Co-located Event

16-17 October:

Graduate/Postgraduate Course on
"Soft Skills for IT Professionals in Science and Engineering"

Prof. Barry D. Floyd, PhD

Many IT professionals believe that the key to success is the development and application of excellent technical skills. While technical skills are vitally important, industry leaders have developed higher expectations of their technical staff. They need engineers who can communicate, manage teams, provide leadership, negotiate, and develop working relationships with diverse constituencies all with a high sense of ethics. Articles about why departments such as Marketing and Research and Development do not `play well together' are published frequently in trade journals and highlight the need for better soft skills. Industry leaders from BMW make presentations titled “The Effective Engineer: Development of the ‘Soft Skills’” to international engineering management programs highlighting the need by industry for such individuals and discussing how these skills lead to personal as well as professional growth. ABET in the USA, ASIIN in Germany, and other accrediting organizations require soft skills in the university engineering and scientific curriculum in order for those programs to achieve accreditation. In a global, fast paced environment, the engineer must take on more leadership tasks than ever before and communicate and manage across time zones and across cultures. The bottom-line is that these ‘soft skills’ are no longer desired by industry, but are mandatory.

This two day course will, in a learn-by-doing format, engage the attendee providing the foundation for developing and improving their set of ‘soft skills’ including negotiation, conflict management, leadership, teamwork, ethics, and cross cultural management.

Session 1: Managing Conflict - Negotiation Fundamentals

October 16, 2010 - 9:00am to 10:30am

Introductions – Managing Conflict Styles – Self Assessment Exercises (Conflict style, Trust) – Negotiation Fundamentals – Claiming value – Distributive Negotiations Exercise

Session 2: Creating Value

October 16, 2010 - 11:00am to 12:30pm

Discussion of Negotiation Exercise Results – Integrative Negotiations – Developing a Negotiations Strategy – Techniques for Creating Value – Integrative Negotiations Exercise

Session 3: Ethics

October 16, 2010 - 2:00pm to 3:30pm

Integrative Negotiation Exercise Discussion – Self Assessment Exercises (Moral dilemmas, Organizational Ethics) – Ethics – Ethical Maturity – Ethics exercise

Session 4: Power, Influence and Persuasion

October 16, 2010 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm

Discussion of Ethics Exercise – Sources of Power – Influencing Others – Framing – Winning Hearts and Minds – Assessment Exercise (Type of power, Emotional Intelligence Rating)

Session 5: Managing Cultural Differences

October 17, 2010 - 9:00am to 10:30am

Managing Diversity in a Global Environment – Dimensions of culture – Cross Culture Exercise and discussion – Self Assessment Exercise – Aligning tactics with strategy

Session 6: Teamwork

October 17, 2010 - 11:00am to 12:30pm

Team fundamentals – Excellent Teams – Why teams fail – Positive vs. Negative Team Member Roles –Creating High Performance teams – Self Assessments (Leadership Style, Group analysis)

Session 7: Putting it all together

October 17, 2010 - 2:00pm to 3:30pm