Engineering Influence from ACEC

Coronavirus Special: Government Affairs Update for 4-2-20

ACEC's SVP for Advocacy, Steve Hall, and Katharine Mottley, VP for Tax and Regulatory Affairs, joined Engineering Influence to discuss the new guidance for small businesses stemming from the enactment of the CARES Act.  
Resources discussed on the show:
The new law establishes a Paycheck Protection Program to assist qualifying small businesses, nonprofits, and individuals through the Small Business Administration’s 7(a) loan program.  $349 billion is authorized for 7(a) lending from Feb. 15 through June 30, and SBA would fully guarantee the loans.  Loans would be available during the covered period for:
Any business, nonprofit, veterans group, or tribal business with 500 or fewer employees, or a number set by the SBA for the relevant industry. ACEC is seeking clarification on this point – whether SBA will implement the loan program using the traditional size standard for engineering, or something broader.
Sole proprietors, independent contractors, and eligible self-employed workers would be eligible.
Eligible recipients could receive loans up to $10 million or 250% of their average monthly payroll costs, instead of $5 million, with interest rates capped during the covered period at 4%.  Loans can be used to cover eligible payroll costs -- salaries, commissions, regular paid leave, and health-care benefits -- as well as mortgage interest and utility payments. Firms would be required to make a “good faith certification” that funds will be used to retain workers, maintain payroll, and pay for rent and similar expenses.  Funds cannot be used to compensate individual employees at an annual rate above $100,000, or to pay for emergency sick or family leave under the second coronavirus response package.
The ACEC Coronavirus Resource Center: https://www.acec.org/conferences/coronavirus/
The Department of the Treasury provided initial information on the Paycheck Protection Program loans for small firms that are part of the CARES Act.
IRS Notice 2020-22 provides relief for employers from penalties for failure to deposit employment taxes in connection with the payroll tax provisions in the FFCRA and the CARES Act.
DOL issued a temporary rule to implement the emergency paid leave provisions in the FFCRA.
Fact sheet on COVID-19 and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Fact sheet on COVID-19 and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Required poster on emergency paid leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA:)
Employee rights poster.
Q&A on the poster.

The Macroeconomic Outlook with Anirban Basu

Anirban Basu, the President and CEO of Sage Policy Group came on the podcast to give his outlook on the economy in light of the coronavirus.

Coronavirus Special: Government Affairs Update for 3-28-20

ACEC's Steve Hall joined the program to review the congressional action on the CARES Act stimulus bill, which was signed into law by President Trump on Friday.

