I've landed in Darwin today, the location of this year’s pipeline industry conference.  I’m so looking forward to the many conversations, interactions, and story-sharing.

No matter what changes are occurring in our working life, the energy system, technology or politics, one truism holds for me:  humans benefit from in-person gatherings.

The conversations are deeper, because we can see (feel?) instant feedback from the other person.  The interactions are richer because we are in each other’s personal space.  The stories are embellished because, well, why wouldn’t they be.

It’s professional and courteous, and, it’s also a heckuva a lot of fun.

We read about “billions” far too often, in my opinion.  I don’t think my parents or grandparents were exposed to the same kind of handwringing in the media and from politicians, telling us about the billions being spent.

Projects being costed at billions to start with, and then, in time, they become billions over budget.

So, billions are being “spent”.  I’ve lost the ability to picture it, or to relate to it.  And more importantly, who gets it?  Where is it going?
I don’t know how to follow the money.  It’s all very opaque, while being the headlines almost daily.

There’s the old saying, ‘what got you here, won’t get you there’.  I guess it’s claiming that to achieve new goals, we need to make changes and do things differently.
I think that’s partially true, but it unfairly dismisses everything done to this point.

Actually, what’s come before, is the input to what comes next.

A better, though not as pithy, philosophy is “what got me here, will get me there, with effort”.   Our backgrounds give our context:  mine is different to yours, and we can both be successful by drawing on our experiences to launch into the next thing.

I moved office at the end of June.  Two months later, and I still have boxes to unpack.  However, my office space now has the most amazing view over the river to the eastern horizon.  A good outlook is hard to beat.

It is September 1st today, and even after almost 30 years away from the northern hemisphere, September to me is still an “autumn re-set” in my head: “back to school”, get stuff done, less than 80 workdays to year end.  It is an outlook that gets me motivated.

Keep up with the big sky thinking and wide-ranging outlooks.

Between Aug23-30, there was a community of like-minded people tracking an event being held south of Perth. It was a “backyard ultra inspired fundraiser”, where a runner (Phil Gore) committed to running 6.71km every hour on the hour for 168 hours (7 days).
To say this was pushing the limits of endurance is an understatement. As it turned out, he found his limit during hour 153 (1020km), and his support team finished the remaining 15 hours as a relay.

What I took from the week was the sense of community, camaraderie, and basic human enjoyment of being part of something.

I think it was Obama who campaigned on the tenets of Hope, Optimism, and Confidence. This framework has stayed with me since then.

When I’m facing obstacles, or feeling anxious, I revert to it.

I ask myself, what can I be hopeful about, where’s the optimism, and, how do I build some confidence to take the next step?

This week has been full of competing priorities. I found hope in the idea that it’s only temporary, optimism in next week’s plans, and, I built confidence by clearing some clutter and organising some paperwork… because that always makes me feel good.

Engineers Australia has announced their new National Competency Standards for Engineering, and I’m very keen to start diving in, to find out what’s been done, how it will be used, and making it relevant to individuals.

For several years I’ve supported local engineering businesses utilising the 2012 EA competency standards. I’ve also helped organisations develop internal competency standards, and, I’m a big supporter of the pipeline-industry dedicated “PECS” for pipeline engineers.

Competency standards are something I’ve worked with for about ten years now.
I find that having a structure is good, but in the end, our “competency” is very individualised.

When I was growing up, I was taught to take responsibility. I was introduced to decision-making early, and furthermore, expected to wear the consequences of decisions. If I made a mistake, I had to own up to it.
So my upbringing was very fortunate. Not only did I learn about decision-making and responsibility, but I also developed a sense of agency. All my life I’ve had agency: I could decide things for myself. And with those decisions I had to accept the consequences.
It hasn’t always been roses and unicorns, but there’s been a lot of them. I like that.

My alma mater, the University of Alberta, recently stated proudly that they have “started to reimagine its undergraduate programs to better prepare the next generation of engineers”.

They are “modernizing our curriculum … rebalancing workloads to support deeper learning and sharpening our emphasis on in-demand professional skills, such as effective communication, project management and decision making”.

This not uncommon curriculum change has me a little nervous.

I continue to hold the stance that engineers should desire, and demonstrate, technical skills first and foremost. We should seek deep technical knowledge. And the other generic work skills, yes, can and should follow.

The goal of “higher productivity” for widget manufacturers and production lines, makes sense.
For years, though, I’ve been struggling with the definition of ‘productivity’ for professionals, for ‘knowledge workers’, for those of us who add value by using our brains to solve complex problems.
Productivity for professionals is actually about:
credibility before speed,
better over faster,
added value instead of ‘more for less’, and,
in reality, though it may be hard to admit: effectiveness over efficiency.

It has been, and always will be, hard to defend ‘slow’ work, because, progress. But sometimes problem solving doesn’t benefit from speeding it up

Awhile ago, I listened to a podcast about Rubik, and his path to invention of the Rubik’s cube. One of the factors in his story was that he didn’t like school, he was bored by it, and got in trouble a lot.
A lot of inventors have that background.

