East Bay Chapter Monthly Meeting

Thursday, September 4, 2003

Program Description

In these lean times the few must do more and better with less and less. We must be high performers on high performance teams. Yet, research by the Center for High Performance shows that only 11% percent of knowledge workers consider themselves to be working in a “high performance team.” That low percentage is even more surprising because 27% said their workgroup had been high performing in the past. What changed?

Do you remember a time when you were on a team where everything clicked? People pulled together, workers trusted each other, the goals were clear. You felt great about the job, the team and yourself. What made that happen? Why do some teams work so well while others work so poorly? What lessons can we learn from high performance, high stress teams like police SWAT teams, military commandos and fire-rescue teams?

As technical communicators we are often members of a highly educated team composed of a spectrum of personalities and work styles. The members of our teams are usually churned together under the stress of tight deadlines, tight budgets and unclear objectives. What can we do to turn our teams into high performance teams?

This presentation will leave you with a foundation of skills, tools and discussion topics you can use to help your next team reach high performance. Bring your inquisitive mind and lengthy experience because you’re not going to just sit and listen. We’re going to spend time mining our audience’s experience for stories, tips and techniques on creating high performance teams. And the best tip wins an Amazon book gift certificate.

About our Presenter

Ron Person is the founder of enMind. enMind accelerates performance through team building workshops and personal productivity training.

Ron has been a writer, trainer and consultant for more than 18 years. He has worked as a team member and manager of highly skilled programmers and technical writers. One of his virtual writing teams had members posted from Maine to Sydney, Australia. In eleven years Ron’s technical writing teams never missed a final deadline. Prior to consulting, Ron spent eight years as a military pilot in a tightly coordinated crew of five that flew very long missions.

In 1986 Ron became one of Microsoft’s first twelve office automation consultants. He trained F1000 corporate trainers and helped automate workgroup processes using Microsoft Office.

Ron has written 28 technical/business books published by Macmillan. His books have sold more than 3.7 million copies and have been translated into 18 languages. Ron holds an MS in physics and an MBA in finance and marketing.