Part 10 of 10-The Book that Most Impacted My Career-Excellence in Engineering

 

This is Part 10 and the final post of a blog relating sections of Excellence In Engineering by W.H. Roadstrum, 1967, with Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK-5th Edition).

In Parts 1 through 9, the blog covered Roadstrum’s good and poor engineering practices and PMI’s  factors for success on topics including: Project Teams, Team Development, Problems Solving and Decisions, Scheduling, Progress Monitoring, Project Controls, Project Manager and Project Leading.  

Both books continue to impact my career and the quality of service and professionalism that I demonstrate to each person I encounter in the work domain and project environment.   

After a brief 3 years as an Engineers’ Assistant in the utility power generating industry, the majority of my career was spent in the rail transit industry on projects with roles that included Jr. Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer, Project Coordinator, Assistant Project Manager, Project Manager, Sr. Project Manager, and Director-PMO.    The bulk of the work involved projects that restored, improved or expanded infrastructure for accessibility and mobility of passengers and commerce and some with intermodal connections and real estate development.   

Now as a consultant, I continue to lead by example/sample and contribute equally to the success of the teams I work with on rail transit projects.    As often as possible, I transfer knowledge from my experiences while adapting to the changing work environment.

In Chapter 15 - Human Relations, Roadstrum cites the good and poor practices with essential attributes related to the project manager’s skills, objectives, and personal qualities necessary to be effective and to be a leader for his team.  

Good Engineering Practices in Human Relations

1.The engineer, while battling hard when he must, recognizes that in disputes with others it is important to maintain a calm and impersonal attitude if maximum benefits are to result.

2.The engineer recognizes the importance of the self-fulfilling image to his associates and is careful not to stir up difficulties for himself by inadvertently threatening these self-images in others.

3.The engineer recognizes how string an influence organization patterns have on setting his relations with others.

4.Realizing that differing backgrounds can interfere with his efforts at communicating, the engineer is careful to establish a common understanding and purpose before proceeding into new business.

5.The engineering is careful to avoid informal channels in most matters except in emergency and then covers his short cut with a parallel action through regular channels.

Poor Engineering Practices in Human Relations

1.The engineer feels that his expert technology knowledge will eventually solve all relations problems.

2.In disputes with other the engineer uses kid gloves to improve relations and group harmony.

3.Not understanding the concept of communicating, the engineer naively assumes that since his colleagues understand the English language they will comprehend what he is trying to tell them.  

4.Heedless of the effect of emotions on communicating, the engineer leaps headlong into a delicate situation with a minimum of results.

5.The engineer takes his boss for granted.

6.The engineer assumes that his relations with others are harmonious, they are necessarily effective.

In PMBOK Chapter 9-Human Resources, the selection, training, team building and performance monitoring of team members is presented.   The most relevant comparison to the good practices for a Project Manager is found in Section 9.3-Develop the Project Team.  

The Project Manager should:

• Acquire skills to identify, build, maintain, motivate, lead and inspire project teams to achieve high team performance and meet the project’s objectives
• Create an environment that facilitates team work
• Continually motivate the their team by providing challenges and opportunities, by providing timely feedback and support as needed, and by recognizing and rewarding good performance
• Request management support and/or influence the appropriate stakeholders to acquire the resources needed to develop effective project teams.

Working with the available resources, the Project Manager and individual team members should equally commit and contribute to:

• Improving knowledge and skills of team members to increase their ability to complete project deliverables, while lowering costs, reducing schedules, and improving quality
• Improving feelings of trust and agreement of team members to raise morale, lower conflict, and increase team work
• Creating a dynamic, cohesive, and collaborative team culture to (1) improve individual and team productivity, team spirit, and cooperation, (2) allow cross-training and mentoring between team members to share knowledge and expertise.