CEE New Millennium Colloquium
March 20-21, 2000
Wong Auditorium, Tang Center, MIT Building E51
Step Forward and Be Heard
RICHARD WEINGARDT
Richard Weingardt Consultants, Inc
(In public opinion surveys, engineers are usually at the top of the list when it comes to answering these questions: who do you trust; who is honorable; who is a notable problem solver? The public honestly believes engineers are trustworthy, hardworking and major contributors to the well-being of society. It's just that many do not know exactly what engineers do. What's more, engineering achievements -- and engineers' contributions to progress -- capture little interest in the media. Often, others are given credit for what engineers do.
Landing a man on the moon continues to be thought of mainly as a scientific accomplishment. Likewise, when highlighting the U.S. Interstate Highway System, one of the greatest design-construction feats of the century, the media rarely detail its engineering features. The closest they come to even using the word "engineer" is when they report on matters like a sporting event. They will say some football quarterback -- like Curt Warner of the Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams -- engineered a last-minute winning drive. To engineer something is considered an accomplishment. But there seems to be a reluctance on the part of the media to report that an engineer actually engineered something!
IDENTIFYING HEROES
When the average person on the street is asked to identify heroes or people with the "right stuff" for leadership, rarely do the names of engineers come to the forefront. Even in the building industry, more often than not, the public thinks of architects, developers and contractors as the leaders. Because engineers make things work and run, and go about their work without much fanfare, they are not often identified as people capable of running things.
In the building construction field, it is the architect who is often the prime designer for people-use buildings such as offices, schools, apartments. It is the contractor who has the most money at risk in the construction process. And those are usually the only two -- along with the owner and developer -- normally mentioned if and when a project is featured in the media. Even industry awards programs tend to honor the work of architects and contractors, overlooking the input of the behind-the-scenes consulting engineers who make buildings function properly.
Except for bridges, civil-works projects for which engineers are normally the prime designers remain out of sight (and mind) of the average person. Buildings with architects as the lead designers, on the other hand, can readily be seen by the public, so they have a higher profile than engineers.
Plus, architects do an outstanding job of recognizing and honoring their elite. This profession has a star system and works diligently at placing stories in the media about its outstanding members. Countless beautiful, coffee-table-type books about great architects -- Frank Lloyd White, I.M. Pei, Philip Johnson, Cesar Pelli, etc. -- have been published and distributed throughout the populace. These professionals represent heroes and role models for aspiring architects.
CELEBRATE ITS STARS
The engineering profession has no similar system or program to identify and celebrate its stars. There is no book on, say, the 101 greatest mechanical or civil engineers of the 1990s. There are few books illustrating engineering accomplishments suitable for coffee-table display. If our best and brightest young people want to find out about the heroes and heroines in the field of engineering, there are few readily available places for them to look. The shame of it is that great engineers abound! There are many, many engineers who excel. But they go unnoticed and unheralded, often even in their own industry.
Engineers (and engineering) make something that never happened before possible. Engineering is inherently exciting for many more reasons, especially because it is a profession that adds value. Almost everything that impacts our standard of living -- progress and the advancement of civilization -- revolves around engineering: roads, bridges, buildings, towers, clean water and air, computers, sophisticated guidance and communications systems and, even, space exploration.
It is a proud profession with many accomplishments to boast about. Somehow, we must show up to be heard and create an atmosphere that will cause our brightest students to want to go into engineering. Without them, the future will not be as great as it can be. We need fewer of our best young people as litigators and wealth dividers, and more of them as doers and wealth creators. And the young need inspiring role models -- stars to look up to.
LEADERS IN SOCIETY
Not only do notable engineers need to be involved in leading this industry, they must also become more visible and involved as societal leaders. Too many of this country's direction-setting public policies deal with technology and engineering. Yet, too few of them receive input from those well-versed on the subjects. More and more of this industry's best and brightest have to show up in leadership positions in the broader community.
Engineers' voices must to be heard when crucial legislation is shaped for issues like urban sprawl, infrastructure investment, environmental protection, sustainable development and product liability. The engineers' opportunities for community involvement -- to deal with both narrowly focused and big-picture problems -- is basically unlimited. It only takes the commitment to get involved.
There is a truism about leadership that warrants attention: the world is run by those who show up. To make a meaningful difference in the broader community, as well as in the engineering industry, greater numbers of engineers must show up in leadership roles in society.
One of the difficulties in actually getting involved and becoming a societal leader, though, is that most engineers truly enjoy just doing engineering. The work is so challenging and rewarding, many do not want to do anything but engineering. Many engineers find it distracting -- and less than interesting -- to integrate the impact of their work into broader issues. Most are not interested in politics and some even find politicians despicable -- often not without reason. But the situation will not be made better by ignoring it. As Plato reminds us: "When intelligent people ignore politics, they ultimately find themselves being ruled by the less intelligent -- and the unscrupulous."
