Jobs Coming to NE Minnesota

Minnesota Steel's Mesabi Nugget Plant and Polymet Mining Corp.'s proposed metal mines are expected to require 1300 new full time employees. A VP from Cirrus spoke to my mechanics of materials class last Friday and said they would soon be hiring 40 new engineers. Already today, there are 75 of you, who I have taught, who are working as engineers in this region. I expect this number to double in less than 3 years.

If you don't already live up here, but think you might want to, you will have lots of upcoming opportunities. That is good news. Better news is that supply and demand are in your favor and salaries are already climbing. Even better news is that the people I know who work in these industries are quite happy with their work environment. They like their work and they like their colleagues as well as how their companies treat them.

TBL-It is a great time to be an engineer in NE MN!

Making Sure to Cover your Bases

My Dad, who is a retired elementary teacher, told Angie and I when we were starting our teaching careers, "the three most important people in the school are the secretary, the janitor, and the cook. Make friends with them and your life will be great. The cook will make you a cinamon roll, the janitor will make sure your room stays clean, and the secretary runs the school." Over the first 20 years of our careers, we can point to numerous cases where this has proven true.

Of course the opposite can also be true. Get on the bad side of any of these people and you can pay dearly.

This happened to me last Thursday. We hosted Women in Engineering Day for 150 high school girls. With Brad, Rachel, Alisha, and Amber all moved on, this event fell back to me to coordinate. I thought I had everything covered - all of the presenters were lined up and arrived on time and ready to go, the building was ready, the supplies were ready, the maintenance staff knew what was going on, the cooks had the meals ready, we were set.... But who did I forget to tell? The college's main receptionist! The point person who answers the phone and talks to people who walk into the college center. First thing Thursday morning, she got 3 phone calls and 2 walk-ins. She didn't know the first thing about us having this day on campus --- BAD Ron!

Fortunately, she is a very kind and forgiving person who does not hold a grudge and by Friday morning I was out of the dog house.

The lesson to be learned here is to always be thinking about the important people who support what we do in our professions.

Reading List

You will notice this is 95% fiction. My hope is to move slightly more in the non-fiction direction next year.

In order:
1. Cross, James Patterson
2. Sky Tower, Dale Brown
3. Murder in the House, Margaret Truman (President Truman's daughter)
4. ____________ (forgot to write it down), Truman
5. Wildfire, Nelson Demille
6. The Collectors, David Baldacci
7. You on a Diet, Oz
8. Step on a Crack, James Patterson
9. Plum Lovin, Janet Evanovich
10. Silver Tower, Dale Brown
11. Echo Park, Michael Connelly
12. Hunters, W.E.B. Griffin
13. Next, Michael Crichton
14. Wings of Fire, Dale Brown
15. One More Day, Mitch Albom
16. Dear John, Nicholas Sparks
17. No 2nd Chance, Harlan Coben
18. The Rescue, Sparks
19. Daddy's Girl, Lisa Scottoline
20. Lean 13, Evanovich
21. 6th Target, Patterson
22. The Refuge, Sue Henry
23. Invisible Prey, John Sanford
24. Gone, Jonathon Kellerman
25. Self Assessment - Faculty of Alverno College
26. Made to St3ick, Heath and Heath
27. Ordinary Heroes, Scott Turow
28. Edge of Winter, Rice
29. They Called Us Game Wardens Vol. 2, Bill Callies
30. Classroom Instruction that Works, Marzzano
31. Quickie, Patterson
32. Canoeing, Bob Cary
33. McNally's Dare, Sanders
34. High Noon, Nora Roberts
35. The Double Agents, W.E.B. Griffen
36. Harry Potter 7, Rowling
37. Thunder Bay, William Kent Krueger
38. Hunting Wind, Hamilton
39. Fade, Kyle Mills
40. Poitier, Syndey Poitier
41. Heart is a Lonely Hunter, McCullen
42. Playing for Pizza, John Grisham
43. Dark of the Moon, John Sandford
44. Kingmaker, Brian Haig
45. Fire Sale, Parentsky
46. Book of the Dead, Patricia Cornwell
47. E=MC^2, David Bodanis
48. Double Cross, James Patterson
49. Dead Madonna, Victoria Huston (in progress)

Reading

I know this is a topic that I have touched on before, but it is just so important to me, I'm going to hit it again.

The brain is like a muscle. If you exercise it, it will become stronger. Yesterday, for the first time in my recollection, I read a whole book in one day. It was 387 pages. 10 years ago, when I really took up reading, I read so slowly it would have taken me 3-4 times longer and my comprehension was lower.

Now reading is a big part of who I am. That book was the 48th of the year for me. For the third year in a row I will reach my goal of 50. Reading gives me a couple of good things. Primarily it is entertaining. Further though, it gives me a greatly enhanced ability to read technical communication. I sure wish I would have had the reading skills in college and earlier in my career that I do now. Life would have been so much easier.

Reading is also relaxing and a great way to pass stressful time. Bring a book to the waiting room at the doctors office, time will go much faster. Have trouble falling asleep at night because your mind is going a hundred different ways? I do, but if I grab the book I've been working on, my mind focuses down to one thing and quickly gets me to sleep.

Ok - enough preaching about reading.

Tomorrow I will list my books for the year.

P.S. To put things in perspective, Angie read 125 books last year. This year she will be under 100 for the first time in 7 years... she'll only read about 85!

Thanksgiving

What are you thankful for today?

Me? I am thankful:

To have Liz home from college for a few days;
to hear Katie and Colin made it safely to Nebraska;
to be reading a great book about E=mc^2;
to not have homework for four days;
that another deer season opens on Saturday;
that my friends who were in Iraq in the past year have come home safely;
to be working with the HC boys basketball team;

and mostly that I am able to live where I want, working where I want, and living with a family that is happily pursuing life.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Friday After Thanksgiving

If I had to have a lithmus test for any job, it would be the Friday after Thanksgiving test. Do you have to work (or take vacation) for the Friday after Thanksgiving? If so, your job would fail my test. On my first job after college, we had to either work or take vacation. To me, this is just plain wrong. It is poor for worker morale and must be a low productivity day. After working the first two years of Friday Thanksgivings, I decided that my next job would be evaluated using this criteria. My first job had a commitment of four years (however, by the fourth year I was the boss and gave my department the day off). Since then I haven't worked one, nor will I...EVER.

I hope you get to have a day of freedom this Friday.

P.S. Don't forget to stop by Cromwell on Saturday from 2-5 for Amanda and Bubba's open house. Of course if you have no idea who I'm talking about, you probably don't need to come.

Listening

This is a topic that cannot be over-emphasized. Out of respect for those who we are communicating with, we should be active listeners. I am more guilty than most at not being a good listener.

Here are some important listening tools:

1. Listen with your eyes. Make good eye contact so the person talking to you knows you are paying attention.

2. Listen with your body. Sit up and lean slightly forward. Anything else communicates lack of attention.

3. Listen with your mind. Actively engage the topic being discussed.

Common politeness would dictate that we should always follow these rules. Professionalism would dictate that we do it at work. Desire to excell would dictate we surely do this in interviews, meetings with clients, performance reviews, when communicating with those who supervise us and extremely importantly those we supervise.

Though I will freely admit that there are times I purposefully break these rules when I am trying to communicate that this is not the right time for the given conversation.

TBL: Keep listening at the front of the list of skills you constantly sharpen.

Women in Engineering Day

On Thursday, November 29th, I will host a day at ICC for high school girls interested in careers in engineering. The day will consist of the girls attending 3 workshops hosted by women engineers. The workshops will be hands on and will include insights from the engineers as to why a high school girl would consider this path.

Do you have any suggestions as to projects that the girls could do? I have 3 planned, but am looking for ideas for 3 more.

Do you have any insights I should be sure to have shared with the girls?

If you are a woman, would you be interested in coming to help? Or are there any women in your company who might want to come and help?

Thanks!

Ron

Vacation

The Bottom Line is that it is Deer Season. For the first time since 1998 I am taking personal leave from my job to take some time off to spend with my son and my Dad in the woods for a week. Ok... I can hear people saying, wait a minute didn't he have two sabbatical leaves in that time period... well yeah... and doesn't he have June July and August... well yeah... and Christmas break, Spring break, yeah..yeah..yeah.. I get it! I rarely ever work. But none-the-less I am going hunting for the next 7 days.

For those of you who hunt, be safe and good luck. For those who don't, I'll post again late next week.

