Keeping Teams Working Together and Assembling Project Teams

Evening Session:

"Keeping Teams Working Together" with Jim Eisenhart

Partnering: Facilitating collaborative working relationships on projects, contracts, joint ventures and intra-organizational ventures
The ability of multiple stakeholders to quickly come together in a manner that optimizes their respective strengths has become a key factor in enabling mutual success. This session will focus on consultative skills that enable these stakeholders to overcome cultural barriers; initial distrust/ skepticism; past negative historical 'baggage'; and predictable breakdowns and conflicts to produce and sustain genuine win-win outcomes. Indeed, many organizations today consider their ability to enter into and develop 'world class' partnerships as a key strategic advantage and core competency.

About About Jim Eisenhart
Jim Eisenhart has been a management consultant since 1974 specializing in the development of management and project teams where there is a commitment to results "well beyond 'business as usual'".
Currently Jim is president of the Ventura Consulting Group in Ventura, CA and Houston, TX. A key specialty of the group's focus is on 'partnering'. More specifically, enabling project, contract and intra- organizational entities to achieve and sustain 'world class' collaboration and results. They have developed an approach which they term 'job/project specific'. They do not employ games, psychological profiles or lectures. Rather, it is a facilitative process often involving up to 60-70 attendees. A significant part of their business is 'turning around' problem projects/contracts.
His clients include: Amgen; the City and County of Los Angeles, Dept of Defense (Army, Navy, Air Force); JPL, NASA; Stanford University; Genentech; UC systems (5 campuses); Caltrans; Kaiser Permanente and numerous other organizations.
Jim received his MBA from UCLA and has taught with the MBA programs of Pepperdine and Cal Lutheran Universities.
He has served in the US Army as a reconnaissance platoon leader in Vietnam. He currently enjoys long distance trail running, sailing, skiing and free diving.

Afternoon Session:

"Assembling Project Teams - Theory & Practice" with Pete Crosby CMC and Margaret Chock CMC

Small consulting companies are often at a disadvantage in responding to consulting opportunities because of inadequate internal resources and limited time to pull together a team from other firms.
IMC SoCal has taught us a lot, and is developing still more programs for networking and getting to know other consultants better as potential team members. In this session we will address some of the information consultants need to know about each other before teaming, a proposed way of pre- structuring teams to surface individualized requirements, and practical experience in putting teams together.

About About Peter A. Crosby, CMC
Peter A. Crosby, CMC, is an operations management strategy consultant who specializes in supply chain logistics, inventory management, purchasing, and manufacturing. Peter has more than twenty-five years general management consulting experience and seven years industrial management experience, and has worked on more than 250 management consulting engagements with manufacturers, distributors, and retail chains. Most of these projects required teaming with other consultants in his firm, CGR Management Consultants LLC, and outside his firm (subcontractors).
Peter was the youngest ever management consultant hired by ATKearney, and worked in their Production & Operations Group and Kearney's Transportation & Distribution Group. He also was a manager for Coopers & Lybrand (now IBM/PWC). His industrial experience was gained from Ford Motor, Food Machinery & Chemical Company, and Collins Food.
Mr. Crosby received a BS in engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, a MS in operations research from Stanford, and an Engineer degree from the Stanford Department of Management Science and the Stanford Business School. He was Certified as a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) by the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC) in 1980.

About Margaret Chock, CMC
Margaret Chock CMC is an Information Technology/Computer Science consultant who has frequently run or participated in project teams for twenty years as Principal of M. I. B. Chock, LLC and its predecessors. She has also held research, management, and technical positions in biotech, consulting, and aerospace companies.
Dr. Chock holds BA degrees in mathematics and anthropology from University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MS and PhD. in computer science from UCLA.
She is Certified as a Management Consultant by the Institute of Management Consultants and currently chairs the Southern California Chapter. She is also a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Independent Computer Consultants Association (ICCA), Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) - Consultants Network, Biomedical Society, and Computer Society, Product Development Management Association (PDMA), Southern California Biomedical Council, Technology Council of Southern California, and UCLA Engineering Alumni Board.

Time & Location

Place: Ayres Hotel, 14400 Hindry Avenue , Hawthorne, CA 90250, 310-536-0400
Date: Tuesday, June 17 , 2008
Time:Afternoon Speaker 4:30, Networking 5:30 and Dinner and Speaker 6:00
Price: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Payment by Check: Mail checks payable to "IMC SoCal" to the following address. Robert A Josefek Jr. PhD Treasurer, IMC SoCal c/o Josefek Associates Inc 115 Camino De Las Colinas Redondo Beach CA 90277

Call IMCSOCAL and Register by Phone: Contact Robert Josefek, Treasurer, IMC SoCal, at Josefek Associates Inc., (310) 765-4952 to make your reservation over the phone and pay by check at the door.

President's Message

Goodbye!

If we are all lucky, there should have been an election by the time you read this, and you'll have a new President by the end of the month. Jerry Savin is bubbling over with new ideas - the next two years should be interesting!
I've thoroughly enjoyed the last two years working with a great team - IMC members can always be counted on for new ideas, creative solutions to problems, and general good nature. My thanks again to Jerry Savin FIMC, CMC for coming to the rescue and providing exciting new programs.