Meanwhile, I liked school, had no issue staying focussed, did the work, rarely got into trouble, and I ended up with an engineering degree.

Engineers can be inventors, but  I wonder if a lot of us are just conscientious problem-solvers, who diligently do the work.

There’s nothing wrong with that approach.

Yesterday I left the office just on time to make it to the bus stop, with no float available. I’ve got it down to a science, including the walking pace without needing to rush.

While on the way yesterday, there was a ten-dollar bill on the ground. I looked at it, and I paused a split second, and then kept walking.
The thought that went through my mind was ‘there’s probably someone out there who needs it more than me’.

But I’ll admit that I wondered, if I’d had the extra few seconds, maybe I would have picked it up.

I’m debating whether memoirs are interesting, or they are maybe a little self-indulgent. Are they written for recording the facts of someone’s life, or, for the publicising of that life?

I also had to look up the difference between a memoir and an autobiography.  The autobiography is a chronological factual account of a life, while the memoir is a focussed, thematic narrative about a period or experience in that life.

I went to a luncheon today to hear about a couple of memoirs-in-the-making. I learned that knowing the ‘theme’ of your life or experiences is a clever trick to self-awareness.

A few years ago, I participated in a group forum with young engineers to discuss ‘evolving future technical skills requirements’.

They were asked “what skill is most important in your mind?”

The answers were: communication, compromise, versatility, listening, teamwork, adaptability, anticipation, stakeholder engagement, accountability, time management.

Recall the group discussion topic: “Evolving future technical skills requirements”.

I expected responses like “design review techniques”, “Charpy test interpretation”, “reading material certificates”, “weld design”.

So, I don’t think we stuck to the discussion topic.
I hope there’s a cohort of engineers out there who think technical skills are worth mentioning as ‘important skills’.

Following on from a post about feeling simultaneously happy and guilty at the same time, because of a change in my work location that benefits just me, I have had some more thoughts about it.

When friends/family/colleagues share with me something that is very exciting for them, I return that enthusiasm and then ask several follow-up questions.
I do this because I usually really am interested. It’s not an act.

My experience has made me realise, simply, that perhaps not everyone as easily shares enthusiasm for someone else’s success or happiness. Good to know.
No worries, I can accept that.

My upcoming office move makes me incredibly happy. It’s what I want, and it’s so right for me. And yet, while I’m so very happy with the change, I am also faced with guilt.
The move benefits me, one hundred percent, no one else. So there’s an underlying  ‘why should you get that, what about those who can’t?’  And, ‘it’s very indulgent, think of those who don’t have this luxury’.

I’m not sure if it’s my upbringing or what, this inability to celebrate something that makes me happy, just because it doesn’t happen to make a few other people happy.

My service offerings (training, facilitating, auditing) to industry are very ‘deliverables driven’: there’s a defined scope with usually quite short deadlines. This means few long-term relationships with teams of people: I’m kind of wheeled in, do the job, and wheel me out.

For the last six weeks I’ve been in a role that had me more embedded in a team than usual. We were working to combine and improve a few documents. It sounds simple, but it meant many meetings, constant feedback, and strict deadlines.

It was a good experience that reminded me of the joys and satisfaction of teamwork.

I was startled by, and am still thinking about, a phrase I heard recently that applies to me as well: “I was born in the late 1900s”. Yikes.

The other startling reality that’s hard for me to comprehend is that youngsters today will likely see the year 2100.

The passage of time never stops, of course. We are but a blink in time; and while some things are topsy-turvy and hard for me to understand, I keep focussed on what’s actually important in my little life.

Always be kind, and, while you’re at it,  do the things that are important.

Today at the Qupex lunch, the full room was treated to a panel moderated by David Close, with panel members Darren Stevenson, Peter Dutton and Jarrod Ball. A terrific hour of in-depth discussion, with the theme being “energy security”.

Three observations:
·  A topic was “how do we get consumers to see our importance?” My notes say: “consumers shouldn’t have to think about energy security.”

· “Energy” is lumped together like it’s from the same source, same use case. It’s not: electricity is not jet fuel.

·  Simple is best. Complex and complicated systems are costly in all facets: time, attention and money.

Watching (fast) sports has been a staple my whole life. Originally ice hockey since I was 12, then the various rugby/footy styles for the last 30 years. (Next one Queenslander!/Allez Canadiens!)

Watching (slow) sports like cricket, golf, or baseball is a different skill. Patient, strategic, deep into statistics: a contrast to the speed and intensity of hockey or NRL.

I’ve recently been spectating a weird new (slow) sport out there: backyard ultras (when not participating). Currently only livestreamed or discussed on bespoke chat groups, ultras could become a niche spectator sport like F1 or MotoGP (without the money though, shame).