Making a List

Part Two:

Did you do it? Here is mine:

1. Now that our kids are fleeing from home, I want to spend more time doing things with Angie.

2. Increase my time spent volunteering.

3. Enter an Engineering Education Doctorate program.

4. Go to Australia.

5. Shoot a trophy buck.

Now that we have our lists, the key is to identify the steps that need to be taken to enable the achievement of the goals...Something to think about in the deerstand.

Make a List

Part one:

Make a list of 5 things you want to accomplish in the next five years.

Have at least one thing be professional, one thing be personal, and one place you would like to go.

Job Opportunity

Anyone graduating in December (or in the first couple of years of their career) who is interested in working in industry in Grand Rapids, contact me soon.

Community Involvement

One of the things expected by most companies is that their technical professionals are active in the external community. This is often a question in performance reviews or in interviews as you look to move from one company to another. There are many different avenues you may choose. You can serve on community boards, volunteer your time in local schools, become a member of Engineers Without Borders, become active in professional societies. I know it is hard to be a young professional and balance personal life with work life, but I do recommend finding ways to be active outside of your workplace.

Whew!

I again apologize for being a little slow in posting. This has been a hectic week. The wedding was awesome. Everything went well, the party and dancing were great, the new family is kind and fun. Here is a picture of Katie, Colin, and their flower girl.



We arrived home late Sunday evening. At 5:30 Monday morning I headed to school to catch a motor coach back to North Dakota. 40 students and I went to NDSU, Phoenix Insdustries, UND, and Team Industries. Four great tours over two days. We arrived back in town at 6:00 PM Tuesday just in time to race to McGregor for Ronnie's playoff football game.

Anyhow, posts should be more regular now (until deer season).

Busy Week and Wrap on Self Reflection

Greetings!

This sure has been a packed week: We had our first block finals yesterday, which of course meant a finals breakfast cooked by the faculty and Noel. Tuesday afternoon, a first year engineering student was driving in a car and slid off the road losing control, his girlfriend was ejected and died. Today we are on the first day of Fall break, but in our house things are a little hectic. Katie and Colin are getting married on Saturday in Grand Forks so we are finalizing everything we need to do.



Back to self-reflection and why I brought it up in the first place. We all know people in the workplace whose actions leave those around them uncomfortable, irritated, upset, or pissed off. These people, because of the way, they handle themselves, can make being around them no fun, thus making work no fun; or when working with them is difficult, everyone's work production decreases. Worse yet, is when these people represent you and your team and your company to people outside the company. This is bad.

Well, who would want to be "that" person? Nobody! Do they really know how they act and are perceived? I doubt it. Self-reflection is about making sure we are not "that" person. We need to be continually self monitoring ourselves to see how we are perceived by others, to make sure we are comfortable with how we perceive ourselves, and to constantly looking for little ways to improve ourselves.

Self-reflection and analysis are the first steps in improving ourselves.

Self-Reflection Part 4

Last few questions:

8. What are the characteristics in others that I find attractive? Explain how these characteristics are attractive.

9. What are the characteristics in others that I find unattractive? Explain how these characteristics are unattractive.

10. Looking at these characteristics, which of them do others see in me? Am I comfortable with this?

Self-Reflection Part 3

Questions 5-7

5. Am I pleased with the way I do my work? In what ways yes and no?

6. Do I talk much about myself? How do I feel about being the topic of conversation both when I initiate it and when I don't?

7. When I discuss myself, what are the topics and contexts? Who are the other participants in the conversation?

Self Reflection Part 2

Questions 2-4

2. What do I do best? What do I do poorly?

3. Am I pleased with the way I treat others? What ways yes and what ways no?

4. How do I describe myself to others?

Remember just reading these questions is not enough. You need to write down the answers and think about them to decide if there is a place you need change.

Self-Reflection Part 1

Do we spend enough time looking inward to see if we are comfortable with what we see? I don't.

Maybe a better question is, what can be gained by doing this? Well, have you ever heard the old quote: "We are our own worst enemy"?

As professionals in a work environment, we want to be successful at what we do. One of the best ways to find success is to identify what behaviors or attitudes we have the inhibit success and then find ways to change them.

In the following days I am going to post a series of questions aimed at just this. I suggest you take 5 minutes to write down answers to the questions and begin to form a picture of what needs to be changed and how to go about changing. I will be doing this for myself as well.

Question 1:

How confident am I when I begin somehting new? In what ways do I feel confident and in what ways do I feel insecure?

Diversity Part II

Well, Aaron and I have a plan to improve the exposure to diverse people for ICC Engineering students. We hope to bring students from the widest range of cultures to ICC to enter our program and to bring a teacher from a different background in as well.

One only has to look back to the late 90's when Yuli and Pita came from Indonesia to HCC and entered our engineering program. Pita was there first, then Yuli came just as Pita left. They positively impact all of our lives in many ways. They came from the other side of the world and shared their culture with us as they immersed themselves in our culture.

Just yesterday Aaron and I submitted a grant proposal that would enable us to bring in students and a teacher from different cultures for the next five years. Over the past 20 years I have travelled to many different corners of the globe and have lived in the deep South of this country. Who I am today is shaped very much by all of those experiences. The chance to have people from different places share their lives with us at ICC is something I look very much forward to.

Diversity

When you hear this word what do you think of?

A lot of us immediately think of ethnic diversity - usually in the color or shade of skin. With a little more reflection we can come to diversity of gender, diversity of socio-economic background, diversity of political or religious views, and diversity of thinking processes.

Whenever we encounter a new type of person who is different from us, our reactions can be anywhere on a spectrum from rejection of the people for their absurd ways, to acceptance, respect, and appreciation for their differences. If you think about it, most wars have been fought due to one group not accepting the differences of another.

As professionals working in a professional setting, we need to become (or at worst, have the appearance of having become) the type of people who accept those that are different and gain a respect and appreciation for the differences.

People my age watched our grandparents and our parents have outward disdain for people of different races and even different genders. Today this is not, in any way, acceptable.

So here is the question, if we live in northern Minnesota, go to high school in northern Minnesota, go to ICC for two years, and then to a regional university, how can we learn first hand that a huge part of the world looks, thinks, and acts differently than we do? How can we gain respect for different people, when for the most part, those of us who live here are quite similar?

Hiring Committees

A quick piece of advice to start the week.

One of the most beneficial things I have done is serve on committees for the hiring of new people in the places where I have worked.

This exercise gives a person much better insight into the hiring process (valuable for the next time you are trying to get hired somewhere). Additionally, it gives you a chance to both better understand your company and to have a real impact on the future of your company.

TBL: Search out these opportunities.

Another dilemma

The great discussion of the last few days has brought forward another challenging issue.

"Here's another topic related to the last baby thing.

One big issue that I'm having some trouble with is balancing my time with my family and being involved as much as possible with social activities at work, which also potentially affect career development. I was asked to be on a broomball team and found out that the two people who asked me are a manager and senior level research scientist. It's very hard to say no to them, but at the same time it's very hard to say yes because that cuts in on the time I spend with with my son, which I feel isn't enough in the first place. I don't want to miss any opportunities (especially when they are amazingly fun) to extend my network at work, but I don't want to miss out with family, either. Right now there's not an ideal solution except if it turns out the league happens late at night when he is asleep, but it's an issue that's tough to deal with. And since none of my close friends are really going through the same stuff right now either that makes it hard to get advice or share with anybody."

Maternity Leave -- Part Two

Wow! We have reached a new high with 4 comments on one blog entry!!

Let's analyze the options:

1. Quit work completely to raise children. Maybe go back much later when the youngest child reaches an appropriate age.

2. Work full-time except for the few months after each birth.

3. Work a flexible schedule that allows for balance between work and children.

Now with those options stated, here are some of my observations:

*Each of us as sets of parents, need to decide what is best for our own children.
*A mother staying home with her children, while the father works, is an acceptable and good thing to do.
*A father staying home with his children, while the mother works, is an acceptable and good thing to do.
*My three children went to daycare. There are no evident scars. In fact, they seem like normal, talented, and kind people to me. The reason we did this is we felt it was necessary to both work in able to provide the lifestyle we wanted for our family.
*A person who stays home with children has to have a certain mentality. I couldn't have done it. I need the social interaction with adults.
*Today I am staring empty nest straight in the eyes and I do not like it. 2 of my children are gone and the 3rd turns 16 in 2 days. The time went wayyy too fast and as was said in one of comments, you can't rewind time.

