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Engineering blogs are pretty boring aren't they?

They are numerous, and they tell us an awful lot about what is currently going on, in and around the engineering world. They frequently drag up the past and regurgitate history in yet another's view point. Bloggers spend time replicating each others posts [unintentionally I'm sure] and grabbing more visitors.

But to what end?

Keenly analysing my blog viewing figures, I quickly realised that you guys a gals needed tidbits of engineering whimsy or inspiration from time to time. To tell you the truth; I don't blame you, I'm with you 100%.

Why you need a Mentor

Engineering like almost any professional career out there, survives due to a vast amount of educational resource which enables all us engineers to down load our knowledge into our students and apprentices skulls. It helps us all to fulfil our most important responsibility. Legacy.

Engineering Graduates - Please Wait Here. No Crossing.

We thought that we might inspire a few engineering graduates this week with a story. [sod this, we want to inspire ALL GRADUATES!].

FIRSTLY HERE COMES THE DOWNER [apologies]: It's tough out there, in the job market place; even for the guys and girls who have great degrees from fantastic universities. Even for the lucky few who have managed to find super networking opportunities. 

The reality check is

LinkedIn Groups - a waste of time?

LinkedIn Groups, they represent a great way to raise your online profile by offering you the opportunity to impart some of that expert knowledge which you have been gathering over years from being in college, university or working as a consultant in your profession. Sharing feels good.

Finding a group which allows you to fully demonstrate your knowledge and donate your golden nuggets of wisdom is another issue though. If you choose to share your thoughts on a particularly popular forum, then you risk your well thought out responses or new discussions being literally buried in the matter of hours [sometimes minutes] by job offers from the middle east, spammers, and promotional material.

No one will notice that you were ever here...

If however, you choose to seed your highly valuable or contentious material into a 'dust ball' of a forum - then you risk talking to yourself forever or worse, being 'liked' every now and again. Which can feel a little bit like condescension [sometimes].

Is there a happy medium?

I'm sure there is. Crawling over the groups and finding those members who closest resemble your piers and/or potential customers gives you an edge for starters, because picking the right audience is crucial here. Time is precious and simply spamming each and every group which you have a vague interest in will look... well lazy and spammy. Trust me I know. I have done this for months [many apologies to those I have inflicted]. I still feel dirty from the experience.

The virtually irresistible nature of these groups [in their current form] is to become a useless waste of time for all those who wish to share in them. If your interest is to actually get something done, or make a concerted effort to answer a burning question or two - then the platform appears to fail us miserably.

Let me try to explain...

Group discussions, once created go one of 3 ways;

1. Viral. A particularly potent question, truism or external link is posted up in a timely fashion - and all of a sudden, all the group members seemingly climb out of the woodwork to deposit their educated opinions, in the hope that they can help resolve the problem or get noticed. In reality what happens is that the original discussion is rendered unreadable by the time it reaches around 15 posts. Some members are commenting on past comments, some are staying true to the original topic. The whole thing smells of a runaway forum which has a high likelihood of being hijacked by less than scrupulous marketeers - unless it is well moderated by the original poster. My experience tells me that no serious debate can be resolved this way, and it eventually becomes a breeding ground for justifiably disgruntled members [sometimes trolls] or weird and random posts.
2. Hitler and Sharks. Have you ever heard of the premise that all pub chats [that's chats down the pub], if left unchecked - will eventually end up either discussing Hitler or sharks? Well this happens in well stocked discussion forums too - especially on LinkedIn. It would appear there is a common underlying narrative which exists in the hearts and the minds of those of us who choose to post on forums like these. In a similar way which some experts maintain that everything we involve ourselves in, is somehow related to 'sex'. All popular discussions will eventually revert to the the groups unofficially adopted mascot topic. Now this could be anything. Really, anything. For example, a running group may always end up talking about new trainers. Enough said about that. 
3. Tumble-weed effect. Many groups very quickly become the source of hollow discussion topics, un-managed by the topics creators. The postings will also have an air of being 'talked at' rather than a genuine attempt to converse and share ideas with other members. Groups like these are bleeding to death.