Because few engineers desire to hold elected public office, however, it does not mean they should not help get worthy candidates elected. Nor should engineers hold back from serving on boards and commissions that set policy and initiate legislation. There are countless such boards -- and advisory bodies -- in every state. By participating in such groups, engineers have the opportunity to provide much-needed guidance to elected officials, especially on the technical matters for which we are experts. If engineers want even more power than being a member of the group, they can lead it -- become the chairman or woman of the board.
BECOMING VISIBLE
When engineers show up and get involved, they will not only help determine public direction but will become more visible as a profession, which is one of the first steps in capturing the attention of aspiring engineers. Brilliant young men and women want to go into fields that are relevant to the world around them. They need to feel a career in engineering will allow them to do that -- to have significance in the big picture of life.
Virtually every engineer has the ability -- the right stuff -- to help make public decisions and should be encouraged to participate in community affairs. Additionally, our profession ought to challenge our top leaders to be actively involved in public debates. Their influence and clout could sway many important decisions, and alter the course of events. Teddy Roosevelt hit the nail on the head when he said, "Every man owes a part of his time and money to the business or industry in which he is engaged. No man has a moral right to withhold his support from an organization [an engineering association] that is striving to improve conditions within his sphere."
Roosevelt went further, "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly."
Those now helping adjust the path our country is taking are typically the cream-of-the-crop from other fields. Engineers who take on public leadership roles will knock heads -- and debate the issues -- with the best and brightest from other walks of life. For our industry to be truly effective -- and come across as insightful -- we need our finest at the debate table. And our finest will need to come prepared -- with their communications, leadership and people skills honed.
The majority of members in the U.S. Congress -- and most state legislatures -- are lawyers and career politicians, trained debaters. More engineers, the problem solvers, should be there. Once they are, they must possess the skills to convince the professional debaters the way to real progress is to solve the problem, not create more legalese and red tape.
Joe Barton, currently one of only two registered professional engineers in the U.S. Congress, has often warned engineers to be prepared. He says, "If you believe in something strongly enough, it will, many times, mean you'll have to debate people you disagree with. This will require exposing your ideas and expertise to public scrutiny, so you must be able to see the 'big-picture' impact of issues."
CITIZENS OF THE WORLD
How this industry gets its highest talent to be "citizens of the world" is a different effort than how to attract the top young people into engineering. But the two are deeply intertwined. If great engineers are not visible nor thought of as leaders, it is difficult to convince top students that engineering is where it's at. All the public relations (PR) hype in the world will not sway them if they perceive that engineers are Dilbert-type nerds or meek individuals "in the back room" taking orders from non-engineer types.
One effective way to attract the brightest into engineering is to have the best in this industry become visible leaders in their communities. Another is to befriend the media.
Media people are no different than anyone else. They want to do good work and advance in their careers. Unfortunately, this means getting scoops and covering stories that have headline news potential, which do not typically include things that go right -- things engineers are noted for doing. On the contrary, the media insists the public wants news about disasters, murders and the antics of celebrities, sports heroes and politicians.
Since what we do adds value -- and makes things work -- we do not make good material for disaster stories, unless something falls down. Likewise, we have few publicly known celebrities in our industry. Plus, we do not publicize our heroes nor present their exploits in ways that interest the average person on the street. But we can change this.
GET TO KNOW THE MEDIA
We can get to know key members of the press, television and radio -- even those in the movie industry -- on a first-name basis. And with some concentrated effort, we can convince them of the merits of our good works. When they do worthy reporting, pat them on the back. Recognize them for a notable job covering engineering accomplishments by giving them an award for it.
Professional organizations should work at exposing aspiring journalists to engineering as soon as possible -- while they are still in college -- to get them familiar with its significance early on. Then, after graduation they will be more apt to be comfortable covering engineering-related topics.
Practicing engineers themselves should work at becoming friends with as many reporters and editors as possible, locally and nationally. Once these personal friendships are developed, focus on presenting stories about engineers that will be interesting to readers, viewers or listeners. Often, this simply means bringing out the human interest aspect of an engineering accomplishment -- e.g., discuss how your neighbors are (or will be) effected by some new engineering project or product.
In addition to writing an article now and again, why not interest your biggest local newspaper in letting you write a monthly column -- or a series of stories -- for them? It is a fantastic means for telling why or how engineering feats impact people's daily lives. And it certainly increases the visibility of engineers while exposing large numbers of people to engineering.