Now, I will give my opinion of what I think I would do in the case presented to us. I think I would take the option in the middle that allows for good work a little more than half time. This keeps you active in your career, keeps you involved with your child(ren), and involved with real adults. When, the time comes to work full time again, you can then be a project manager and succeed at the high levels. You will still have 20-25 years left in your career.

This entry has led to another great topic emailed to me today for posting tomorrow.

A Real Topic for Discussion

Below is an email I received today. I am going to post it here for a day or so, before responding. The topic is one that any of us who have children are going to face. There is no right answer only tough decisions. I will post my response tomorrow:

"Maternity leave…

I have asked to work part time as an engineer after the baby arrives. I asked for 3 months off and then 3 days per week for the next 7 months or so. I’m planning the days so that the time off will equal less than 6 months total so that I don’t have to push back my original PE exam date at all.

My employer has a Project Manager position open in the next two years and would like for me to be able to fill it. Which is really cool.

However, it looks like working part time may not allow me to perform the tasks to prepare for the Project Manager position. Also, it is not possible to be a Project Manager and work part time.

Fortunately my employer is willing to find tasks that will still use my skills and engineering knowledge without requiring full time work.

I’m still struggling a little with the decision between being there for our child versus advancement of my career.

Should we be blessed with more children this situation could continue for a few years.

Any experience to share or advice?"

Young Workers: U Nd 2 Improve Ur Writing Skills

This is from a research study done on young professionals in Minnesota:

"A generation ago, employers were still lamenting the poor technical abilities of their entry-level workers. Well, that's not much of an issue anymore, thanks to the omnipresence of computers, cell phones and the Internet.

In a survey of 100 human resources executives, only 5 percent said that recent college graduates lacked computer or technology skills, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the outplacement firm.

The problem now is more basic. Nearly half the executives said that entry-level workers lacked writing skills, and 27 percent said that they were deficient in critical thinking.

It seems that some young employees are now guilty of the technological equivalent of wearing flip-flops: they are writing company e-mail as if they were texting cell phone messages with their thumbs.

In response, employers are sending a message of their own: When you're in the office, put on those dress shoes and start spelling your words correctly, and in full.

Survey Results

Human Resources executives were asked: "What skills do entry workers lack the most?"

Respondents could select more than one answer.

Written communications 45%
Critical thinking 27%
Other 27%
Workload time management 9%
Listening 5%
Computer/Technology 5%
Verbal Communication 0"

TBL: I love texting and being efficient in doing so, but we must make the transition to using proper writing in our professional emails!

A Match Made in Engineering (ICC that is)

Most of you came to ICC to start your engineering education. But a few came here to meet your life-mate. First came Rick and Crystal, today Sami and Josh got married, and now Teresa and Ryan are engaged! Whenever I can make it a former student's (in this case students'!) wedding, I do. It is a great experience to see you progress through this step in life and often your friends are my friends too! 5 of the people in today's wedding party were ICC Engineers...plus many more guests. Here are some pictures.

Help

Hi and Help!

I am teaching Intro to Engineering right now. Our students are having one of the best experiences we have ever had. We are working really hard to combine 1. exposure to engineering principles, 2. exposure to engineering through doing (like the canoe experience), 3. exposure to careers in engineering by touring (yesterday we went to Boston Scientific -- thanks Alisha and Kari), and 4. exposure to real engineers. This is where I need your help.

I would like to be able to walk into class each day and show a highlight of a former student who is now an engineer (and I mean engineer in the broadest sense...see my former blog about being an engineer!). Here is my request:

Please send me an email with the following information:
name:
high school:
years at comm college:
transfer university:
major and year of graduation:
list of different places you've worked:
current job description (a paragraph here would be helpful):
thing you like best about being an engineer:
favorite class in college:
piece of advice to first year engineering student:
and a picture (any picture will work...even none if you don't want)

THANK YOU... THANK YOU... THANK YOU!

Aluminum Foil Canoe

Want to know what's going on at ICC Engineering?

Today, at Blandin Beach, Itasca Community College Engineering students raced the aluminum foil canoes they designed and built. Each of the 18 teams had one roll of duct tape, 100 square feet of aluminum foil, and 72 pieces of lath. They were allowed to use glue guns to connect the pieces of wood. Student groups joined either the stock class, where they used paddles to propel their craft, or the modified class where they could use any type of motor. Many engineering principles were learned by the students as they completed this project. Specifically, they learned the fluid engineering principles of buoyancy, stability, and hydrodynamics -- their boats had to float, not tip, and move efficiently through the water. The canoe race consisted of starting at one buoy, traversing 100 yards to another buoy which they circled and then raced back to the beginning. The top two scores were boats from the stock class which raced the course in 46 seconds each.

Grad School

Should you do it? If yes, in what?

My answer to the first question is yes. Grad school has a couple of important benefits - first it can open the doors to some jobs that weren't before and second it shows great initiative which many employers look positively upon. I couldn't have my job without a masters degree. There aren't many such jobs that require the advanced degree, but there are some.

Degree area - Well there are two main areas: engineering or business/management. The answer here, depends upon your ultimate career goals. If you want to ultimately work in the management side of things, then obviously you should head that direction. The degree can open the doors sooner and wider. If you really like hard engineering, then engineering makes sense.

Another option is to use your masters to expand your boundaries like I did. Even though my bachelors degree was in civil engineering, I got a masters in mechanical, thus opening my options up to two very broad career paths.

TBL: As engineers we have committed ourselves to be lifelong learners. Getting a masters degree (or two) along the way is a great option.

P.S. Get somebody else to pay for that degree. Don't take it out of your own pocket.

Office Socialization

Do the people at your place of work ever get together outside of work for socialization? If yes, great. If not, you are missing out. The time spent over a beer and pizza with group of co-workers and their significant others is time well spent. The next time you pass in the hallway, the nod and the smile are brighter and the workplace is a better place to be. Your co-workers and even bosses become your friends and work is a much better place to go when you get to be with your friends. If you are in the "no" category and want to move to the "yes", then be the leader and set up an evening where people get together. If the first one isn't well attended, be patient and plan another. It will almost always catch on.

TBL: Being social with your co-workers will lead to a better work environment.

From Amanda

In all fairness to guys, here is an actual conversation two girls I met today had at the table during a training seminar. . . .

Nice girl "So, what projects are you assisting with?"
Evil wench (with an offended look on her face and in bitchy voice) "UGH! I don't ASSIST anybody. My boss only has me leading projects."

She was 100% serious with this comment even though she had been working here for less than 2 months. Nice girl continued to be polite. Later evil wench was telling us more about herself and said this. . . . .

"I'm arrogant, that's just how it is."

So I don't know who she was trying to impress or if she really thought that technique was working, but guys aren't the only ones who are aggresively insecure :-).

The Dominator

Do you work with this guy? (and I do mean guy)

Let me tell you about him. He is 23 years old. He is your co-worker. He is the stereotypical "I have an engineering degree...I know everything...And I am better than you" kind of guy. You've met him, haven't you? He won't agree with anything you say. He's a brown-noser who takes credit for your ideas with the bosses. He thinks he's superior to you and let's you know it in everyway he can.

Let me tell you the truth about the Dominator. He is INSECURE! Whether he has talent or not, he is totally uncomfortable with who he is, and he uses the above described actions to compensate for that insecurity.

AND... the bosses see right through him. You might feel like he is taking all of your glory for the real good hard work you do, but the good managers know and in the long run your positive work ethic will outshine him...period.

As always TBL says "DON'T BE THIS GUY!!!!!!!"

HR Unprofessionalism

This really gets under my skin. When a person is applying for a job, he has decided to make a big life change. So she goes through the application process and hopes for an interview. The timeframe that companies have from application deadline to notification of interview varies hugely. This is where I have my beef, any time frame longer than 2 weeks is just unacceptable. Those applicants have their lives hanging in the balance and need to know what is going on. Yet HR departments can have total disregard for the potential employees. Worse yet is when there is a long delay between the interview and notification of success/or not. Here, I think anything past a few days is out of bounds. I once waited 3 weeks between an interview and notification. It drove me nuts.

What can we do? Well when we serve on hiring committees, we should encourage our supervisors to push for reasonable notification of candidates. I do this with my supervisor all the time. We've all been on the receiving end and anything we can do to help those candidates is simply exercising our own professional responsibilities.

Locus of Control

On a scale of 1-10 (one low, ten high) estimate the level of control you have over your own life.

Now go to this site and take the survey:

http://www.dushkin.com/connectext/psy/ch11/survey11.mhtml

The site gives you a score relating to a level of control. Internal Control means you feel you are in charge of your life. External Control means you feel that something or someone other than you controls your life.

