I wanted to talk about the basics that I wish I knew when I was starting. Every person that is great at anything has the fundamentals down. These basics are practiced over and over again till they are inate. When they start getting off of their game they go back to the fundamentals to center themselves.
Fundamentals are not necessarily taught. As I said, I was not taught. Starting off in engineering I was put in a position that I thought was rare when I started. I found out later that I was not alone in the complexity of my predicament. I had a job 2500 miles away from my boss, the VP of Engineering.
I was a pup.
I was given an upstairs attic as an office at a facility. It was huge and it was filled with junk. This was in the mid-90’s. I went back there to see a friend in the 2010’s and they still call that attic, my office. That felt very nice.
So I took that 1000 square feet of office space and I cleaned it up myself. Sold off material that they did not need with the help of accounting. Dumpstered a lot. And then had folks take whatever they would like. Several days later (or likely several weeks as memory is flawed) the area was clear and I had a desk, chair, mobile white board, file cabinets, and a chair mat. Computer was in hand and I was off to the races.
The head of the facility where I was stationed as a corporate employee was impressed with that simple initiative. Little did I know he had taken pictures of the place they put me in and shared with my boss. Subsequent pictures were taken and sent via snail mail. I found out later that they wanted to see what I would do with that problem. Live with it or do something about it. I passed with flying colors. I did not ask for permission, I just did it. They saw that as a strength. I look back on that as a potential failure.
As an engineer I was trained to solve problems. But if you asked me how to solve a problem back then I would have asked you about the problem statement. I would look at who it was coming in terms of the class like I would back at university. I would try to figure out how to classify the problem.
But problems are not cut and dry. Problems do not come on a worksheet with a title. Those worksheets help you with unit operations and processing of pieces of problems. Those worksheets help you define pieces, not how to put them together.
I had a successful time at that job and look back at it fondly. I got to be a real engineer for a time, testing things, destroying things, writing papers, engineering cost out of product while making it better.
What I took away from that job was building my fundamental tool set because my first assignment was similar to my last assignment. It was “Figure it out”. So I had to come up with a workflow to figure things out.
I don’t think anything I am going to write next is unique to engineering disciplines except maybe system engineering.
My problems would come from either a phone call that I learned later to record (with permission) or from a fax machine with scrawls of horribly written diagrams that looked like they were written on a dash of a car (I confirmed that later by observing this happen). Alternatively I would get phone calls from board rooms with multiple people shouting into a horrible speaker phone.
The first discipline of my workflow: CONFIRM THE TASK
I would both verbally reflect the task back to my boss who was fantastic or if it was a group of folks or people who were harder to communicate with for various reasons I would draw it up on engineering paper and include my knowns, unknowns, problem statement that I assumed and then I would start giving them options for what I could do and the costs associated with it.
From there I would often have to design my own testing equipment which I thought was super cool.
Which lead to my second discipline: GATHER YOUR TOOLS, IF YOU DON’T HAVE THEM PURCHASE THEM, IF YOU CAN’T PURCHASE THEM, MAKE THEM.
Taking stock in tools tells you what problem you can solve easily so you can focus on what really needs focusing. I came up with a third discipline that I still use today but not always.
Third Discipline: CHECK IN WITH SMART PEOPLE OR GIVE A PROGRESS REPORT TO THE ASSIGNER FOR FEEDBACK
The third discipline was not always done third depending on the result of the second discipline. The reason being is that sometimes you are given problems because the people above don’t F’ing know the answer (or if they do they oversimplified it). So I give you the fourth discipline.
Fourth Discipline: DO A LITERATURE SEARCH (OR WATCH VIDEOS)
So this has become fraught with risk over the years because not everything published is gold. They are perspectives. Sometimes with an agenda. I have refined my sources over the years and do something that a lot of people don’t like to do, I find those people and network with them. It has made me better at what I do.
Now that I have all of this information then I look back at the problem statement and see what I have covered. See what I don’t have covered. With engineering problems I designed my experiment. I would set up my data sheets before hand. I would run models through my calculations (verify/validate). I would write any code for my automation. I would check those. I would establish a checklist for running the setup.
I would plan for success by pre-writing the final report with everything as it should have gone. Leaving the conclusion blank. I would space out the report and mark it up during execution if possible. By the way, record everything with your experiments. Video, audio, telemetry, have someone recording analog gauges. All this to say is that in the execution my fifth discipline.
Fith Discipline: BE PREPARED TO FALL FLAT ON YOUR ASS AND PREPARE TO RECOVER
Let the data take you where you need to be taken. Learn from your mistakes. Do a post mortem. Listen to people and do everything in reverse to see where you failed. Root cause principles are key. And if you did everything correct then great, write up your report. Here is my last discipline.
Sixth Discipline: WHEN EVERYTHING WORKED OUT THE WAY YOU WANTED TO, TURN ALL YOUR DELIVERABLES INTO TEMPLATES (BUILD YOUR TOOLBOX)
This is to say, reflect on what is worth keeping. Refine what was not. Celebrate your accomplishments. And file the stuff away.
Workflows are disciplines in order (or out) that you use your brain to navigate. I use my workflows to coach. Lay out not just the actions but the potential failure points. By preparring to fail you avoid failure many times.
The discipline that I did not talk about you may understand already if you have read anything posted here. It is consistent through out every problem. It is about people. Take into account the human aspect. Even your own. Check your work. Make sure people understand what the goal is. Get their buy in. See if they want to be on your team or not. Understand their bias and yours.
Don’t forget to celebrate the wins. Even with the people who don’t like to.
Be well.