At 11:30 a.m. on 29 May 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest — the highest point on earth at 29,028 feet above sea level. They succeeded where others previously failed and some continue to fail. Edmund Hillary grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, where he became interested in mountain climbing. Although he made his living as a beekeeper, his passion was climbing the mountains of New Zealand, then the Alps, and finally in the Himalayas, where he climbed eleven peaks of over 20,000 feet. After his, Hillary was ready to confront the world's highest mountain, and he did so with courage and humility.

Sir Edmund Hillary dedicated much of his life to environmental causes and to humanitarian efforts on behalf of the Nepalese people, facilitating the development of their society, building clinics, hospitals and schools. The Sherpas of Nepal are friendly, generous and tough. They live at high altitude, without resources that we take for granted. Inspired by his admiration and respect for these people, Sir Edmund created The Himalayan Trust in 1960 [www.himalayantrust.co.uk/]. The work of the Trust has been based on a few simple but important principles.

• To provide the basic infrastructure needs that the Sherpas really want, that they themselves request and need to help themselves.

• To encourage the Sherpas themselves to contribute time and effort to the projects.

• The Trust is to be staffed by voluntary workers, reducing overhead costs.

• Donations are to be transferred directly to the projects in Nepal — no money paid to middlemen or agents.

The results of his extraordinary efforts have been both moving and immensely beneficial. The Trust continues to create schools, hospitals and health centers, and repair monasteries, and regenerate forestry, as well as respond to natural disasters. On 11 January 2008, Sir Edmund Hillary died at home in New Zealand at the age of 88, mourned by admirers around the world, and leaving a substantial legacy as a role model and of contribution to the betterment of the world. His motto: “Be Determined; Aim High."

Other Bytes

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

• A report on the thoughts of eight futuristic thinkers forecasting their expectations about the worker and workplace is provided in “The Future of Learning and Work” [Training and Development, (61(12), pgs. 40-44, December 2007,  www.astd.org/TD]. Issues discussed include: skills that will be most important, workplace training, attracting and retaining top talent, management style, organizational skill gaps, and others. A major theme for attracting and retaining top talent is the employer providing the opportunity for professional development. Today’s students place high value on continuing education and growth and will look for this opportunity from their employer.

• Surfing the Internet at work has become a serious problem in many organizations. In “Caught in the Web” [HR Magazine, 52(12), pgs. 35-39,  December 2007, www.shrm.org/hrmagazine], Adrienne Fox discusses internet addiction and how employers have the choice of providing discipline or treatment. In the article's introduction, the results of a 2006 study are presented in which one in eight Americans exhibit at least one possible sign of problematic Internet use. An interesting inset provides graphical information on how employees use the internet at work and another inset provides readers with warning signs of internet addiction. Rather than simply terminating employment, Fox suggests that education and rehabilitation is the preferred approach to deal with the Internet addiction problem.

• The millennial generation (age 18-29) is becoming an influential force in the workplace. In “Youthquake” [BusinessWeek, #4067, pgs. 32-36, 21 January  2008, www.businessweek.com], Michelle Conlin discusses the millennial generation and their possible influence on the approaching Presidential election. There are an estimated 43 million people, or 20 percent of registered voters, in this cohort. An inset provides information on a survey of more than 2,000 millennials on what they care about. The three items topping the list include health, the economy and education. An interesting informative article on the thoughts of the millennial generation.

• Mistakes often occur because team members fail to communicate effectively. In “Are Your Engineers Talking to One Another When They Should?” [Harvard Business Review, 85(11), pgs. 133-142, November 2007. www.hbr.com], Manuel Sosa, Steven Eppinger and Craig Rowles provide information that will help prevent communications failures, particularly with design complex and highly engineered products. The authors discuss a new application of a project management tool, the design structure matrix, that maps the flow of information and its impact on product development. This approach identifies areas where communication should be occurring but is not, and areas where communication is occurring but has not been planned for.

• As the complexity of projects increase, the size of teams is growing, and in some cases the team can consist of 100 or more members. Practices that work well with smaller teams are not effective for large teams. Results from a research project studying team dynamics and the environment of 55 large teams is provided in “Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams” [Harvard Business Review, 85(11), pgs. 101-109, November 2007. www.hbr.com]. Lynda Gratton and Tamara Erickson discuss eight success factors that emerged from their research.

• Wilderness experiential education is often used to teach leadership. In “A Leading Question” [Alberta Venture, 11(6), pgs. 87-95, June 2007, www.albertaventure.com], Heather Zwicker discusses the experiences of a group of managers who undertook the challenge of learning leadership through the mountain environment and culture. The educational provider was the six-day leadership program offered by the Banff Centre [www.banffcentre.ca]. Interesting insights into another approach for learning leadership and team building.

 

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