How does your score on my question compare with the survey? Are they similar?

Now for the important part. Do you feel comfortable with the answers? If you do, great. IF NOT, I ask you to write down a list of steps you could take to get you where you want to be.

This self awareness and self analysis are the most important steps in making change.

The White Devil

This post is about eating right. Coming from me, this is a little out of whack - I have not eaten right for about 90% of my life and I weigh 20 pounds more than I should.

But the evidence is clear, eating processed foods with high sugar content is about the worst thing a person can do for their health (other than smoking or drinking/drugs).

The real enemies are sugar (along with high fructose corn syrup) and white flour. They cause our bodies to chemically do some bad shit that ends up giving us big guts and a high propensity for diabetes.

The right way down the road to eating more healthily is to give these things up. Switch to getting your sugars from natural places like fruits and switch to 100% whole grain bread and pasta and eat wild rice instead of white rice.

I do my best to follow these rules and when I do, I feel better, my waist shrinks and occassionally I lose a pound or two.

Touring Engineering

This past Friday, the ICC Engineering students and faculty went to Duluth to learn more about careers in engineering. We started with 6 engineers from Minnesota Power talking to the group about what they do in their different disciplines (Thank you Maggie). Then Rodney V set up a cool demonstration of a fluid system designed to test the different methods for cleaning ballast tank discharges in Great Lakes ships. The day ended with an awesome two hour tour of Cirrus that Amber M set up for us.

Here's the great part - the students were so totally pumped by the end of the day. We can sit in classrooms and talk until we are blue in the face about why these young people should continue down the path to becoming an engineer. But that doesn't compare in any way with what they get out of seeing engineering in practice and talking to practicing engineers.

Do you have place we can come? We've got lots of money for renting buses. We are looking for great places to visit. You are the people who can help us out. Let me know if you have any good ideas. Thanks in advance.

Contact

As engineers we have a scientific training that makes us want empirical evidence to explain every phenomenon. If we can't prove it, we don't believe it.

As humans many of us believe in a higher being and we do so based on faith.

These two approaches can clash in our minds at different times in our lives.

Tonight, Gordy put on a showing of the movie Contact (starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey and based on the book by Carl Sagan) for our engineering students. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. If you have, watch it again.

This movie can help us science based thinker come to grips with faith.

Scholarship Drive

Take a guess what the college budget is for an ICC student living in our dorms?

.... over $14,000!

Just a few years ago that number was less than half of what it is now. It is a crime against society as far as I'm concerned. Nonetheless it is a design constraint underwhich we must go forward as a program. I am trying to solve the problem on several fronts by searching for money from the NSF and from private foundations. In addition, I am in the beginning stages of raising money on an annual basis from engineering alum. I started in August by writing to my former HCC Engineering students (there are 87 of them) and asking them to donate to ICC for scholarships. Guess what? They have! I have commitments from HCC alum for over $5000 by January 1st.

Now I will be contacting ICC alum. You will hear from me soon as I look to ask you to pay back those who helped you by helping our future engineers attain their education.

I pay over $1000 per year to this account as do Aaron/Carol, and Brad. We hope that you may be able to help to.

TBL: We are all at different financial situations and in different stages of life. I would only ever ask you to contribute what you could no matter how little or how much.

Friendship

Many of us take our friendships for granted. We have some really good friends who we rely on to help is in a huge variety of ways. This, of course, is one of the best parts about our lives. However, how often do we go out of our way and do something special for our friends to show them how much they are appreciated. In my case, I would have to certainly say not nearly enough. Tonight one of my good friends brought me a gift to thank me for being his friend. It is a handmade headdress. It is intricate and way cool. Here are some pics.








TBL: What could you do in your life right now to show a friend how much you appreciate them?

Transitions

The beginning of college is a most tumultuous time. I have 75 new engineering students who are starting this transition and I brought my Liz to college this weekend. I shared this posting with all of them through facebook and thought I would add it here. Perhaps you remember this time in your life:

"The hardest four months of my life were those that comprised the first semester of college. There are so many conflicting emotions and fears.

I think the hardest part was feeling like something was over forever. I knew I was in the right place and that my parents fully supported me, but my life as a child was over and that hurt. This caused me to be homesick.

College is scary. There is so much unkown. Am I good enough? Is everybody else smarter than me? Will I do well in my classes? Will I like my major? Do I have enough money to get to the end of the semester? Will I let down my family if I don't do really well?

I could go on and on. There is just so much.

Well, that first semester was 23 years ago. Since then I have been a friend and teacher to thousands of students who have gone through this same semester. From these experiences, I have some insight I can share with you.

The first is for you to understand that if you are feeling any of the things I listed above, you are perfectly normal and almost everyone around you is feeling the same way.

The second is that from this semester forward everything gets much better. Time will go faster, you will be happier, you will do better in your classes, you will become comfortable with your new life.

Third and finally, I offer up these suggestions for how to make it through this semester:

*Don't ever skip class. Nothing good can come from that bad habit.
*Do your homework as early in the day as possible - in other words, get all of your work done and then go have fun. The other way around just doesn't work well.
*Stay in communication with the important people in your life. These people are the ones who have always given you comfort - get comfort of them now when you need it.
*Learn how to do well in your classes. Don't just go through the motions of studying, but invest yourself in learning the material so that you can take it with you - by doing this you will do better in your classes.
*Find some study friends. Learning with someone else is much more effective and more fun.
*Do all the things your mother would tell you - eat right, get enough sleep, and find time to exercise.

This is the beginning of a wonderful new life. But the transition to getting there will feel like hell sometimes. My life is about helping you through this transition. I am available to talk anytime by facebook, email, or phone."

What is an engineer?

Here is my definition:

An engineer is a person with an engineering degree.

One of my pet peeves (other than people who actually use the words pet peeve) is when a person tells me "I don't do real engineering" or "I'm not really an engineer". This absolutely drives me crazy. It is like there is this perception that to be a real engineer you have to be doing design work or something.

Here is the list that most books use to describe the functions of an engineer:

Design
Develop
Testing
Production
Operations
Management
Marketing
Consulting
Teaching
Research

Well I challenge you to find a job that isn't on this list! (Other than working at McDonalds or something similar). Just about every job falls into one of these categories...so if you happen to have an engineering degree and perform one of these functions you ARE an engineer.

To me, being an engineer is a mindset. It is using our creative abilities to do good things for people. Our education prepares us to do this. The way in which we go about it is our own choice. The broad spectrum of opportunities is incredible.

I've had many people say to me "you are not a real engineer, you are a teacher". Is that so? Teacher seems to be on the list above. The state of Minnesota let me use four years of teaching to qualify me to take the Professional Engineers exam. An exam I passed. So the community of professional engineers considers me to a licensed real engineer.

TBL: Earning an engineering degree is one of the most significant accomplishments you will have in life. Wear that badge proudly. Don't diminish what you do as being anything less than being an engineer.

Safety

I had lunch today with an HCC Engr alum who stopped by to drop of his paperwork for the engineering alumni scholarship drive (yay!). It was awesome to catch up on his life and bring each other up to date on our mutual acquaintances. I continue to be ultimately impressed with the quality of individuals that the 18-20 yr old college students I knew become as mature engineering professionals.

Anyhow, at one point in our conversation we turned to safety in the workplace. He said, "the number one priority in our workplace is NOT production...it is safety of the workers...I think back on all of what they taught us in college - not one class on the importance of safety." This person is an electrical engineer. People in his line of work have to always be on their toes. High voltage electrical power is nothing to get lazy about.

Throughout the rest of the day I have reflected on our conversation. He is right. Safety, especially when we haven't had a close call, can take a second chair as we carry out our daily work as engineers. In fact safety procedures can seem tedious or anal. In college we do not put the right level of emphasis on safety.

As we approach the one year anniversary of the United Taconite accident that took the life of our alumnus Andy Reed, I can't help but wonder if we, in academia, had put more emphasis on safety, if that accident might have been prevented.

TBL:Put more emphasis on safety in your workplace and with your coworkers.

Be on Time to Meetings

This fall the faculty and staff at ICC have begun to emphasize the importance of being on time to meetings. Our culture had slipped into one where it was not at all unusual for people to wait 15 minutes while others were coming late to meetings. Additionally, we have some people who are habitually late. You may know some people like this either in your company or teachers in your school. It is really downright disrespectful and probably something we all need to work on. If we each do our part, our workplace and our lives will be better places to be.

TBL: Don't be late.

