This is a book I highly recommend: The Question Behind the Question by John G. Miller. It is a quick read and has a powerful message that we should present to ourselves on a regular basis. I first read the book last spring when Glen lent it to me. One of my classes (professional development 4) is now reading it for a class assignment. I brought it with me to the Y tonight and re-read the first 8 chapters and BAM! the message hit straight home again.
What is the message you ask?
It is quite simple. Practice personal accountability.
Here is an exerpt:
" Ever heard these questions?
'Why don't others work harder?'
'Why is this happening to me?'
'Why do they make it so difficult for me to do my job?'
Say them aloud. How do they make you feel? When I say them, I feel powerless, like a victim. Questions with a 'Why me?' tone to them say, 'I'm a victim of the environment and the people around me.' Not a very productive thought is it? But we ask them all the time!
....
The first QBQ guideline says all QBQ's begin with What or How, not Why, When, or Who. Rather than asking the questions above, how about:
'How can I do my job better today?'
'What can I do to improve the situation?'
'How can I support others?' "
I think you get the picture. The whole book is an excellent eye opener. I am ashamed to look back over the last week and see how many places I could have approached issues in a much more proactive and productive manner.
Go get a copy today!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Faculty Student Intern Teams
Through two new grants, one from the Blandin Foundation ($2.5 million) and the Minnesota Center of Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence ($50,000), the ICC Engineering program is starting a new internship program.
Here is how it will work:
*A company will hire a team to complete a research, testing, drafting, design, or whatever project.
*The cost to the company will be $10/hr for each student. Let's say the team has four students who work 10 hours per week, the cost to the company is $400 per week.
*The grant pays the faculty member to be part of the team. In other words, the company will get a PE to manage and take part in a project for free.
Look at the advantages:
*The students get an opportunity to learn about engineering in the actual environment and they get paid!
*The company gets 40 hours of student time and 5 hours of PE time per week for $400. And they have the opportunity to get exposure to potential future employees.
*The faculty member gets to have many teachable moments as they connect the student learning with actual engineering.
This project will last for five years. It starts this spring with us doing projects with Barr Engineering, Cirrus Design, Schwartz Redi-Mix, and UMD Medical School.
Do you have any projects that might work?
Here is how it will work:
*A company will hire a team to complete a research, testing, drafting, design, or whatever project.
*The cost to the company will be $10/hr for each student. Let's say the team has four students who work 10 hours per week, the cost to the company is $400 per week.
*The grant pays the faculty member to be part of the team. In other words, the company will get a PE to manage and take part in a project for free.
Look at the advantages:
*The students get an opportunity to learn about engineering in the actual environment and they get paid!
*The company gets 40 hours of student time and 5 hours of PE time per week for $400. And they have the opportunity to get exposure to potential future employees.
*The faculty member gets to have many teachable moments as they connect the student learning with actual engineering.
This project will last for five years. It starts this spring with us doing projects with Barr Engineering, Cirrus Design, Schwartz Redi-Mix, and UMD Medical School.
Do you have any projects that might work?
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Do you supervise people?
Supervising other people is an important responsibility. The success in doing it comes from really paying attention. In the military, the best leaders I had were those who acted as if their primary job was taking care of their people and doing everything they could to help their people get recognition and get promoted.
The worst leaders were definitely those who felt important because they had been chosen to be in charge. Rather than trying to help ALL of their people, they were quite selective and chose critically who to support and who to sink.
Do you communicate to your people, on a daily basis, that they are important to you? Can you do it with your actions and not by having to say it? Being genuine is really the key.
It is definitely worth taking time out every once in a while to reflect on how you are doing as a supervisor and reflecting on the qualities you recognize as being valuable.
Stay warm!
The worst leaders were definitely those who felt important because they had been chosen to be in charge. Rather than trying to help ALL of their people, they were quite selective and chose critically who to support and who to sink.
Do you communicate to your people, on a daily basis, that they are important to you? Can you do it with your actions and not by having to say it? Being genuine is really the key.
It is definitely worth taking time out every once in a while to reflect on how you are doing as a supervisor and reflecting on the qualities you recognize as being valuable.
Stay warm!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
When you are NOT leading the meeting
On the same theme, I want to address meeting participants. Over the past two days I went to far too many meetings. I can't wait until Monday when school starts and I can do some real work. Anyhow... suppose you are in a meeting as a participant, look around the room and count the number of participants (let's stick with the algebra theme). If there are x participants, then you should not, in most instances, participate more than 1/x of the discussion time. In the meetings over the past few days a few people dominated the discussions pretty much just to hear themselves talk. In most meetings it is better to sit quietly listening and thinking. In the few instances when you talk try to make it well thought out, meaningful, and brief.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The Art of Leading a Meeting
I am sure there are lots of books written about how to lead a meeting and many of us can provide tips for others, but there is a particular hint I would like to share today.
The deal is this. If there is x amount of time for the meeting and y things to be covered, then we should keep our eye on the clock and every x/y minutes move the meeting to the next topic.
For example, today 9 different committees met on campus from 10 to noon. I ran one of the meetings and when we got started, I wrote on the white board that the first topic would be limited in time from 10:00 to 10:30, the second from 10:30 to 11:00, etc. Our group got really involved in the first discussion and we easily could have spent the whole time on it, however, we moved on to our other goals and finished a little ahead of time. Later in the day, a person from another committee was bemoaning the fact that they had 6 topics and did not even complete the first.