All of the above begs the question, how is it that groups survive? To be honest, not many of them survive the test of time. The managers slowly disassociate themselves from moderating the discussions and forget to post up new material from time to time. There are so many groups to replace them that no one notices the odd group winking out of existence or slowly fading away. It takes dedication and time to build a interactive following.

The secret to sustainability of these group forums is the horrendous numbers of new members joining LinkedIn. Currently at 2 new members a second, LinkedIn is stocking these forums with new meat at a massive rate. 

What can be seen is the inevitable regurgitation of the same topics - end on end, with no easy way to moderate them or to point members to similar discussions which occurred just 2 weeks prior.

I normally finish my posts with an idea, which could help resolve the problem. Not this week though. I simply believe that the constant recycling of topics and the ever increasing sign up rate of new members will continue to feed the groups with what they need to survive. Up and until membership begins to flatten out that is... but by then, we will all probably be using a different professional networking platform to share ideas and a experiences.

One which may help resolve a problem or two...


Engine[er]

The Greatest Engineers of all time

NEWS UPDATE: THE PITCH IS LIVE!!
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/top-trumps-the-greatest-engineers-of-all-time-636

Fantastic news. Just recently as a direct result of the information gathered here on our blog and on the structural engineering LinkedIn Groups that we frequent - we have forged a list of 60 engineers [mostly but not exclusively structural and civil engineers].

That's great, but what has that got to do with you?

Well, we have a proposition, and we think that you will like it.

If you have never heard of something called crowd funding before, then be prepared to be educated.

Crowd funding is a fairly recent phenomenon which has it's roots in the sphere of charitable organisations.

What happens is that a project that needs some investment to get it started is presented to the public to join in and make it happen by pledging a small donation to the cause.

If the project has enough people behind it, investing in it - then it happens. If the funding does not reach the intended level - the venture fails and the project is shelved [but not forgotten].

I have been collecting names of engineers from you all since November and individually sourced statistics from a small amount of you too [massive thank you!!]. We now have the basics of a Top Trumps ® stylised deck of playing cards which will include some of the greatest engineers of all time.

All we need now is a small amount of investment from everyone.

So far, we have been accepted to pitch our idea to you via Crowdfunder.co.uk. The pitch has been completed and all the boxes ticked, pretty soon though, the project will be available for you to view and comment upon [once the last set of approvals have been made by Crowdfunder].

We have now posted the link up for you all to view and contribute.  I will not spoil it by giving you every last detail here and now... but if we manage to make this happen, this could be an important stepping stone to making a larger future project happen, which will blow your socks off!


Engine[er]

Engineering Perfectionism

It has been a great week for 'sticky' discussions on the LinkedIn engineering forums.

One topic in particular topic attracted quite a diverse and interesting following. It was started on a fresh new group - The GradEng Network.
[A group dedicated to building relationships between graduates, and sharing job search opportunities]

7 Reasons Why Perfectionism is a Barrier to Success.

I have my own interpretation of the key points made;

1. Unrealistic Expectations. No. Perfect does not equal millionaire! Who believes that? We live in a world where being perfect gets you a mediocre life. Investments of time, emotion, and money are made in imperfect people. People who have potential. Graduates need not be perfect... they need to have aspirations and demonstrate that they can grow as individuals and Engineers.

2. Make no Mistake. We all do. Think about this. If you are required to push a design to its limits, then you need professional back up. These checks help you sleep at night, and ensure the public are safe too. Dealing with domestic projects day in day out, I concentrate on buildability. There is no point in me designing a beam into a singularity if installing becomes impossible. Level the playing field, by accepting that their are potentially hundreds of ways of solving same design problem. None are wrong, and mistakes are easily rectified. Give it a try.

3. Seek no help. No man, woman or Engineer is an Island. I took great confidence from the fact that one day I was asked personally to help out a very experienced Engineer. He was stuck for ideas, and decided to enquire as to my strategy on a quirky problem. We both learned an awful amount that day I'm sure. From that day on I never felt embarrassed to ask questions, even off of newly qualified graduates. The beauty of design is that imagination and experience combined leads to so many cool possibilities... embrace that fact.