Disc Golf

As the new school year starts, ICC students will be taking to the new disc golf course on campus. The nine pin course was built last Spring by engineering students Steve Carlson and Tim Cameron. Steve is now a junior at the University of Minnesota and Tim is starting at St. Thomas. They designed the pins, pitched the idea to the college administration, raised the funds, bought the materials, built the pins, designed the course and put the course in place. Pretty cool.

More cool are the reasons they did it. While Tim and Steve, who are graduates of Forest Lake High School, were first year students at ICC, they had a friend from back home who died. They wanted to do something in their friend's memory. Secondly, they wanted to do something for the college community in repayment for the education and experience they got at ICC.

I am impressed by these two engineering students. How many times in our lives have we acted on similar impulses? Doing something for these reasons is the right thing to do.

TBL: Take page out of Tim and Steves' book, take the opportunity to make a difference when you can.

Layoffs

Before I begin this topic, I guess asking for sympathy after three months of vacation was probably not too smart. Oh well. :)

I recently received an email from a student who stated "the one thing college didn't prepare me for was the threat of layoffs... I would like to believe the quality of my work would be rewarded...with layoffs it doesn't even matter."

Layoffs are a real part of life. It doesn't matter where you work - public or private - big company or small - teacher or engineer. The worst part is, the people most susceptible are those most junior and probably least financially prepared for the loss of income. I don't have any advice on how to avoid layoffs. Perhaps the best advice is to, as soon as you start working (before you take out that big car loan or buy a new house), get enough money into savings to cover a couple of months of lost income.

Personally, if I worked in a place where there were threats of layoffs over a long time, I would look to move on. The stress is real and no fun.

Back to School

Happy Monday - Well it is back to work time. Tomorrow my sabbatical leave is officially over and I am back to 100% work. I do so with great enthusiasm. Teaching is a great career and a new school year means lots of excitement and many new beginnings.

I've been in contact this weekend with some of the students who are transferred off to university and starting their exciting transition to upper division and a whole new level of expectation. I wish them well and offer to be a sounding board whenever they need it.

Our new group of students (there will be 150 total at ICC in engineering) starts to move in on this coming Saturday and school starts next Tuesday. In the interim we teachers begin the work of planning curriculum and activities as well as professional development workshops. I'm throwing in a two day engineering camp on Wednesday and Thursday for students who are starting Project Lead the Way at Grand Rapids High School.

For those of you out in the real world. I encourage you to take a moment to realize how nice life is without 3-4 hours per day of homework. We envy you.

Have a great day and expect TBL frequency to drastically increase!

35 Years - Your Choice

Here is a quote I often mention in class and is always worth repeating. When I graduated from college my Dad told me the advice that one of his friends shared with him. "Happiness at work is a personal choice." Think about it. You know people who work doing the same job in the same office, half of whom would say they like their job and half would say they hate it. I know it is true in all of the places I have worked and others I observe. Most of us are going to work for 30-35 years, whether we like it or not, is really our own personal choice. Make the right choice.

Sideview Mirrors

We made it home safe and sound from our trip to San Antonio. While driving I was reminded of this driving tip I got from my insurance company a few years ago.

Doing the following eliminates a driver's blind spot:

We typically drive our cars so that using the sideview mirrors, we can see what is behind us. This however, is redundant. Our rearview mirror already allows us to see back there. Thus, the sideview mirrors should be adjusted to see what is beside us. Here is how - put your left cheek up against the window then adjust the left mirror outwards until you just lose sight of the side of your car. Do the same on the right side, but you obviously can't put your right cheek on the window, so just lean as far right as you can.

Once you have done this, the first few glances in the mirrors seem weird. But just wait until you are driving and have a car come up behind you to pass. Watch as they leave your rearview and simultaneously enter your sideview. It is awesome for freeway driving and has saved me from pulling into people on a couple of occassions.

Paradigm Shift

For the past few days I have been in San Antonio for my daughter's graduation from Air Force basic training. I've seen the change in her, heard stories about what the past 7 weeks were like, and seen a DVD made about the experience. It has been an occurrence for me to reflect back to 1988 when I went through a similar 6 week experience. People have different opinions about the military and about those of us in the military. But that aside, there can be no arguing the worth of an experience that pushes you to your limits and far beyond what you previously thought your limits were. The paradigm shift, the expansion of personal boundaries, that comes from a basic training type experience is incredible. I recommend you look for such opportunities in life and jump at them if possible.

Tragedy

Yesterday Angie, Ronnie, and I started our day at the memorial for the Oklahoma City federal building bombing. We spent considerable time walking around and taking in the incredible devastation as well as reflecting on the loss of life.

Several hours later as we were driving into San Antonio for Liz’s basic training graduation weekend, I received a call from Jamie telling me about the bridge collapse. Basically, we have been glued to CNN ever since.

As normal human beings we are shocked. It is hard to comprehend how this happens so close to home. We worry about our friends and relatives who might have been on the bridge. We reflect back on the last time we drove across the bridge (last Sunday picking Ronnie up from baseball camp).

As engineers we are frightfully reminded of the tremendous importance of our responsibility to society. It is really hard to know what went wrong. In our culture there seems to be a need for blame and finger pointing. Engineers are going to be in the crosshairs on this incident. Don’t be surprised if you feel some shame or guilt by association. It is normal – I feel it. However, it is not well placed.

I do not believe that this will prove to be negligence on the part of the design team nor the inspection engineers. Remember this bridge was designed and built 40 years ago, under what I am sure were acceptable standards at the time. The negligence here is a responsibility as a country to keep its infrastructure safe. Our interstate was built in a relatively short period of time (a great engineering feat), but a relatively long time ago. This infrastructure failure is going to be repeated on interstate bridges across the country that are nearing this same age and usage.

TBL: As engineers we are sobered when the public for whom we are responsible suffer due to a failure of an engineered structure.

Driving for the conditions

My cousin Dick was driving to work yesterday morning in Duluth. It was foggy. While driving, he saw a person flagging him to slow down. So he did and came upon this scene:

A semi-truck was crossing highway 2. It had stopped at the stop sign, saw no on-coming traffic in either direction and started to pull across the highway. A motorcyclist driving on highway 2, with the right-a-way, drove under the semi and was subsequently driven over by the back of the truck.

Dick is a first responder and was the second person on the scene. He approached the downed motorcyclist who was crushed and dead with no chance of being saved.

What went wrong? It appears as though the semi had cautiously stopped and pulled out. The motorcyclist had the right-a-way. What went wrong was perhaps the fog.

We've all been here - fog or pouring rain or blowing snow.

Dick told me this scene will stick with him for a long long time.

TBL: Next time we find ourselves in a similar situation, slow down, high speed takes away most options for safety when the conditions for visibility are poor.

Success

Here is a comment posted by Marty. It deserves front page posting. Thanks Marty.

Also, I have been a litte slow on posting. Bear with me, I will pick back up as school approaches. RU

I borrowed this from the Dilbert Blog and writer Scott Adams, but thought it also appropriate to the bottom line.
Marty


The Loser Decision
In my mid twenties, when I was a banker, a top executive in the company offered me a job as his personal gopher. I declined because I already had a good job managing a small group of people. Being a gopher seemed like a step backwards. There wasn’t even a raise involved.

The executive went ballistic. He told me I was making the stupidest decision of my career. I laughed to myself, wondering if anyone was dumb enough to think a gopher job was a stepping stone toward becoming a captain of industry.

Another young guy in the division took the gopher job. A year later he was promoted to Assistant Vice President. In three years he made Vice President, thanks to his mentor. Now he probably owns his own bank.

What I didn’t understand at the time, and the executive in my story didn’t mention, was that the gopher job was his way of getting to know me better, and introducing me to the other executives before propelling me up the ranks. My ego clouded my judgment. I wasn’t willing to go from boss to gopher. That’s all I saw in this decision, even though the reality is obvious in retrospect.

Years later, I got a chance to fix that mistake. When Dilbert launched in newspapers, the response was underwhelming. In the early years, it wasn’t a workplace strip. It was about Dilbert’s life in general. He just happened to have a job. I was surprised to learn, via my e-mail, that readers loved the relatively rare comics featuring Dilbert in the office. Personally, I didn’t think those were my best work. My ego told me to do it my way. My readers told me I was wrong.

What the hell do readers know? After all, they aren’t syndicated cartoonists, and I was, albeit in only a few dozen newspapers. But this time, fortunately, I ignored my ego, changed the focus of the strip to workplace humor, and it took off.

