Calendar of Events

Topic:

For many years now our education system in partnership with corporate America has been talking about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) training.  The conversation centered on keeping America competitive to the world by ensuring we trained workers to have STEM capabilities.  STEM is important but the realities of business have changed and the need to execute in the face of speed has become critically important.  A “T” shaped working has a “bottom of the “T”” STEM capability but also has a “Top of the “T”” set of skills to allow for successfully working in a high performance team.  Basically the economy and successful SDLC practices needs “T” shaped knowledge workers.

We are a knowledge economy driven by knowledge workers. Knowledge workers do not have a set task list or specific functions they must do every day.  They create work and build value by creating new products, services and solutions.  In order to do this type of work, you must have a specific expertise that is relevant to performing a complex function that is needed by business. Also you must have the skills to function in the highly complex matrix structures that are prevalent within today’s organizations.

“Highly complex matrix structures” reads like business speak 101 or worse yet business word bingo but this is the reality.  As organizations flatten (becoming more Agile and Self-organized), getting things done can become even more political and ambiguous.  Being “T” shaped means you have the deep technical skills needed to provide value for the organization (bottom of the “T”) but you also have the skill needed to successful execute within the minefield that is organizational culture and processes.  Some of those skills include conflict management, negotiation, communication and presentation to name a few.

Learning Objectives:

• The statistics and facts showing the fundamental shift occurring in the type of work available and needed in today’s economy
• Why current management structures are failing and the impact of management structure failure
• The definition of knowledge worker and how this type of worker needs to be managed and motivated
• What “T” shaped is and how people are using it
• T-Shaped and Agile
• How “T” shaped drives productivity and decision making
• How the fate of companies and individuals hinges on driving “T” shaped development
• Why “T” is the exception not the rule and how you can fix that

Speaker: David Mantica

Speaker Bio:

David Mantica serves as Vice President and General Manager for SoftEd US. Fueled by his passion for developing empowered knowledge workers, he helps companies develop their teams through training and coaching, equipping them with today’s critical skills needed to work effectively in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world.

Drawing from his experience in successfully building a B2B training firm, growing it from scratch to $13M in seven years. David speaks and shares his insights and tactics on the impact of technology on leadership and management. His work at SoftEd helps organizations not only cope but thrive even with the ever-changing demands and complexities of modern business.

With over 30 years of experience and more than 700 speaking engagements, he inspires better work practices in marketing, product management, project management, software development, executive management, and other key areas of technology and business operations.

David’s home base is Raleigh-Durham, NC. From here he provides consulting to business owners here and worldwide. Driven by his love for helping people grow while maintaining their mental health, he also mentors several rising executive leaders, providing pro bono career coaching services that utilize his career insurance methodology. David is well known for his Manticaisms, a unique ability to refine or as he might say butcher the English language. His playful demeanor and style attracts and humanizes us all.