Ingenieur Vol 90 | Page 79

The Engineering Team ( Source : LINEARB )
Project-Based Teams : The Old Way You can consider different approaches while forming an engineering team . For instance , back in the day , it was quite common to form engineering teams around a project .
A project involves an engineering team working together for a defined period . This involves picking out engineers and designers from their respective departments and assigning project work to them . The team is expected to stop their everyday work and start on something new .
The disadvantage in structuring an engineering team this way is that the idea of a project creates an environment that seems to serve trivial , shortterm goals . Furthermore , it is difficult to collaborate with team members that you don ’ t know or have no experience working with . This creates a huge communication gap , for instance , between the developers or engineers and the product side or operational end of the project .
To overcome the disadvantages of a project team , it makes sense to have a product-centric engineering team rather than a project-centric one .
Product-Based Teams : A New Way As the name suggests , a product team is centred around creating and running a product for its entire lifetime . For instance , a product-centric engineering team created Instagram .
In a product-centric environment , team members are bound to work together more efficiently because it ’ s a long-term project . Think of it as a small company within a company , with the goal of creating a profitable product . The team members are highly diverse in their skill sets and learn to collaborate with one another .
Construction workers suffer from ‘ fear of failure ’ ( Source : IHL )
Fear of failure is preventing key decision-making amongst 57 % of construction workers , according to the results of OC Tanner ’ s 2022 Global Culture Report , which analysed the perspectives of over 38,000 employees , leaders and construction workers from around the world .
The report found that over half of workers are so fearful of being wrong that it severely hinders them from making important decisions .
The Global Culture Report states that “ organisations need to do more to tackle how ‘ failure ’ is perceived and dealt with ,” as 35 % of construction workers believe leaders don ’ t deal well with failure .
Perhaps the most concerning revelation is that 38 % of workers believe that when senior members of staff make a mistake , they don ’ t admit to it .
“ Fear of failure is not unusual ; however it can be particularly dominant in organisations that employ ‘ old school ’ leadership practices ”, says Robert Ordever , European MD of workplace culture expert , OC Tanner .
“ In such businesses , the leadership team is trusted to make the decisions ; the staff then have to implement these decisions and the measure of success comes down to avoiding failure .”
OC Tanner believes that through the implementation of modern leadership practices , “ fear of failure is less likely to stifle decisionmaking .”
More positively , 64 % of construction workers state that their organisation treats failure as a positive learning opportunity . Ordever says , “ It ’ s important to alter the conversation around failure and demonstrate from the very top of the business down , that failure is both a permitted and welcomed part of an innovation culture ... You can ’ t expect employees to innovate and experiment if failure is frowned upon and criticised .”
Out of the 35 industry sectors analysed , construction workers are the 20 th most fearful of failure .
Risk-based Inspection ( Source : RESCO . NET )
Risk-based inspection ( RBI ) is an inspection methodology based on the risk factors of equipment malfunction . It is a type of preventive approach that focuses on predicting and avoiding potential issues instead of reacting to failures . The goal of implementing RBI is to lower maintenance costs by prioritising high-risk and valuable equipment .
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