Recently I was reminded of this as I watched two young people allow their egos to drive them over career cliffs. I know they feel good about their decisions, just as I did when I turned down the gopher job.

I’ve come to call this ego-driven behavior the “loser decision.” I don’t mean it as an insult. It’s an objective fact that life often presents us with choices where the comfortable decision leads nowhere and one that threatens your ego has all the potential in the world.

You need a healthy ego to endure the abuse that comes with any sort of success. The trick is to think of your ego as your goofy best friend who lends moral support but doesn’t know shit.

Negative Power - A Cancer in your Company

I've witnessed this phenomenon numerous times throughout my career. It often is the result of territorialism. It goes something like this.

Somebody has a unique idea and begins to act on it. Pretty soon a person with some amount of power (let's call this person the CANCER) steps up and says - "you can't do that and here are the reasons why". The reasons are often cookie cutter - we don't do it that way, that is against policy, the company doesn't allow it, that's not in the contract, that's not your job - that work is done by _________, what if xxxx happened? and on and on and on.

We all encounter this periodically. Where it becomes a real problem is when the CANCER has such positional power and puts the halt on so many things that the progressive spirit of the company or department is crushed.

The solution comes in the form of higher leadership. The people who have the ultimate responsibility have to have the courage to act to change or eliminate the CANCER. We in the weeds have the responsibility to encourage higher leadership to act, but they have to do it.

TBL: Don't be the CANCER - do your part to identify when this is happening in your company and encourage leaders to stop it.

TDL

This entry is about To Do Lists. Having a TDL at the beginning of each day is the key to productivity. Time after time, if I show up at work without a to do list, my day just disappears and the amount of important things I get done is low. If I show up with a to do list, I can pound a ton of things out by noon. Here are my tips for a successful TDL:

* Go retro and use actual paper instead of a PDA. I've tried Palm etc. and the TDL is hidden, kind of out of site out of mind.

* Get some card stock - I use pink and blue (when my boss asks me to do something - I reach into my pocket and say "let me put in on my BLUEberry or RASPberry"). Card stock is easier to handle.

* Making my TDL is a three step process:
1. Using a piece of scratch paper I write down everything I need to do the next day.
2. I then go through and make some categories (grant, classwork, emails, personal, whatever). Then I take the card stock which is folded in 1/4ths and copy the list for each category.
3. Finally I go through each category and prioritize with a number (1 being the thing I will do first).

* When I get to work I get right down to crossing things off of the lists. And there is great satisfaction in crossing off each thing on the list (again much more fun on paper than digitally).

TBL: Improve your productivity - use a TDL.

Litter

July is the month each year when I get to spend the most time with my family. Angie and I have been doing lots of walking - usually 3-4 miles on the same stretch every day. One thing that absolutely amazes me is how much litter accumulates on the side of the road. It is really kind of tough to figure out. Do people really throw pop cans out of their window with such frequency? Or does most of this garbage blow out of boats and the backs of trucks? I don't know.

What I do know is that I can't stand by and watch. I've taken to carrying along a plastic grocery bag along and filling it up.

As engineers, we have a responsibility to serve and protect society. We do this by ethically carrying out our work. However, could we do even more by serving outside of work? By taking care of our environment in a lot of small ways? I say yes. I'm searching for lots of small ways. One is to pick up litter. I encourage you to do the same.

TBL: Find a small stretch of road near your home and take care of it by picking up the litter occasionally.

Unplugged

For the past 4 days I have been unplugged from technology. This is certainly a refreshing thing to do. It is amazing how "connected" we have become. Between cell phones and the internet, we are hardly ever disconnected for more than a few hours at a time. This isn't bad, but it can sometimes getting away is sure good. Our family spent 4 days at Giants Ridge. We biked, hiked, and kayaked. Every once in a while I would go check my cell phone in the car, but not very often and I didn't get very many calls. The sense of relaxation was great.

TBL: Dis-connecting once in a while is a good thing.

Habitually Late

There is absolutely no excuse for being habitually late. Whether to work in the morning or meetings, being late once or twice is excusable - being late as a habit is about as unprofessional as you can get. You are essentially telling people that their time spent sitting waiting for you is not important to you. Or that your job is not important enough to get out of bed in time for.

I clearly remember when this point sunk in for me. I was about 3 years into my first job and had taken a leadership position over 28 people. This one particular woman was 10-15 minutes late to work each day. She was a single mother and said that getting her daughter to daycare is what caused her to be late. I had sympathy for the situation. One person came into my office as she walked in late one day. He said "sir, why do you put up with this?". Before I could respond, the woman said "I have to drop my daughter off at daycare". The first person responded "respectfully ma'am - that's bullshit. We expect our students to be here an hour before you. You get to go home at 4 PM. They have to stay here until 10 or 11 at night studying. You can at least have the respect for your students to get to this school on time. If they aren't here on time, we kick them out. If this job is important to you, then get up a half hour earlier and get here 10-15 minutes early rather than late."

I sat there stunned. But, he was right.

If it is the opening morning of deer season, you can bet I get up early enough to get to my stand before it gets light. That being the case, I should make sure that I give my colleagues and job at least the same respect as my deer stand.

TBL: Be a professional - don't make a habit of being late.

Independence Day

On the eve of the 4th of July, a day that commemorates this country's declaration of independence from tyranny, I am thinking about all of the servicemen and servicewomen who will spend this holiday away from home.

I do not in any way condone the political quagmire called the war on terror. However, I am in our country's military because I believe I have an obligation to do my small part to repay those who have given their life for our freedom and to those who have dedicated a part of their life by serving in the military.

Tomorrow I will be with my family on the lake having fun, but I will be thinking a lot about my friends, colleagues, and my daughter who are sacrificing their holiday for us.

TBL: We don't all have to serve, but we definitely should think about the debt we owe those who do.

Superiority Complex

On my first job there were two or three people who I encountered that had what I later coined as a superiority complex. They had no qualms about telling you how good they were and what weaknesses you had. It was quite intimidating to encounter these peers and they were not fun to work with. As time went on (I worked there for four years), I came to realize, quite surprisingly at the time, that in fact these people were quite insecure. Their actions were a way to cover that insecurity.

TBL: When you encounter these people, don't be intimidated. And GEEZ O' COW don't be one of them!

Energy Conservation

Here is a compilation of the ideas I've collected so far (I'm still looking for more):

solar panels for water heating
solar panels for electrical generation
walk to work
bike to work
buy a hybrid
drive a motorcycle or scooter to work
canoe or kayak instead of speedboat
recycle
conserve water - doing so conserves energy
buy the new low energy lightbulbs
get a wind generator

Yahtzee

Following are some theorems I have developed about Yahtzee after years and years of playing both regular and electronic versions of the game:

1. If you want to get a Yahtzee, you have to roll for Yahtzee.

2. Don't try for straights and full house, they'll take care of themselves.

3. Nothing takes the wind out of a game of Yahtzee, like a bonus Yahtzee.

Now, what could this possibly have to do with TBL. Well, if you get a little philosophical, the Yahtzee rules apply to life. I hadn't done this until receiving an email from Abby last year saying she was applying the Yahtzee theorems to life.

TBL: Think about it.

Alternate Forms of Energy

It seems evident that, as a society, we need to reduce our consumption of oil. This, of course, either means use less energy or start looking for other forms of energy. To do it as a country, we need to start by doing it as individuals. Are you thinking about what to do? I am. I haven't done anything, but am spending a lot of time thinking about it. I request that you send me your ideas about what you are thinking about along these lines (either as comments to the blog or as emails to rulseth@itascacc.edu). As soon as I get a few, I will add them to mine and put as a text box on the bottom line blog.

Not finishing an assignment

There are two types of people. Given the following situation:

Your supervisor has assigned you to complete some task by a certain time, say the end of the day Friday. The end of the day Friday comes and the assignment is not finished.

People in one group, afraid of disappointing the supervisor, will do nothing and tell nobody.

People in the other group will contact the supervisor, explain that the task is not done, take responsibility for not completing the task, and give an estimate for when it can be done.

While it is quite obvious which group is the right one to be in, it is easy to fall into the first group.

TBL: DON'T! Professionals communicate to people when expectations are not met and take the appropriate responsibility.

And More

The temptation when traveling for work can be to spend days at work and evenings in the hotel. Don't do it. Get out and about and see the sites. Go for a hike, walk in the parks, go see the ocean, visit the monuments....

Tonite we are going out for lobster 20 miles away on the coast. We could get lobster around the corner, but we want to go see the ocean.