Our Area Breakfast Chairs:
• Harald Weiss, who with his team runs Orange County the whole year round, even while the rest of us are goofing off during the summer. Harald also makes sure our audio/visual support is set up to support whatever our dinner speakers need.
• Barb Mather CMC, who sets the standard with her single-handed managing speakers, making everyone welcome, and her follow-up emails.
• Lynda Roth, resuscitating San Fernando Valley and keeping it going despite distractions like the L. A. Business Journal's nomination as a "Woman Making a Difference", putting together last September's program together with Harald Weiss and Becky Collins, and producing the January program on managing projects.

Our Treasurer, Bob Josefek, who tracks our finances to keep us solvent and to induce National to return our local share of our dues, and makes sure that everybody gets dinner.

Our Certification Chair and now Small Group Chair, Jim Ayers CMC, who administers the local part of the evaluation process to ensure that IMC standards are met.

Our Secretary, Don Gilman, who travels an incredible distance to keep Minutes of what the Board has been up to.

Dale DeHart for providing the infrastructure to keep us organized - maintenance of the web site, staffing for this Newsletter, and general troubleshooting.

Our Public Relations Chair, Bob Fisher, for his reliability, his good ideas, and the professional press releases every month.

Both Dale and Bob for their February program on marketing.

Jennifer Beever CMC for the May program on change management and generational differences, for managing our December Holiday Party, and all her help behind the scenes.

Our Program Chair, Ed Conrow CMC, for helping convert an impossible job to a merely difficult one

Donald Stukes, CMC, Membership Chair, for his willingness to take on a complicated job with inadequate resources.

Pete Crosby CMC for keeping the flame of what a Membership Committee should be able to do with enough members, and for his warm welcome of all new members.

Facilities, Equipment and Contracts Chair Mark Friedman for making sure that we have a roof over our heads each meeting.

Bill Mooney CMC, for producing the February program on proposals and contracting, and for the encyclopedic knowledge he can contribute to any topic under discussion.

Database Chair Lee Holden, for keeping our database up-to-date while commuting between Orange County and North Carolina.

Professional Development Chair Don McNamara CMC for training us in consultative selling and for assistance with the Orange County Breakfasts

Tom Northup, for his help with Orange County
Our Board Advisor, Marsha Lewin FIMC, CMC, for wisdom and perspective.
Our Past President, Dennis McCue, for his encouragement and advice.
Mike Grimshaw - we haven't seen him much this year, but remember his single-handed production of great programs last year.

Thank you again, to a hardworking team!


Best wishes,
Margaret Chock CMC, President

Regional Breakfast Meetings

LAX IMC BREAKFAST MEETING June 6 , 2008:

"Doing Business in China: Insight and Resources for Consultants "
Presented by: Alex Cree

China's economic growth has made headlines over the last decade, and will likely play an integral role in the global economy well into the 21st century. It is important that the business community understand the subtleties and nuances of this growth if success is to be had in this challenging environment. Alex will provide an overview of this highly dynamic Chinese economy and business environment. He will seek to differentiate between conventional wisdom and reality when it comes to foreign direct investment, sourcing, and providing independent consulting services in mainland China. Attendees will come away with a basic understanding of key concepts related to China business, specifically the resources that independent consultants can utilize in providing value to American clients exploring China and Chinese clients exploring the United States.

DATE: Friday, June 6 , 2008
TIME: 7:30 - 9:00 a.m.
LOCATION: The Lakes Golf Course & Driving Range, 400 S. Sepulveda, El Segundo
RSVP: Via E-mail to: bam@matherconsulting.com
PRICE: $20 for IMC members and $26 for non-members. Cash or checks payable to: Barbara Mather/Mather Consulting Group. Sorry, no credit cards accepted.

OC IMC BREAKFAST MEETING June 12 , 2008

DATE: Thursday, June 12 , 2008
TIME: 7:00 - 9:00 a.m.
LOCATION: Mimi's Cafe, 4030 Barranca Pkwy, Irvine, CA 92604
RSVP: Via E-mail to: weiss@imcsocal.org
PRICE: $10 for IMC members and $15 for non-members. This includes any choice from the IMC hot breakfast menu, tax and tip included.

SFV IMC BREAKFAST MEETING June 20 , 2008

DATE: Friday, June 20 , 2008
TIME: 7:30 - 9:00 a.m.
LOCATION: Carrows Resturant 18355 Ventura Blvd. Tarzana, CA 91356
RSVP: Via E-mail to: alicia@ljrcs.com or call LJR Computer Services at 818-227-5025
PRICE: $20 for IMC members and $25 for non-members. Cash or checks payable to: Lynda Roth/LJR Computer Services Consulting Group. Sorry, no credit cards accepted.

IMC SoCal Announcements

Confab will be held October 25-28 in Reno. Please send any recommendations for speakers to Don Scellato, DonS72@aol.com

Dr. Edmund H. Conrow, CMC has been named to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Systems Engineering Technical Committee. He is a Life Member and Associate Fellow of AIAA, and serves as a technical liaison between IMC and the Project Management Institute and various Los Angeles technical professional societies.