Speaker: Jerry Talley, JLTalley & Associates
Meeting Date: Thursday, March 1, 2012
Time: 6:00 pm Networking; 6:30 pm Management Forum/Guided Networking; 7:00 pm dinner; 7:30 pm Presentation
Location: RAMADA Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale, CA

 
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: Problems, Big Problems, and Damn Problems
The challenges we give to engineers are often quite formidable. But the domain of engineering is ultimately rational, bounded, and scientific. And then there’s management. Suddenly we’re faced with human vagaries, unbounded networks of association, political dynamics, interpersonal subtleties, and individual personality. And it’s not enough to understand the company we work for; now there’s supply chains, strategic alliances, outsourced functions, and industry associations. The world is much messier.

In fact, we face problems of greater complexity, greater interdependence, and often greater conflict than ever before. And yet we still live mostly within the same problem solving strategy we developed in the 1950’s.

After 30+ years of consulting to organizations large and small, for non-profits and for-profits, for private sector and public sector, I now believe there are only 6 types of problems in the world. Each type requires a unique strategy for successful resolution. Each type requires different solution elements. The key to effective problem solving is not your ability to generate solutions; it’s your ability to discern the essential nature of the problem at the beginning.

You can check out more about this topic at his website at http://www.problemsolving2.com/

Bio:
Jerry Talley has been helping people solve problems since he received his PhD in Sociology from Stanford in 1971. After 18 years on the faculty there, he moved onto organizational development. He has had 350+ engagements with clients in high tech, pharmaceuticals, hospitals and health care, banking and finance, consulting firms, the military, manufacturing, public utilities, public sector, not-for-profits, publishing, hospitality, entertainment, and biotech. His current focus is advanced problem solving, process design, and non-profit governance.