TBL: Somebody else is paying your travel expenses, build your life experiences at their expense.

More on Travel

When traveling for work there are a couple of temptations. One is to eat too much. I know lots of folks who are unhappy with their current weight and attribute it directly to too much travel for work. I know that when I am on per diem the temptation is to eat out and eat a lot.

One key is to get to a market and buy some fruit and nuts to snack on during the day, thus minimizing the overeating at the restaurants. A second key is to eat big salads for every other meal. A third key is to hold yourself to dessert only once per trip. I have found these steps to be quite helpful.

Lots of Flying

Many of us have jobs that require us to travel on airplanes a lot. This can be the most stressful thing if we let it. I am traveling right now. Going through security, waiting in lines, crying babies, delays, and on and on. The key isn't the stressful event, but rather our response to it. If we can manage our response, by staying laid back, life is much easier.

TBL: We can't control the environment, but we can control our response to it.

Alternate Transportation

With gas prices skyrocketing and CO2 emissions warming the earth have you started to think twice about driving your 20 mpg car to work? I have.

My boss just bought a 150cc motor scooter on ebay (brand new) for $599. It gets 100 mpg and goes 60 mph.

This comment came in on a recent posting:

"To go along with the exercise portion of this posting I would like to encourage everyone to consider an alternate form of transportation to get to work...biking. I used to think it was too far, would take too long, etc, etc, and this is when I lived within a mile or two of work. I now live 7.5 miles from work, bike most days and I love it. It works out conveniently to have an exercise facility 200 yards from my office to clean up. As for the too far, too long, it takes me 30 minutes to ride in to work as opposed to 15 minutes to drive.

Benefits: great excercise, 1 gallon of gas per day (around $600 per year at current prices), a good wakerupper in the morning.
Costs: 15 minutes."

When I go back to work in the fall, I plan to do my best to spend less on gas and get exercise as part of the deal.

TBL: How could you reduce your gas expenditure and increase your fitness?

TBL is Back

Hey There!

Fishing was fun. Aaron Wenger is the most interesting person I know. To spend 6 days with him is like being on a 144 hour learning binge. We all had fun.

Today's post is about hate. For some reason we all end up with people in our life who we have a reason to dislike so badly it could be called hate. The problem is that by putting ourselves in this position we end up spending tremendous emotional energy on a non-productive venture. Nothing good comes from this. Years go by, we emotionally damage ourselves and the hate dissipates to the point where the reasons seem foolish.

I don't know the solution, but perhaps we should all think about how to spend less energy on this worthless endeavor.

Gone Fishin'

This post is about balance. When asked last night to describe a family trait through the generations, by my daughter for a college paper she is writing, I wrote about work ethic. The people up my family tree worked hard to provide for their families and to get ahead in life.

This is a good trait. People from our part of the country are often known for working hard. You will succeed and advance in your company by being a person who works hard to get the job done and done well.

However, do not confuse working hard with over-working. It is ok to put in some 50 or 60 hour weeks to ensure that a project gets done on time. But do not let that be the normal work week for salaried compensation. If your company has an expectation that you will work far in excess of 40 hours you are working for the wrong company. There is an old quote "nobody asked to have written on their headstone - I wish I would have spent more time at work".

Here is another, "it is right to work for a living, but not to live for your work".

This being said, I'm going fishing with Ronnie and Aaron. TBL is taking a break until Sunday or Monday. See you then.

TBL: Do what it takes to succeed, but not at the sacrifice of personal and family time.

Voicemail

How do you leave a proper voicemail?

1. Speak clearly and not too fast.
2. Greet and then identify yourself.
3. Leave a concise message.
4. Leave your return phone number speaking slowly.
5. Repeat name and phone number.
6. Sign off.

Example:

Hello Amber, this is Ron Ulseth from Itasca Community College.

I am calling to inquire about the cows you have for sale. We are interested in buying a few cows for our engineering program. How many cows are for sale? Do they have a penchant for getting out of the fence? and How much are you asking?

Could you please call me back at 2 1 8 - 3 4 9 - 9 1 5 4?

Again this is Ron Ulseth and my number is 218-349-9154.

Thank you. Goodbye.

TBL: This may sound like common sense, but fewer than 50% of the voicemails I get follow the right etiquette.

New Professional - I'm bored and I don't know anyone.

Moving to a new place to start a new job is a tough transition in many ways. A big one is what to do when you are not working. One of the most frequent concerns I hear is about the frustration of not knowing anyone and not having anything to fill the void created when homework quit taking up all possible free time.

This is a common part of the transition to a new place. I do have some suggestions. Two in particular are to be active and to be patient.

By active I mean find good ways to fill your time. I would start out by saying you should be spending an hour a day exercising and an hour a day reading for pleasure. These are two activities that when taken in these doses make for an incredible overall quality of life for the duration. If you haven't been a reader, I recommend Harry Potter number one - maybe listen to it on audio to get you into it then buy and begin reading number two. It is how I went from a non-reader to 50+ books per year. For exercise, it can be as simple as walking or joining a gym. Also look for social groups to join. I belong to a kayak club. There are lots of opportunities out there.

By be patient, I mean don't expect each thing you try to have immediate and fulfilling results. It takes time to meet new friends and it will take several tries to find social groups that fit who you are.

TBL: This is a completely different lifestyle than what you have lived before. It will be rewarding, but it takes some getting used to.

Creativity

Ours is a profession dependent on our creativity to find solutions and form new ideas. It is interesting then, that creativity is not encouraged in our education.

I did not have any musical experiences in high school, I did not participate in drama, I did not take art past 9th grade. In college I took music appreciation - I did not appreciate it. For most of my life, I have been turned off by the thought of going to an opera, a symphony, a dance show, an art museum,or a play. My appreciation for the performing and visual arts has been pretty non-existent.

Upon self reflection, I would have to say my level of creativity is rather low as well. I tend to grind through all of the possibilities of a problem one by one analytically rather than search creatively - rather than think outside the box.

Over the past several months Aaron Wenger and I have been talking about the importance of creativity in engineering education. He has been trying to convince me that by creating in the arts a student learns the creativity necessary to be a creative engineer. At one point I said - "yeah, good idea, we could get engineering students to do the lighting or sound effects for a play". He said "no you idiot, that is not creative -- we need to get engineering students performing in a play or writing a play".

He is starting to win me over. I've read a lot lately about the brain and how people learn. The connections between creativity in problem solving and creativity in the arts exist.

Tonight and last night, I watched my daughter and two nieces peform in a dance show. The creativity they display is amazing. While watching, I wonder about the connections and how we could make those connections for engineering students.

Incidentally, the Reif Center was near full each night. Many community members were in attendance (not just parents and grandparents of performers). Guess how many engineers or engineering students I saw?

TBL: Appreciation for the arts is important - we should all do it. Participation in the arts would be even more powerful. For the first time in my life, I am wondering how I should try.

Transitions

Leaving an old job and starting a new one is an emotion packed transition. This is obviously true for the person making the transition, but also for those co-workers left behind.

For the person leaving there is some sadness. If you at all liked your job, it probably had a lot to do with the people who became a part of your life and who are now becoming a part of your past. One key is to keep contact and maintain friendships. Some of my better friends are people who we said goodbye to when leaving the Navy in 1992, but have been able to stay in touch with ever since.

For those left behind with a bit of a void in their lives, they should certainly feel some excitement for the person who is entering a new place with new opportunities and they should take some of the initiative to maintain the contact.

The person who has moved on, and feels some sadness from doing so, also needs to embrace the new and exciting with open arms and no sense of regret. Life is full of change and opportunity.

As you may have guessed, I am close to this topic right now. Today, one of my friends moved on and there is a void in my life. A void somewhat tempered by some pride for the professional she has become and the confidence I have in her ability to succeed at the highest level.

Good Luck Alisha. We miss you already.

Innovative Engineering Academy

Tonight we held the second dinner gathering for engineers who work in northern Minnesota. We met at Valentini's in Chisholm. The purpose of our group is to provide a social and professional network. The socialization definitely happened and I noticed many professional interactions taking place as well. A key element is people getting to know people from a doing business standpoint or for potential new job contacts. We had a guest speaker, Rodney VanBaalen - ICC Engr grad, who is the general manager of Rockwell Automation IPS and four participants got up to talk more about themselves and their companies. The only downer was the weather turned bad so the 50 people who had RSVP'd turned into 32 actually attending. Our next meeting will be on August 8th. Everyone is invited.

