The Communication for Engineers Masterclass - C4E

Why Attend?

The following feedback was collected at a recent C4E masterclass and summarized by ChatGPT:

A quick interview with Chris Laffra why it is important to communicate well as an engineer:

Overview

Your teacher, Chris Laffra, is a software engineer with over 30 years of experience in software engineering, spanning various domains, industries, and roles. Developer productivity, communication skills, and software engineering leadership are his core competencies. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science and authored numerous publications and books. Chris worked as an individual contributor, manager, team lead, and developer advocate at IBM, Google, Uber, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and JP Morgan.

Chris is working on a startup bringing Python data analysis to the browser. Chris is passionate about helping other engineers discover the right path for their professional and personal development, and he gives coaching, mentoring, and in-person Communication for Engineers masterclasses to share his experience with others.

Communication is a key skill to develop for engineers

As engineers, we care a lot about our technical skills and code. They define us. However, communication skills tend to get less attention. Examples of those softer skills are: how to collaborate, reach a consensus on an idea, articulate our thoughts, and listen to others.

This masterclass provides a simple plan, a systematic approach, and actionable advice for improving your communication skills. It also includes the Communication for Engineers book, the Secret to Developer Productivity book, and a 70 page printed handout with comprehensive materials on the same topics.

This masterclass already helped hundreds of engineers develop their communication skills to an advanced level.

Who will benefit?

Attending this masterclass will make you a more successful software developer, impactful engineer, and happier engineer. When you improve your communication skills as a software developer, three different types of communication partners will benefit:

• Stakeholders. Your management, product owners, peers, and customers will greatly appreciate working with you when you can articulate why a certain solution uniquely solves a specific problem. You will learn how to summarize and present easily with the right empathy level. You will know how to give technical direction using story-telling techniques. You will resolve conflicts in your team using well-developed emotional intelligence skills.
  
  
• Yourself. You will more easily discover and be given opportunities to work on exciting projects. People will fairly recognize you for your contributions. You will feel a happier engineer and increase your impact on your team, your organization, and the entire company. You will define your growth plan, engage others for help, and become the best you can become.
  
  
• Others. In addition to improving your relationships at work, you will enhance your understanding of others in your more personal relationships. People will recognize you as someone who can communicate well and see you as a role model for their development. They will love being in your company. Your charisma will light up a room when you enter it. Friends and family will like you.

What's the process?

The C4E masterclass is kept small on purpose. The ideal number of attendees is around 20 people, to foster an interactive environment and ensure you get the most out of this event. The materials and exercises are discussed in three different sessions:

• Selling. This section explains how to make a technical proposal. The whole process includes treating yourself as a brand. We’ll review aspects such as structuring your presentation, email, design document, elevator pitches, and even napkin proposals. Key aspects include empathy, focusing on the problem, introducing yourself, telling a story with data, and using consistent messaging when interacting with the rest of your organization. Interactive exercises will provide you with practical takeaways.
  
  
• Growth. All engineers aim to progress in responsibility, impact, pay, power, or recognition. To get there, we need to focus on personal growth. This requires careful planning, execution, and help from others. Only sometimes does our perception of our impact or contributions meet reality. We will go over why that may be the case. We will discuss strategies for giving and receiving feedback to become an impactful and happy engineer.
  
  
• Collaboration. Nobody writes code in isolation. We are all part of software development teams. Those teams perform much of their synchronization in meetings. These same meetings result in context switches and reduce the ability of engineers to focus on their work. This session will discuss how to make meetings more effective and productive. We will discuss what meeting types exist, what makes meetings effective, and how you can get out of meetings!

What's the outcome?

Attending this masterclass will make you a more successful software developer. You will become more impactful. Moreover, you will become a much happier engineer. You will effectively explore the many dimensions of communicating well with other engineers and stakeholders. You will learn how to become more impactful and productive by improving your communication. You will acquire various soft skills to help your work as a software developer/engineer.

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