— storytelling, leading business change, metaphors, culture, training …

Speaker: Laura Powers, founder, Powered By Teams
Meeting Date: Thursday, September 1, 2016
Time: 6.00 pm Networking; 6:30 pm Management Forum/Guided Networking; 7:00 pm sandwich dinner; 7:30 pm Presentation
Cost: $10 TEMS members, $12 IEEE members, $15 non-members, $3 students (through August 30), $3 more at door
Location: AMD Commons Building / AMD Campus, Sunnyvale
Reservations: tems1609.eventbrite.com
Summary:
Management Forum / Guided Networking: Bring Your Management Challenge; Arrive by 6:30 PM to join this exciting Management Forum. Following informal networking is a guided discussion typically related to the topic of the evening’s after dinner talk, or of general Technology Management interest.
Light Dinner: This month we’re continuing with our light dinner format — typically sandwiches, salad, drinks, and cookie or similar light dinner.
Presentation: Inspire Business Results with Stories Story telling is a powerful business tool to engage decision-makers and teams. Combine those facts & figures with a vivid business story – and suddenly everyone is engaged. Stories can change the way we think, act, and relate to each other. Story telling brings our workplace culture and values to life and captures the grit and glory of our work. And most importantly – if you want to lead change in an organization – you need to change the stories that the organization tells.
Join us to hear stories of how one career path moved from designing military hardware to leading teams developing products not even imagined those many years ago — while learning a simple framework to put your own business stories into action. Learn simple tools and techniques to create and tell compelling team stories that teach.

Bio: With 25 years of engineering and management experience, Laura Powers started her career at AT&T Bell Labs — getting paid to break things in the name of testing solder joint reliability for military and space applications. Hewlett Packard recruited her to the west coast just as the age of the personal computer was dawning and she’s been involved in the design of aircraft engines, satellite systems, electric cars, as well as software systems at Hewlett Packard, Sales.com, and eBay. With the pace of technology development — it’s impossible to predict exactly where your career will take you — and now as the founder of Powered By Teams, Laura focuses on the most critical element in any product — hardware or software — the human systems. She uses proven frameworks, including Agile, to help teams create extraordinary results and kickass products while experiencing fun and joy.
Laura holds a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech, as well as certifications as a Certified Scrum Professional, Certified ScrumMaster, Certified Scrum Product Owner, Certified Trainer of Training from the Back of the Room, and Certified Trainer and Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).