I am not trying to toot my own horn here. The reason I bring this up is that too often, way too often, the meetings I attend do not get moved along and the work does not get done efficiently and more and more meetings are planned.
I think you get the point.
Canada was awesome. We snowshoed 5 miles per day in rugged wilderness. The sauna each night felt great.
The deal is this. If there is x amount of time for the meeting and y things to be covered, then we should keep our eye on the clock and every x/y minutes move the meeting to the next topic.
For example, today 9 different committees met on campus from 10 to noon. I ran one of the meetings and when we got started, I wrote on the white board that the first topic would be limited in time from 10:00 to 10:30, the second from 10:30 to 11:00, etc. Our group got really involved in the first discussion and we easily could have spent the whole time on it, however, we moved on to our other goals and finished a little ahead of time. Later in the day, a person from another committee was bemoaning the fact that they had 6 topics and did not even complete the first.
I am not trying to toot my own horn here. The reason I bring this up is that too often, way too often, the meetings I attend do not get moved along and the work does not get done efficiently and more and more meetings are planned.
I think you get the point.
Canada was awesome. We snowshoed 5 miles per day in rugged wilderness. The sauna each night felt great.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Professional Development
One of the most rewarding parts of my year come when I take a few days to fly away to some national workshop or conference that is about improving myself as a professional. Some people look at these sorts of conferences as a nuisance or disruption to their lives and thus avoid them whenever possible. Not me, these events energize my beyond belief. I take along my leather bound "best ideas" journal and usually fill 15-20 pages with new ideas before I come home. This, plus the opportunity to meet new people who share my interests and often meet acquaintances from past events.
TBL: When you get a chance to attend a professional development conference, look at as an opportunity worth jumping at.
PS - Thanks Jim P for the great comments to the last entry. I recommend everyone goes and takes a look.
PPS - I'm heading to Canada to Wenger's cabin for a few days of snowshoeing, sauna, and beer. I'll write again at the end of the week.
TBL: When you get a chance to attend a professional development conference, look at as an opportunity worth jumping at.
PS - Thanks Jim P for the great comments to the last entry. I recommend everyone goes and takes a look.
PPS - I'm heading to Canada to Wenger's cabin for a few days of snowshoeing, sauna, and beer. I'll write again at the end of the week.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Email Log Jams
Last night while watching TV I had my laptop, well on my lap, and I was going through my inbox. With all the spam deleted I still had more than 150 messages. They fell into 4 categories: 1) already read/answered/to be moved to the file cabinet; 2)new and need responses; 3)read a long time ago and haven't yet responded; 4)came in a long time and I haven't even read yet.
It is these last two categories that really bother me. I know how it happens - I get an email, read it don't have time to answer, and before I get back to it, I have received a bunch more emails and it gets buried. But really this isn't a good excuse.
Put simply, not reading or replying to an email in a timely manner is just plain unprofessional regardless of the excuse.
This is something I need to improve on immediately. Do you?
It is these last two categories that really bother me. I know how it happens - I get an email, read it don't have time to answer, and before I get back to it, I have received a bunch more emails and it gets buried. But really this isn't a good excuse.
Put simply, not reading or replying to an email in a timely manner is just plain unprofessional regardless of the excuse.
This is something I need to improve on immediately. Do you?
Thursday, January 3, 2008
David Bodanis
I am going to take this opportunity to introduce you to an author - David Bodanis. Bodanis has written 4 books. I've completed one and am half way through two others. This guy has an incredible way of writing so that you understand what he is saying. The two books that I recommend are "E=mc^2: A biograpy of the world's most famous equation" and "Electric Universe".
Here is the problem, most of the readers of this blog are engineers. As such you carry a burden through life; people think you know everything! And when a non-engineer asks you a question, to which you reply "I don't know", their response is, "what do you mean you don't know!. I thought you were an engineer". As all of you know this can be disconcerting.
Well, Bodanis offers us some help. In a couple of short books he gives us an excellent understanding of two things that we probably should know. So, head off to Amazon and get yourself a couple of good books.
Here is the problem, most of the readers of this blog are engineers. As such you carry a burden through life; people think you know everything! And when a non-engineer asks you a question, to which you reply "I don't know", their response is, "what do you mean you don't know!. I thought you were an engineer". As all of you know this can be disconcerting.
Well, Bodanis offers us some help. In a couple of short books he gives us an excellent understanding of two things that we probably should know. So, head off to Amazon and get yourself a couple of good books.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
TBL is Back
Happy New Year!
I hope you had a great holiday season. I sure did. I have been noticeably absent for the past 3 weeks and I apologize. I really have no valid excuse. The new year is upon us and I am a person who does evaluate the past and get geared up for the future during this time of year. Being more consistent on publishing TBL is on my list. So please continue to check in ocassionally to see if there is anything here of any value to you.
P.S. My book count for the year was 54. Angie made a last week push to get to 92 (her first time under a hundred this century).
Stay tuned.
I hope you had a great holiday season. I sure did. I have been noticeably absent for the past 3 weeks and I apologize. I really have no valid excuse. The new year is upon us and I am a person who does evaluate the past and get geared up for the future during this time of year. Being more consistent on publishing TBL is on my list. So please continue to check in ocassionally to see if there is anything here of any value to you.
P.S. My book count for the year was 54. Angie made a last week push to get to 92 (her first time under a hundred this century).
Stay tuned.
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