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04.07

Always Keep Trying

by Terrance Malkinson

A Thought To Chew On

Longtime readers of World Bytes may recall a column published in May 2005 entitled "The Cutoff" [www.todaysengineer.org/2005/May/worldbytes.asp], the gist of which dealt with my failure to achieve a goal — completion of the New Zealand Ironman Triathlon. The last sentence in that column was: "I can guarantee I'll be on the shores of the lake to try again next year."

Well, two years later, on 3 March at 07:00 am, there I was again on the shores of Lake Taupo in New Zealand, much humbler and, hopefully, smarter. It was a wonderful and intense day, ending successfully, and long before the event cutoff at midnight. If that 2005 column was about failure, this column is about learning from your mistakes, persistence and trying again. We have all had disappointing experiences where we didn't realize a goal. The easy path is to blame something or someone else for the miss. The better path is to appreciate your courage in seeking a challenging goal, learning from mistakes, preparing better, and trying again. Career-savvy individuals learn from their mistakes and disappointments. Through persistence and by believing in yourself, you will achieve your goals. There are many stories of famous people who learned from defeat and achieved success.

Other Bytes

Here are some of the things going on in and around the engineering community:

• Today's workplace is witnessing a shift to a more diverse work force, including older employers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that 70 percent of workers plan to work beyond their "normal" retirement age or never retire. Many jurisdictions are abolishing mandatory retirement, allowing a growing number of people to work beyond common retirement ages. A continuing ability to contribute to society, worker shortages, financial challenges, lack of retirement funds, and the need for benefits are some of the reasons older individuals are remaining on the job. From an employers point-of-view mature workers are generally seen as dependable, loyal and dedicated, having a strong work ethic, experienced and a good performance record. The February 2007 issue of Best's Review [107(10), 2007, www.bestreview.com] provides viewpoints from the insurers perspective (pp. 22-43). This mature work force is creating new opportunities for insurers. Many interesting articles are provided in this feature on health and employee benefits for this cohort group of workers many of whom consider age 60 to be middle-age and age 75 as old age!

• Today's global environment requires employees who are innovative and creative. These types of individuals often are very independent and their values and the way they do their work may cause conflicts with managers who do not fully understand their personalities. In "Bridging the Gap Between Stewards and Creators" [MIT Sloan Management Review; 48(2), pp. 29-36, 2007, http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/], Robert Austin and Richard Nolan discuss their research on the process of technological innovation within a company that often includes clashes between stewards, who are often managers, and creators, who are generally highly skilled technical employees. Following a discussion of the issue, the authors provide eight guidelines for reducing the potentially destructive impact of steward-creator conflict. On the same topic in "Leading Clever People" published in Harvard Business Review; [85(3), pp. 72-79, 2007, www.hbr.com], Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones discuss how to manage people who don't want to be lead and may be smarter than you.

• The Economist published an interesting article on the rise and fall of corporate R&D. Entitled ""Out of the Dusty Labs" [The Economist, 382 (# 8518), 3 March 2007, www.economist.com], the article describes how technology firms have left the big corporate R&D laboratory behind. Interesting reading for those interested in the policy and process of innovation and how it is necessarily changing as business evolves.

• Business travel can be tiresome and frustrating with long line-ups, lengthy waiting times, cramped seating, delayed, cancelled, and late flights. The hotel industry are spending large amounts of money on capital improvements to help business people work efficiently in their hotel rooms and help them relax and renew after a stressful day. In "Reaching out to Business Travelers," [HSMAI Marketing Review, 24(1), pp. 87-90, 2007, www.hsmai.org], Eleanor Wilson describes many of the changes that the hotel industry is making to serve their customers, particularly business travelers. The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International's (HSMAI) mission is to be the leading source for sales and marketing information, knowledge, business development, and networking for professionals in tourism, travel, and hospitality. HSMAI is a global organization of sales and marketing professionals representing all segments of the hospitality industry.

• Privacy is an important concern in business. It is important that everyone understands legislation, and company policies. Most importantly compliance must occur. Privacy, today, is an intrinsic part of company culture. In "The Problem that Won't Go Away" [InformationWeek, #1115, 20 November 2006, www.informationweek.com], John Soat discusses nine "truths" about privacy that companies must abide by. A well written article that will provide you with good information that when applied will keep you out of trouble with privacy mistakes.

• Corporate social responsibility is increasingly seen as an important business policy. In "Top 10 Reasons to do the Right Thing" [Alberta Venture, 11(2), pp. 69-71, 2007, www.albertaventure.com], Shannon Sutherland describes ten of the more important reasons why companies should bother with corporate social responsibility.

Terrance Malkinson is a communications specialist, business analyst and futurist. He is an elected Senator of the University of Calgary, a Governor of the Engineering Management Society, international correspondent for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Online, editor-in-chief of IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Digest, editor of IEEE Engineering Management, and associate editor for IEEE Canadian Review. He the author of over 300 publications and is also an accomplished triathlete. The author is grateful to the Haskayne School of Business Library at the University of Calgary. He can be reached at todaysengineer@ieee.org.