One year, my firm surveyed the public about Colorado's most important infrastructure projects and wrote about the results. The articles stressed how necessary civil works were to the area's health and well being -- and how costly it would be to replace them. Because the stories humanized the projects -- engineering, per say, was not the feature; its impact on people was -- we received considerable press, radio and TV coverage.
DO PUBLIC SPEAKING
Besides using the media, members of the engineering profession can increase their visibility by becoming active as public speakers. Joining a community speakers' bureau provides worthwhile occasions to address large numbers of business, civic and community leaders. Becoming a leader in business groups -- such as the Rotary, Lions and chambers of commerce -- offers additional opportunities for getting known outside of engineering.
The countless engineers who contribute their own time to talk with K-12 students about the profession should be labeled heroes and heroines. By showing up and being heard by these groups, they make great strides in debunking the adage that engineering is the "invisible profession." It is a shame that their single-handed efforts often go unnoticed and unrecognized. Engineering societies must find ways to properly celebrate such leaders among our ranks.
As a matter of a fact, it is high time for the engineering industry to come out of the back rooms into the limelight. One way to increase our visibility is by publicly recognizing engineers like those mentioned above. Major efforts should be undertaken to celebrate both our engineering heroes and the significant engineering feats they do.
INVEST IN PUBLICITY
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has been spending more than $3 million a year -- it assesses its 65,000 members $50 apiece -- to publicize the value of good architecture to the public. There are many more engineers than architects in the US -- nearly 2 million more -- and several major engineering societies similar to AIA. Yet, all these engineering groups combined do not invest anything near that amount to improve the engineers' image and visibility. Examining the AIA formula and analyzing how the architects' star system works should be a requirement for engineers.
It is not coincidence that the covers of most popular magazines are graced with photographs of movie and rock stars-- or that they are frequent guests on the Jay Leno TV show. Those groups have the highest paid publicists and public relations agents around, and the fees of their agents are based on how much exposure they get for their clients. It is not suggested that engineers compete for this type of publicity. But it shows that even celebrities need to constantly work at staying visible and nurturing their public personas.
For the engineering profession to move from the invisible to the visible, it will take a real commitment in both money and time -- much more than in the past. Because our industry consistently ranks high in public polls, engineers are in the "catbird seat" moving to the top when it comes to who has leadership and role model potential. We must, however, work harder at telling people the specifics of our work and why it's so important to the economy and everyone's standard of living.
Engineering societies and groups must become much more aggressive in producing materials -- literature, radio spots, videos, etc. -- as well. And they must develop comprehensive programs to get materials about engineers into the hands of those who influence school children when they are making career choices. This outreach has to start as early as elementary school.
BOOKS ABOUT ENGINEERS
There is no shortage of outstanding engineers as subject matter for books and stories. Our superstars abound in the thousands. Why not publish a series of coffee-table books on industry greats? Engineering is a wonderful, exciting and challenging profession. Engineers, because they are doers and problem solvers par excellence, have the potential to come across as great role models. If written so they are relevant to the average person, these publications could turn out to be real "page turners."
(Recent books that depict engineers as great builders and leaders of men and women are David McCullough's The Great Bridge, about the Roeblings and the Brooklyn Bridge, and Richard Weingardt's RAUT, about the only professional engineer to ever be president of the University of Colorado.)
Notable engineering feats would also be good material for books. Stories about man-made wonders of the 20th century could fill several volumes. But they need to be books the public will read. When authoring such publications, extreme care must be taken so that engineers are presented as real people and engineering shows relevancy for the general public and the world around us.
GLOBAL MARKETPLACE
In the future, American engineers will, ever-increasingly, be involved with construction ventures worldwide. U.S. engineers will need to be the best we can produce because our counterparts globally will be. In other countries, engineers are highly respected and only the most intelligent students are selected to enter the field.
To remain world-class experts in the engineering field, current (as well as future) American engineering leaders will have to become much more visible as leaders and champions -- and public figures -- than they have been in the past. Otherwise, there is little hope in attracting our sharpest youth into the profession and reversing current trends in this country where many overlook engineering as a preferred career path.
Engineers have obvious power because they add value -- they know how to make things work and run. To truly inspire and have real power, however, they must be perceived as leaders. It is good to keep in mind Plato's admonishment and get involved in things beyond our industry.
Hopefully, as many of our elite as possible will become broader citizens of the world and step forward to be heard. Then our industry will have visible heroes and heroines that bright young men and women can look to -- and study -- as they choose their life's work.
With all the things that need to be built, replaced and repaired, the future looks extremely promising for engineers. In today's global economy, the U.S. engineering community -- if it can find the talent -- has the opportunity to be the world leader in the design and construction arenas.
Moreover, engineers have the potential to be important societal leaders
-- and role models -- helping mold the course of history. They can make
this muddled planet a better place for those who follow. We just have to
show up to lead, as often as possible.