I had just finished designing a new foundations scheme for a big property developer, it was my first completely unaided design project.
Just as I was about to turn the calculations over [Scheme A] to a checking Engineer, I decided to pull out a similar previous scheme [Scheme B] as a control subject. I needed to do this as I was still a design rookie. A quick investigation to see if the loads were similar - that's all I needed to do.
The two housing schemes were practically identical, apart from Scheme B's foundations [already built] were constructed from piled ground beams.
First glances told me that I may have been a bit conservative during the design of my first unaided design project. Infact the pudding seemed to have been over egged by as much as 100%!
Returning to my calculations I worked my way through them once more, and could't seem to justify any load reductions. Confusion set in.
It was then that I took the rather hard decision to review the mature scheme. They were calculations which I had originally carried out, and once I thoroughly reviewed them, it was at that point in time my whole world came crashing down around me.
Essentially I had forgotten to multiply the floor loads by 2, as the foundation I was checking was on a party wall line. The 4-storey terraced home was already built, sold and no doubt families would be moving in soon.
What happened afterwards was one of the most uncomfortable conversations that I had ever had to have with another Engineer, my boss at the time.
Due to making that mistake, an obvious advantage to experiencing such hell was born. Since then, I have had the opportunity to 'save' many other Engineers from making that same mistake in their calculations. As it turns out, it is easily done and one of the very first things that I look at.
"Experience is simply the name we give to making mistakes" Oscar Wilde.
Still to this very day I feel pangs of guilt [controlled guilt] for what happened many years ago. But why?
Guilt is and incredibly difficult emotion to understand. Psychologists appear to be divided on how or why we evolved to feel guilty. The general consensus is that this destructive and stressful emotion helps balance our future interactions in our social circles.
All I know is that it is a persistent feeling which never seems to give up its host. The powerful negativity drives a massive change to behaviour and just like tooth ache, you never want to feel that pain ever again - if you can help it, that is.
Amongst many others, Dr David M.Amodio of the University of New York, and his team of researchers Patricia G.Devine and Eddie Harman-Jones studied the affects of what guilt has upon our psychology.
There was a theory being banded around by researchers that the punitive feeling of guilt may keep you from repeating the same transgressions of behaviour into the future, which psychologists call "withdrawal motivation."
Some researchers view guilt in a strictly societal context, in that; it keeps people's behavior in line with the moral standards of their community. This is a more positive emotional experience and is associated with "approach motivation."
What Dr Amodio believed was that guilt is initially associated with withdrawal motivation, which then transforms into approach-motivated behavior when an opportunity for reparation presents itself.
From painful experience, I can empathise with Dr Amodio and his researchers beliefs.
It would appear that we as Engineers need this deminutive emotion to help prevent us from re-enacting the same mistakes time and time again.
So next time, when it is presented to you that repeating the same mistakes is a bad thing, you will be able to associate this with the painful state of feeling guilty.
As it turns out, by tapping directly into this dark emotion and nurturing your feelings of guilt, you are not only saving lives and your bosses money, but you are attenuating the spectre of stress. Which could also be saving you from stress related health issues.Guilt and feeling responsible for ones actions is as essential to the life of an Engineer, as 'the force' is to a Jedi Knight. Without it you are as normal as everybody else [Bantha fodder]. But with it, you can balance and protect society. Neat.
Engine[er]
PS. Links to be attached later
![Starting up an Engine[er]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_48ubt0myJl9Kc2av_Yix8HwEpZTit9DLMrmiRI2LjDYLbqNtxNz6VTsBNTgpDxOGErtF-SRLInkC-wRWFeM-LRL0N0VvpgtHxCBKGnpQ1CZBb5-wXP76Y-of8pZkYpAOR7iTm1OOE6c/s435/newblog.jpg)
Feelings of guilt and the constant fear that something you overlooked and forgotten are in the job description of the structural engineers. I do not know a colleague who has not made a mistake, the only question is how big are the consequences of these mistakes and the moment when mistake detected.
