
Dan Daamen will be presenting Advanced Ideas for Corrective Actions: Using Risk to Rank Corrective Actions at the 2010 TapRooT® Summit, October 27-29 in San Antonio, Texas. This session provides a high level view of business tools and approaches that can assist EHS professionals in providing effective justifications for proceeding with recommendations that provide an overall benefit for employees and the organization.
Daniel Daamen has a diploma in Civil Engineering Technology, a degree in business administration, and holds a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Windsor (Ontario, Canada). Mr. Daamen currently is the Manager of Field EHS, for Union Gas Ltd, a Spectra Energy Company. Within this capacity he focuses on the strategic execution of EHS policies and best practices throughout the various districts within Ontario, Canada. Prior to joining Union Gas in 2007, Mr. Daamen was employed with the Blue Water Bridge Authority, a Canadian federal crown corporation, for 10 years. He was responsible for maintaining critical infrastructure and assets which included the Canadian portions of two international bridges. A major focus in this role was creating and implementing strategy related to infrastructure maintenance systems and developing and implementing EHS polices and procedures.
Learn more about our best practice presenters on our website!
Linda Unger & Michele Lindsay facilitated a TapRooT® User Best Practice Sharing Session at the 2009 TapRooT® Summit. The video below shows one of the best practices that was presented by Stephen Wagner for his group. Watch and learn …
Linda Unger & Michele Lindsay facilitated a TapRooT® User Best Practice Sharing Session at the 2009 TapRooT® Summit. The video below shows one of the best practices that was presented by Jeffery Hubbartt for his group. Watch and learn …
Linda Unger & Michele Lindsay facilitated a TapRooT® User Best Practice Sharing Session at the 2009 TapRooT® Summit. The video below shows one of the best practices that was presented by Dan Evans for his group. Watch and learn …
Theresa Guay, Lead Investigator for Irving Oil in New Brunswick Canada accepted a Success Story award on behalf of Irving Oil at the 2009 TapRooT® Summit in Nashville, Tennessee.
Do you have a success story? Tell us about the rewards, both large and small, of using TapRooT® at your facility.
Stories will be collected and published by System Improvements in our e-newsletter and on our website as a resource to TapRooT® users and others who are interested in improving performance. Your experience and best user practices will highlight TapRooT® user achievement and encourage others to use TapRooT® to investigate and fix the root causes of problems.
Plus, your success story will also serve as your application for a special achievement award that will be presented at the TapRooT® Summit, San Antonio, Texas, October 27-29, 2010.
To contribute your story, please e-mail usand include your name, company name, e-mail, phone number and a brief account of your success using TapRooT®. Barbara will contact you for more detailed information about your TapRooT® success. It’s that simple!
Together, we can make problem solving and improvements a vital part of everyday life!
Another industry session at the TapRooT® Summit was the Mining Best Practices Session. Here are notes from the facilitator, Ken Scott:
We had a good turnout at the Mining Best Practice Session. Here are some of the comments we captured during session at the Summit on Friday.
What has worked?
TapRooT® provided a consistent mechanism to move “out of the box” thinking for incident investigations/causation. Helped to look at all the causes instead of the violations of standards or policies.
Best Practice Ideas…
One company’s policy was to make up the team from individuals outside of the affected area. They felt it would hold down the preconceived biases and give a fresh look at the incident. Team leaders were selected based on there turn to lead a team and were not assigned. Driven by upper management to identify best practices and reduce risk.
Teams consist of 3-5 members including a contract individual if it involve a contractor. Management committed to giving members time to conduct the investigation. Most report were completed in 28 days.
Another comment involved the relationship with contractors. They are pre-qualifying contractors and expecting them to perform at the same level as the company. They view the contractor as part of the team and include the contractor’s incident rate as part of the company’s rate. A “one team” concept with contractor participating in most investigations. Where possible, train contractor individuals along with company individuals on TapRooT® process. What they have found is contractors feel support from the company. It also helps with corrective actions when they involve the contractor. When contractors see this relationship they strive to reach higher standards in their safety/health program.
One area that they would like address at the next Summit would be team leader training. The skills to manage and control the incident investigation process when several individuals are involved.
Ken Reed is a Senior Associate at Sytem Improvements, and brings 21 years of US Navy nuclear operator and supervisor experience having served on numerous fast attack, ballistic missile, and research submarines. He is currently the Project Manager for the Equifactor® Equipment Troubleshooting module of the TapRooT® software, overseeing course and software updates and revisions. He holds a B.S. in Electronics Management from Southern Illinois University. He was born and raised in Watertown, NY, and currently resides in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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Michele Lindsay will be teaching “Get ‘Outside the Box’ Corrective Actions” at the 
No, Poka-Yoke is not an exciting new dance like the TapRooT® Shuffle we saw at the 2009 Summit (but you can be sure the reception planned for 2010 will also exceed your expectations!).
John Grout is Dean of the Campbell School of Business at Berry College, Rome, Georgia, and the David C. Garrett Jr. Professor of Business Administration.
Dennis Osmer, former Worldwide Head of HSE, will be teaching “Communicating with Management About Risk” at the 2010 TapRooT® Summit (
Quality Improvement can be applied to your personal life and your business. It’s sequential—inside out, not outside in. George Burk was critically burned and severely injured, the sole survivor of 14 passengers in a military plane crash. Learn how several of W. Edward Deming’s 14 Points for Quality Improvement assisted him in his recovery, rehabilitation and transformation from victim to survivor. Hear and learn how you can apply several of Deming’s points—to help you and help you assist others to achieve success in life and business. Burk will be teaching, “Quality in Life and Work” at the 
Kevin McManus will be teaching How to Set-Up and Sustain a Continuous Improvement System
The value of determining corrective actions and making recommendations is directly correlated to having senior leaders in an organization “buy in” and support implementing change. The fact of the matter that in today’s business environment that even competition within a company for funding is fierce.