4. Planning. The process of planning is critical. Trust me, life never turns out exactly as planned BUT... without a plan you can't readjust your bearings and set you course back on track. An air-plane spends [apparently] 85% of its flight time off course. But, it always reaches its intended destination.

5. No Change. Quite the opposite. To be successful, we all have to accept that change is afoot. Constantly. Seems counter intuitive right? Once you accept that iterative failure is your only way to achieving a good result, life and learning becomes spontaneous and.... well, fun.

6. Future Focus. Now, I do not wholly agree with this point. You got to have a vision! That's your end game! Organise it in you mind then put it to one side. Once you got a plan, then build a strategy to reach it, piece meal style.

7. Lost in Detail. OK, let's get one thing straight, getting lost in the detail does not result in total failure!! It may inhibit future growth if you constantly return to that default setting, but failure it is not. On the contrary, it is those of us who fail to pick up on the nuances of the details in front of us who come to a sticky end. There is a time for laser like focus. There is a time to evaluate the surrounding environment. Balancing those points of views is critical to success.


Engine[er]

Tapping into Talent. Building Trust

"When you ask people what it is like being part of a great team, what is most striking is the meaningfulness of the experience. People talk about being part of something larger than themselves, of being connected, of being generative. It becomes quite clear that, for many, their experiences as part of truly great teams stand out as singular periods of life lived to the fullest." - Peter Senge

My thoughts on our extended engineering fraternity up until recently was one of considerable confusion. Finite amounts of construction developments meant that those of us who didn't find enough projects to keep us busy, were destined to have hard times. Conversely those of us who have found the time and energy to engage the interest of developers, or Architects have found more than their fair share. This is the situation which I see before me.

Those 'without' suffer by not having enough work, and those 'with', suffer from exhaustion or by disappointing their clients.

In addition to the problems above, comes the time spent trying to finely tune and 'tee up' a healthy vein of work for the future, leading to further waste. So why not take a leap into the unknown, and share?

Indeed. To that end I have launched a group on LinkedIn to allow free communication between engineers so that we can redistribute our work loads - as and when we need. As the group grows, the future promises that this community will become an essential route to reliable engineering resources with the opportunity to share business ideas and 'time' with one another. Building trust.

To add another dimension, we will also consider allowing a number of supportive non-engineering construction professionals [i.e. Architects, contractors, QS's, business advisers] to contribute to maintaining a productive and lively group, for all it's members.

Every business has its own plans for the future. Some of us would like to remain small and work as sole traders, giving our clients value by keeping overheads low. Well, you can! I personally would also love to be part of something BIG, yet retain some of my independence and reserve my option to take on work as I see fit.

I also have a dream of introducing graduates into collaborative groups. Seating them at the heart of a incredibly confident and experienced localised team of engineers. Thus giving them a wonderful springboard into their professional career, and giving Engineers a solid opportunity to mentor the next generation of talent.

If you are an Engineer, and this idea appeals to you, then drop us an email or hunt out our brand new group on LinkedIn - The Collaborative Engineering Community

Tapping into Talent. Building Trust.


Engine[er]

The future of Structural Engineering

"It's the old frontier that actually presents the most interesting opportunities, because the shine has worn off. This is your platform for real innovation, innovation in a place or a market or a situation that truly is ready for it..." Seth Godin

I quote Seth an awful amount. Why? Because the future of our industry lies in connections and connecting the dots. Seth's words plants seeds, I will attempt to grow one of those here, and you - I hope, will reap a very special reward.

For many many years our industry has provided a HUGE service to the built environment and society. To coin a phrase which cropped up during one of my discussions on LinkedIn, "we are the understated risk takers of society". To be honest, I do not know where this was quoted from, or indeed if it was the first time to be mentioned... but this is who we are. Structural Engineers... risk taker extraordinares!!

If you are not a structural engineer then you probably would not have heard of the following engineering quote too. It is scary, and I urge you read it: this describes our profession quite eloquently.

"Structural engineering is the art of modelling materials we do not wholly understand into shapes we cannot precisely analyse so as to withstand forces we cannot properly assess in such a way that the public at large has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance."