ReplyDeleteWith time and experience, the possibility of error is reduced, however, I still, after many years in the profession and a very good reference list, do not sleep for several days after a significant earthquake anywhere in the world.
Zorana
Hey Zorana, I completely understand. We are very quick to forget about the sleepless nights and this gives me a fantastic idea!
ReplyDeleteI'll leave you with a summary which I just wrote for the LinkedIn group we share.
I am quite convinced that guilt [or atleast letting guilt into our lives] makes for better Engineers.
Take a read of this link which describes guilt and what it can do for people: http://www.trans4mind.com/jamesharveystout/guilt.htm
Quite a powerful little description: "It encourages us to study our motivations and values, It reminds us that humans are not gods, that we are never perfect; this reminder is the basis of a realistic humility, a knowledge of our human boundaries -- and the sensible strategic decision to rely on a source of power and guidance that is greater than our own".
I am not a psychologist either, but I know when I feel something which is as poignant as responsibility, that there is something hidden, more important at work here. Taking responsibility for ones actions is not an emotion, more a description of our actions and that alone will not keep you from making mistakes.
Guilt is the emotional mechanism which causes us to act responsibly. That and fear of loosing ones job or being publicly ostracised for our mistakes. You are are correct, mistakes are not deliberate acts. This however did not stop Sir Thomas Bouch from removing himself from the public eye [and passing away soon afterwards] after the Tay Bridge Disaster in 1879 and it hasn't stopped Leslie Robertson, Head Engineer for the World Trade Centre from continuously thinking about the event, even when cleared of any wrong doing whatsoever. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband/archive/leslie_robertson/
When fire-fighters and soldiers loose companions at work, they are racked with guilt. Not because they caused it or felt responsible for the event which caused death - but because they were not able to help or prevent it. They ask why were they spared, and would freely change places if given the chance.
This is a very real emotional and psychological threat to Engineers too. Perhaps this is linked to the reasons why 87% of the Engineers in our poll are convinced that they do not receive enough accolade for their work. I am beginning to believe that a loss of control to their lives, and the constant threat of emotional and psychological break down is what is at stake here.
If it is indeed possible that this is the root cause of our feelings of stress and detachment from society, then no one should simply pass them off as 'nothing' or recommend that we just 'buck-up' or change our careers.
An old colleague of mine (I seem to have an endless supply of them always ready to comment!) always said that Structural Engineers (and Engineers in general) are professional worriers - clients pay us to worry about things they don't think about!
ReplyDeletePaul
Hi Paul! This seems to be the case doesn't it? May of my past bosses have taken the appearance of a man with the world on their shoulders...
ReplyDeleteYou learn by mistakes and you become a better engineer as a result. But that doesn't mean that mistakes are OK to be shrugged off.
ReplyDeleteIn your example the options are stark - prove that the design is OK or fix it. From a QA perspective yours should not have been the only sign off on that design; good processes should mean that mistakes don't get out into the wild and that they stay within the design office. Within such a framework you can learn because mistakes are caught and corrected. Learning by looking at a smoking hole in the ground and saying it was the first time I designed a gas main so a leak was OK is not learning.
Mistakes happen but we can also be too quick to chalk it up as "experience". In the Toyota Way Jeffrey Liker relates his experience on the Toyota production line and mistakes made in assembling a component. The guys at Toyota were not as troubled by this as they were that it had not been discovered until 8 stations down the line. That they considered was the real problem.
In your case I would not worry over the mistake you made, but I would worry, and really worry, how the house got built without anyone picking it up..... That is the real issue here. Mistakes are human, checking is not optional.
Sometimes the most obvious mistakes are the hardest to spot. This was the case of this problem. It was resolved nether-the-less.
DeleteYou missed the main point behind this post. It was not to discuss QA but to discuss why we need motivational aides such as guilt and disappointment to help keep us vigilant. We can learn from these experiences whether the mistake was deemed to be a useful one or not.