As a highly competitive industry in rapidly changing times and increasing ecological pressures, the engineering profession seem trapped in a pattern of conflict we can’t seem to break.
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Building a better engineering profession – step by step
This is a working post. Add your thoughts.
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When I said we need to talk … this was not what I meant.
Dear Manglin
You seem to share a consternation that seem also to be an increasing trend in society. Let’s call it populism.
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On stories, and being different
Nanette – by Hannah Gadsby. Selected bits from the transcript.
Mediation – Complicating the Water / Engineering Narratives
Some notes from the piece “Complicating the Narratives” by Amanda Ripley / Solutions Journalism Network about the current US divide.
Paraphrased: Conflict is important. The power of stories is to help people find a way through that conflict.
Continue reading “Mediation – Complicating the Water / Engineering Narratives”
Engineers: we need to talk.
Something happened today which made me think about how we deal with ‘respect’, and the ‘old guard’ and ‘engineers’. I’m still processing what happened and many of the people I am discussing this with requests confidentiality, so maybe I’ll update this later once we agree on it all and have their permission. It did remind me of a few things, most notably a workshop on complexity we had in March 2018.
Sometimes when people ask me why Future Water exists, before I go into the transdisciplinary blah blah company line, I say that we’re trying to teach engineers to talk to other people. It started as a joke, because it was launched by a team who consisted mostly of engineers, and is currently hosted in the Engineering Faculty, but I am more and more convinced that is what our true purpose is.
Inter-generational dynamics
Quartz, my favourite international news-related website/newsletter shared this article about a management exercise about ‘user manuals’. I found it so beautiful, and so much to process, working across generations and being in relationship with someone in some other generation, and not quite fitting into/relating to whatever generation I’m supposed to be in… To me it speaks to the type of systems work, transdisciplinary work we’re doing, it’s not just about coping with people of different ages. As Leah mentions in her piece “The generational divide in today’s modern workplace is unavoidable. … But when generational frustration turns to judgment (which often leads to dismissiveness), no one wins.” I think even once we sort the generations out, or correct for this, different skills and personalities have the same issue.