I'm probably not going to be hunted down by a gaggle of engineering ninjas hell bent on my destruction for writing that, as this quote is available on google anyway. BUT I'm sure that sharing this revelation to the general public was not on the mind of the very first engineer to make that statement. Truth is many engineers after that event have also been drawn to similar parallels.

OK, I wanted to share with you a revelation I have had. It has to do with our future, our employers future, the future of our industry. We have been surviving for the last 150 years or so, dining out on the efforts of engineers during the industrial age, such as the Brunels and Telford [to mention only a few]. These incredible engineers were unbound and able to guide a wave of industrious innovation, fed by huge sums of private and public funding. They sold engineering to the masses. The world ate it up.

For this post I will deftly gloss over the historical roots of Engineers - coming to you in a post very soon.

It was not all high 5's and slaps on backs though. During this time many lives were lost due to pushing the envelope and gambling with risk over certainty. Trust me, safety was a high priority, but writing the instruction manual WHILST engineering a new future led to costly delays and fatal mistakes.

So where are we now? Engineering is a technical specialism. The risks associated with our profession have forced even our most talented practitioners to focus like a laser beam on what it is, beneath our noses. Good? Absolutely. Our attention to detail has saved lives, money... and consequently, provided respite to shareholders, the public, and government officials from overburdening themselves with the stress of potential costly mistakes. AND, in a rather melodramatic way, I believe that our greatest gift to construction and society has been strangling the life out of our industry.

It's like this, if you found a thick, rich vein of mathematically minded problem solving gravity defying magicians who - GET THIS - not only loved being shut away to deal with the technical needs of your clients/employers BUT revelled in the risk taking... then you had better hold onto them! You take them at an early age and you teach them to survive in a world of uncertainty. Not only that, you create a system where the best and the most experienced write rule books and teach the new waves to do the very same thing! Sound familiar? Society benefits. Farm after farm of eager engineering students begin their life long journey of learning and enlightenment. Once they are ready, they pass on their knowledge. There you have it, a system perfect at delivering the slightly autistically natured, mathematically minded volunteers to the coal face for another generation of built environmental servitude.

You may be reading this and thinking, WOW, this guy seems pretty cynical about engineering as a whole. Wrong. I love my profession, the opportunities are massive! You may be thinking WOW, this guy has a point... but how would we go about changing any of that? What is the point in discussing it. If you didn't feel that way and were an engineer - then I would be closely scrutinising your qualifications... we are trained very very well.

My answer: nothing needs to be done. It's already happening. Connections, connecting the dots.

Today, I am able to speak more freely with more of my engineering brethren than ever before. But not in that 'false' way were we are mildly interested in what it is that the engineers across the road are doing. I am connecting in a very real way. We are sharing thoughts, we are sharing experiences. It is early days, but the result of this kind of communication and connection is leading us all down a very singular path. We are beginning to share a common goal. For the first time since I have been an engineer, I can see the green sprouts of collaboration on a huge scale! I can visualise that one day I will freely pass work to my specialist engineering neighbours for the sake of education and giving the client the very best possible skills available.

Once engineering again becomes an infectious passion amongst us and not a life sentence of proud servitude, then we will control our destiny, our businesses and our freedom to innovate.

I make no predictions here, it is happening. Get on board, add me on Twitter, follow each other AND KEEP INSPIRING ONE ANOTHER.


Engine[er]

As promised, an additional post came to my attention. Please feel free to check out this link  written a few years ago by Jeff Asher, S.E., M.ACSE for the STRUCTUEmag. It is because of editorials and posts like these, that we must try and find a way to join in and push each other on...

Tony, you genius.

Just recently I read a blog-post which was trending on LinkedIn. I do find management and emotional intelligence subjects quite fascinating. Others may not, BUT whether you like it or not, it affects most of us so therefore you have an invested interest. Read on.

