Thursday, September 8, 2011

This Blog is Moving! [Robert Lasater]

In connection with the Software Developer's Forum renaming itself the Silicon Valley Forum, we are moving this blog to svforumelsig.blogspot.com. Current entries on this blog will remain, so any bookmarks or search keys that lead you to entries on this blog will stay valid.

Be sure to start visiting svforumelsig.blogspot.com for the latest postings on Engineering Leadership.
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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Announcing the Next EL SIG Meeting, September 15 [Robert Lasater]

The next meeting of the Engineering Leadership SIG will be held on September 15 in SAP Building 2 (3412 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA), starting at 7:00 PM. Doors open at 6:30 PM. Title of the main presentation, "Problems, Big Problems, and Damn Problems: Solving the problems that keep you awake at night", by Jerry L. Talley.

Jerry says "The topic of the talk is a discovery from my 30+ years in organizational development work. I believe there are only 6 types of problems. Each type poses a unique challenge. The most critical decision in problem solving is not 'What's the best solution?', but rather it is 'What type of problem is this?' Once you identify the type you have a clear sense of the critical features that must be explored, what strategy to use in solving the problem, and what a solution would look like...at least in outline form.

"It turns out that strategies that work well for some types are disastrous when applied to other types. And some of the types are easy to confuse for each other. So typing the problem is not always simple; it's just always essential.

"The talk outlines the 6 types and briefly describes the strategy unique to each type. It is a dramatic departure from the classical model of problem solving which has been around since the 1950's and altered very little since then."

Jerry Talley has over 20 years of organizational consulting. Prior to that career, he was an adjunct professor at Stanford University teaching in the Sociology Department for 18 years. Coincident with that experience, he had a practice as a Marriage and Family Therapist for about ten years. Starting in the late 1970's, he moved into organizational development consulting, accumulating over 250 client engagements since that time. His clients included companies in high tech R&D, hospitality, health care, the military, manufacturing, banking and credit unions, education, publishing, mental health, city and county government, not-for-profits, and large consulting houses...and one organic grocery store.

Throughout all these experiences, the common focus was on how people think about and manage complex situations, how they attempt to solve the problems in their world, and how they form relationships with others in that effort.

For more information, go here.


SNACK SPONSOR: Brian Lawley, 280Group - The 280 Group™ provides Product Marketing and Product Management Consultants, Contractors, Training, Books,Certification, and Templates to help companies world wide to define, launch and market breakthrough new products.


SNACK & BEVERAGE NOTES: SVForum provides some pizzas, and SAP welcomes us to help ourselves to soft drinks that we may encounter in the vicinity of our events.

As of August we won't be providing alcoholic beverages in the future so we can spend more money on food.

MANAGEMENT RESOURCES SPONSOR: ProjectConnections.com supports EL SIG members with a wide range of resources for managing organizations, projects, and people. Members can access links to templates, checklists, articles, and more from the ProjectConnections.com Premium library. All this is available to ELSIG members at no charge, at the ELSIG page onProjectConnetions.com (Open Enrollment is offered twice a year for this benefit. It's that time of year! We'll be sending a notice shortly and you can sign up if you haven't already.)

Cost: $20 at the door for non-SDForum members, No charge for SDForum members

BOOK SWAP - Every month! Bring books to share.

JOB SWAP - Check out our Yahoo! Group here: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SDForum_EL_SIG_JobSwap/

PEER-to-PEER Roundtable - Every month! Join us to share insights and advice with peers each month prior to the 7 PM event.


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