by Pat Sweet | Jul 20, 2012 | Article, Professional Development
Engineers get systems. We get the whole idea behind feeding a system or a process information, material, energy, whatever, and getting some kind of desired output. That’s how machines work. That’s how circuits work. That’s how software works. Given this understanding, we also grasp the fact that if you feed your system garbage, you get garbage out.
Given all this, it perplexes me that engineers are so bad at asking questions. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure most of us either struggle with formulating a pithy question, or have to struggle with co-workers who do. Isn’t asking a question and getting an answer at the end just a system? The question is the input, the answer is the output, and someone’s brain is the system that makes the conversion.
Today, I want to talk about how to ask a question such that the person being asked gets it, and gives you the information you need.
by Pat Sweet | Jul 18, 2012 | Article, Professional Development
The Importance of Mentorship Mentorship is an incredible means by which any young engineer can grow. It’s an invaluable component to developing both hard technical skills as well as soft business skills. A strong mentor can help you in three key ways. They act...
by Pat Sweet | Jul 16, 2012 | Article, Professional Development
The Power of Professional Relationships A few years back, I read a book called The Trusted Advisor by David H. Maister. It’s hard for me to describe that experience. It was boring as anything, but at the same time the ideas presented were fascinating. The...
by Pat Sweet | Jul 12, 2012 | Article, Leadership
As you may know, I’ve been investigating different educational programs in the area of engineering leadership. I was reading some papers that professors at a local university business school had published, and I happened upon the idea of transformational...
by Pat Sweet | Jul 9, 2012 | Article, Productivity
Getting Things Done I’m in the middle of reading an excellent book called Getting Things Done by David Allen. This is a must-read for anyone, and I mean anyone working in an information industry. And you guessed it, engineering is a perfect example. I was...