This week I have been working with two colleagues on a concept we call the Innovative Engineering Academy. It is a model for a radical new approach to engineering education. I tried explaining it to the group tonight and my message bombed so I want to try again here.

Engineering education is behind the times. Research has been available for 10 years showing that lectures are one of the poorest methods to enable learning. Additionally, 6-7 years ago a document describing the attributes engineers need to attain to be effective was published. It is called Engineer 2020. The ABET criteria call for an engineer that is quite different from the engineer we are currently graduating. Despite these facts, very little has changed in the way engineering education happens. If you were to look back and analyze the effectiveness of the time you spent in class or compare the skills you need to be successful in your job with the skills you attained in college, I think you would agree. We believe there is a better way. This week we created a new website that describes our proposed model. I invite anyone interested in this topic to visit our site:

http://engineeringacademy.typepad.com

The site is new and still a little rough around the edges, but anyone reading our pages will get a flavor for the ideas. In one sentence, we propose an education without courses and without grades. If that isn't radical, I don't know what is.

Will this ever happen? Who knows. Should this happen? Absolutely and I hope that you will take a few minutes to send me your comments.

TBL: With all of the advances in everything around us, including the psychology of how our brain learns, why is college education still following the model established over 200 years ago?

Here is a comment from Jill:

"The best compliment I ever received when I first started my career, "I am so surprised you are not one of those cocky new grads who feel they are entitled to everything."

Please no matter what you do your very first years of work is tell people how much you deserve ____ (more money, bigger projects, lead roles, etc). No one deserves anything you have to earn it!"

I have to agree with her. The biggest mistake any engineer makes early in their career is to act like we are better or more deserving than those around us. Especially the technicians and blue collar workers. The fact of the matter is that we are not. They know more about the plant or process or whatever than we do because they have been working on it for 10, 20, or 30 years. These important people will make our lives miserable if we come across the wrong way. In fact, many of them will have a chip on their shoulder about us right away because of their experience with prior "cocky" young engineers.

The best thing to do is ask them lots of questions. People like to talk about their work. The more you ask about what they know and the more you ask them for advice, the quicker you will be accepted and thus respected.

TBL: Earning the respect of your co-workers is one of the best ways to make work a place you enjoy. Losing their respect by coming across as deserving or better will make work a place you dread.

Thanks Jill!!

Telephone etiquette:

I am still thinking about those people in their first few days on the job. But I guess this applies to us all. So when it comes to answering the phone, the best thing to do is answer using your name. Perhaps your company has a standard phone answering protocol. If so, use it. If not, come up with something like this:

"ICC Engineering. This is Ron Ulseth."

More importantly from an etiquette standpoint is when you are making the call. After all the person calling you probably knew that you would be the person answering. When you call them, they are unaware. So when calling someone, try this:

Phone is anwered - "Hello. This is Ron Ulseth calling, is Brad Steinbrecher in?" or similarly "Hello. Is Brad Steinbrecher in?, this is Ron Ulseth calling."

TBL: Learning to be a professional includes lots of lessons. The fewer learned the hard way, the better.

P.S. Here was the protocol for my first job - don't laugh:

"Navy Nuclear Power School, Enlisted Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Division, this line is non-secure, Ensign Ulseth speaking, may I help you sir or ma'am?"

Yup.

ICC Engineering Reunion:

Thursday June 28th 7-10 PM at ICC in the engineering building. This is an open house for former students of Aaron Wenger. Aaron will be in attendance and he cannot attend Friday night. I encourage all of Aaron's former students from both ICC and HCC to attend. We hope to have a cash bar set up and have plenty of opportunity to visit.

Friday June 29th 8 PM to ?. Again we will be in the engineering building and again have a cash bar and snacks. There will be a program at 9:00 PM. This event follows the ICC All-Class reunion. Everyone is encouraged to attend both the ICC events and the engineering events. The timing of the engineering events is such that those who live 3+ hours away can still drive up after work and take part. We are expecting a big turn out. Please come.

Here is the link to the ICC All-Class reunion:

http://www.iccfoundation.org/alumni.html

See you there!

Here is a comment on the motivation topic from a few days ago. It is worthy of repeating here on the front page. Thanks Rich.

I had a co-worker whose motivation level gradually dropped, his job performance suffered, and he eventually was placed into a position where he had to quit. Unfortunate, since he had great potential.

I've found a few things that have helped me when I start to lose the excitement:

1) Take some time to focus on activities outside of work for a while. Get involved in volunteer work, refocus on your family life, pick up an old hobby, or start a new one. Doing this will fill some of the needs that your job just can't fulfill, and you'll likely find that it takes much less to motivate you to get to work every day.

2) Find a way to break out of the routine within your job and recapture the excitement. For me, this has often come through "skunk-works" projects. Every workplace has at least a few things that are just waiting to get done, but nobody has the time or the expertise to tackle. Find one that interests you, and see what progress you can make during your spare time. Caveats to this approach are: a) Be sure that you do not take time away from your assigned duties for the side project. b) You should confirm with your supervisor that they're ok with you taking on a side project (bosses usually don't like surprises, plus, they're likely to be aware of any land-mines you're likely to hit).

First day of work.

Tomorrow (Monday) is the first day of the beginning of the engineering career for many new engineering graduates. First of all, congratulations! You have had this point be the focus for many years and it is finally here. Now there is a new focus - becoming a valuable part of your new company.

This is a scary new undertaking. The first scary part is that there is a whole new set of rules. And you don't know most of them yet! How do you address your boss? Do you call her Janet? or Ms. Jensen? Where do you sit at the conference table for your first team meeting? Is it ok to ask for help? Sure - but how much without being too dependent? Over the next few months I encourage you to either email me or post anonymous questions. This can be a great forum for getting answers during this transition.

Now for the first few answers: If you feel comfortable, ask her how you should address her. If not, just pay attention to how your co-workers do it. In fact that is the best piece of advice I can give - be very attentive to your surroundings. Notice what other people do and notice how it is perceived by the rest of the work community. Being very aware can be the best way to learn both what is acceptable and what is not.

First conference - don't sit down at the head of the table - it is not your spot. Kind of wait until everyone else is sitting down and hopefully someone else will tell you where to sit.

Handshakes. You will meet lots of new people and shake lots of hands. Have a firm grip and look the people in the eye. Be confident of who you are and come across as genuinely being happy to meet people and be a new part of this team.

Ok. Enough already. More over the next few days.

Here are a few miscellaneous jottings:

*Bart and I had a great time in Los Angeles. We learned a lot about new methods for teaching Intro to Engineering.

*My daughter Liz graduated from high school on Friday night. I am very proud of who she has become and the positive approach she is taking as she embarks on a new life. Liz will report to basic training for the Air National Guard later this month and will start at St. Olaf in the Fall.

*Yesterday, Angie and I joined former ICCers, Rick and Crystal Smith and Laura Elsenpeter at Sara Smith's marriage to Dan Pankonin. It was a beautiful ceremony on the shores of Lake Superior. Sara gave a heartfelt speech that was classic Sara. I am proud to be considered her friend and of the professional she has become.

This coming Thursday, June 7th is the second dinner meeting of the engineers working in Northeastern Minnesota. We are meeting at Valentini's in Chisholm at 5:30. The cost is $17. All engineers, interns, and alumni are invited. If you are interested in coming and haven't already responded, RSVP to me by Tuesday morning.

ICC Engineering Reunion is coming up on June 28th and June 29th. Read tomorrows TBL for more information.

More on motivation.

This comment came in on yesterday's post and I think is really worth discussing:

"What do you do when you lose the motivation? Or when your day job becomes too routine and you lose the ability to jump out of bed each morning and be excited about your job?"

I would say there are a couple of different things to consider here.

First would be that old addage "life is a sine wave" and has its highs and lows. Jobs can certainly be the same way. I can think of times in my job I have felt this way, but the periods were short and do not define my career. If this is a short term event, you should look for ways to bring the routine to an end and bring excitement back into your career.

Second is to ask us to determine the root cause of the loss of motivation. Is it the job environment? If so, consider switching environments.

Or is it internal? I am a firm believer that we control our own happiness and thus our own motivation. If the root is internal, we need to find a way out ourselves. Here is a quote along these lines that I saw at our conference today:

"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven" - John Milton

TBL: For the most part, we control our own abilities to be motivated and need to take charge. In the rare events when an external person or aspect is the cause, we need to either remove ourselves from the situation or find another way to cope.

Thank you to the anonymous commentor. This is a topic that all of us face at different times and we should all spend some time thinking about.