The writer of the blog, Tony Schwartz, CEO of [insert company] wrote that in order to resolve difficulties at work with colleagues of many different descriptions, you first must first blame yourself for any misunderstanding. Sounds harsh, I know. Even though I do not think that this is exactly what he meant... that's how it read. Tony observed that in essence, for there to be friction or a grievance between a boss/employee/colleague there had to be causation [ignorant idiot] and resistance [stubborn idiot]. Well, for Tonys well written post to make sense he automatically assumed that you [the reader] were the stubborn idiot. So his solution to the problem was to defuse the situation by asking you, the stubborn idiot to be the bigger man or woman.... and walk away. His logic is quite correct. There needs to be an II and a SI for there to be a problem. Who's to say that they are not one and the same person though? ;)

His blog erupted with comments from lots of outraged SI's and II's. Most of them pointing out the obvious flaws to Tonys observations, and that was whoever gets the last word doesn't by default gain moral high ground or indeed learn a thing. Therefore surely it was cowardly to let a colleague walk right over you if you are RIGHT... all this in the name of not creating a scene at work. Meh....

I liken Tonys point of view to a bystander who has just happened upon a fight in the street. He doesn't know who started the fight, he doesn't know who is to blame... but assumes a strategy which is the path of least resistance. Let the person who can empathise first and the most, shoulder the responsibility - because heck, they should know better right?

As Tony leaves the kerfuffle... war breaks out. You see this kind of imparting blame doesn't work in my eyes. If there is to be resolution, then BOTH parties have to accept responsibility! If one party is resisting taking any responsibility then pitying them and moving on will not make their life any more fulfilling. To be fair - that's not your job either.

Mediation is key. This is best sourced from a third party who actually wants to prevent a dispute from becoming a life long grudge....

Tony's reasoning is lovely. I love it. Unfortunately, it is way too optimistic. It assumes that we all want to get along, even of it means becoming a subjective doormat. I'm with you Tony!! But I won't employ those tactics because my life is way too short to give way to those few among us who preside over the kingdom of La-La land.

A good friend once told me "when debating a position with someone, the first person to empathise with the other loses" That stuck with me. I reject it, but it stuck with me because this is an entirely selfish way of resolving differences. This particular person was a lawyer and fledgling politician. No surprises there then.

I will leave you with one more thought. If Tonys goal was to provoke a response and generate page views... didn't he do well!!

Well... I rode the back of his great post for long enough.

Engine[er]

Social Media Harmonics - a personal adventure

Hello - Warning! I am about to artfully dodge a promise that I made to write about David Clarke's speech yesterday morning, I am still typing that one out. So there is my excuse - it's still at draft stage, and please keep reading.


I have however decided to write a quick blog post with regard to an ongoing mission to find my online voice and practice 'Social Media Harmonics'. It's a phrase that I have coined that describes the process of continually hitting the social media 'sweet spot' when interacting with your audience online. Very important phrase that - 'your audience'. 


Social Media Harmonics is the positive result of  an iterative process much like experimentation, but without forming direct comparisons between the theoretical and the physical universe. I just look at the analytical pages and make notes on patterns. Sorry - it is that basic


Essentially, what it is that I am doing involves plugging away at many different flavours of posts, to see what it is my audience; YOU, expect from me. Do you need technical expertise? Are you happy to catch-up on what it is that is presently occupying my mind? Of course, at this very moment, I could very well be ranting into the empty blackness of blog-space! My lack of ego comforts me with the knowledge that it still is early days for my business and my page analytic reminds me that there are a few of you interested in my journey, enough to read up on what's new in my world. Thank-you.


Recently I released a rather risky LinkedIn poll question, intentionally aimed at being provocative and slightly vulnerable. It went a little something like this - 

"Do I come across needy? For all those who have connected with me - how would you describe my marketing persona?

As you can see, I am inviting honest feedback. A risky strategy I think that you all will agree - especially since we live in a world of Twitter and YouTube hecklers. BUT, this is LinkedIn in right? This network of professionals are looking to showcase their capabilities and skills to potential clients, partners, investors and employers, we use this platform to engage with like minded professionals and join in with conversations in the hope that it broadens our understanding of a subject. IT IS WONDROUS! I can slip into group conversations which I have no expertise in and watch as a swarm of [insert subject matter] heavy weights clash and debate their thoughts until a winner emerges. Truth is... we all emerge as winners. We all learn something.

So how did my poll go? I have received only one vote so far - so get over there and stick you name down, vote and comment. 

Engine[er]