The Importance of Ethics in Business Success with Tom Topolski of Parsons

Engineering Influence sat down with Tom Topolski, Parsons' EVP for Infrastructure Business Development to discuss the company's rigorous ethics and compliance program and being recognized as one of the world's most ethical companies by the Ethisphere Institute.
Transcript:
Host:Welcome back to another episode of Engineering Influence, a podcast by the American Council of Engineering Companies. Now America's engineering industry is engaged in a daily effort to improve the lives of every American, but how they go about doing that work is just as important as the work itself, which really brings us to today's topic - the importance of ethics in business and the role of compliance and how that plays in corporate success.
Host:And I'm really pleased to be joined by my guest today. Tom Topolski. He's the Executive Vice President for Infrastructure Business Development at Parsons. In his role, Tom oversees efforts to achieve top and bottom line growth by identifying market opportunities to extend Parsons' infrastructure portfolio. And really what sets Tom apart from many of his peers in the industry is - especially in business development - is the fact that he is also a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional and serves on Parsons' ethics committee.
Host:And that is interesting in itself. But beyond that, Parsons for the 11th year running was just named one of Ethisphere's most ethical companies in the world. And it's not a small, small honor. It's something that is, that is very, very competitive and very highly sought after. So 11 years in a row, first time Parsons has won it as a public company. And it's great to have Tom on the show today to talk about the award and also just kind of the outlook that the company has on ethics, compliance, you know, business practices and why it's so important for the engineering industry and why it just helps, you know, accentuate what we do. So, Tom, thank you for being on.
Tom Topolski:Jeff, thank you very much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah, it's just great to have the opportunity to talk to you about this.
Host:Could you tell us a little bit about what you, what you do at Parsons?
Tom Topolski:Well, as you mentioned, I'm the Executive Vice President for Strategy and Business Development across our critical infrastructure business. So that includes all modes of critical infrastructure. It's highway, bridge, rail and transit, aviation ports and marine, smart cities, intelligent transportation systems. You know, the gamut of - Parsons is very much a full service company providing services from the conceptual planning feasibility studies through to design, construction, asset management.
Host:So really it's that whole infrastructure portfolio that you cover.
Tom Topolski:Right, and solutions. And I think why ethics and compliance is really important in that space too is people take it for granted, right? But everybody uses some form of transportation to get where they are today, Right?
Host:Exactly.
Tom Topolski:We serve hundreds of millions of people when you think about it in terms of the infrastructure, right? Whether it's people driving on our roads using our bridges, riding on the Metro system, using an airport. And so there's a lot of public trust that's put into making sure those structures are designed properly, they're constructed properly and that they're safe.
Host:Absolutely. I mean Parsons is an international company. You do business around the world. You have about 10,000 employees, I think is...
Host:16,000 employees.
Tom Topolski:How, how important is it to drill the message down of doing business in an ethical way, especially when you're dealing with other countries that have different rules and regulations and practices on business?
Tom Topolski:Well, Jeff, let me give you a couple of good examples. I was running our business in the middle East for a number of years and I can give you two examples that is, that I'm particularly proud of and I've always used these as ethics and compliance moments when we start meetings and so forth. In one case there was a country in the middle East after nine 11 that they started to surveil communications. And they were basically looking to see if there was money laundering going on for any terrorism activities, things like that. I don't know if they ever found that, but what they did find was a very large corruption scheme at one of the public works authorities. And what I'm proud of without going into a lot of details is that our company was the only one in our peer group, our company that not even had anyone questioned.
Tom Topolski:So what that told me, I mean, every one of our other competitors either had their managing directors deported, put in jail, people were questioned top to bottom, but we weren't even questioned. So what that said to me was not only did we have the tone at the top correct, but it was the mood in the middle and the buzz at the bottom as they say in the compliance industry, that it was in our DNA, that we didn't get involved in any of those kinds of activities. Another example was in a, in the middle East was when we participated in a design competition and we spent a lot of money on that. When you're doing a design competition, you have to come up with the concept design, the architecture of it and so forth. As the procurement proceeded, we and I was called to a meeting with the director of the public works department. At that time I realized that it was not going to be a transparent procurement and essentially said that we would withdraw from the competition. And again, what's important wasn't my decision on that. But when I called the president of our global business unit, I had full support. It wasn't like, Tom, are you crazy? Get back in, you know, I have the full support. And so again, it's a culture right top to bottom. Everybody knows to do the right thing. And I think that's one of the things that's always differentiated Parsons in the industry.
Host:For our members. I mean we have firms of varying sizes. We have, you know, of course, solo to small practitioners all the way up to Parsons and your peers in the international space. And we had one of our executive committee members on a couple programs ago when he was talking about leadership. He's the, he's the chairman of another firm out of Michigan. And he, he was really talking about the need to kind of drill down through all the layers to try to get a when he was talking about business, it's more of the vision, strategic vision. And I guess it's the same for really an ethics and compliance program.
Tom Topolski:Let me give you another good example of how you apply that and how you build up the client trust. Also going back to the middle East, and this is about 18 or 20 years ago. So it's not a new thing with Parsons. It's been in our DNA I think really since the inception of the company. But in Dubai when there was just massive construction going on, well and it's continued, we introduced the concept of integral abutment bridges. And so by doing that, we reduce the cost of bridge construction by about 50% with reduced quantities, which we demonstrated. But more importantly to it was the life cycle cost. Because when you're using integral abutments, you eliminate the need for the expansion joints and the bearings in most cases. So from a life cost, from a maintenance cost is greatly reduced. Now in doing that and why this is important is our design was on a percentage of constructed value. So we actually reduced our design fee by doing that quite substantially. But the client could obviously see what we were doing. We earned the trust and ultimately ended up with a tremendous amount of market share because they knew they could count on Parsons to do the right thing and you know, create the most efficient and effective design for them considering life cycle.
Host:Absolutely. Yeah. As a lasting effort if you can prove that you're doing things right.
Tom Topolski:Yeah. And especially where you're really, again, you're using it, it's the public trust, right. And it's using money in the public interest. And so if you can demonstrate that you're using that, those funds again for the beneficial purpose of the project, delivering it as efficiently as you can. I do think that no better way to gain trust.
Host:Yeah, absolutely. And an award like Ethisphere is, like I said, it's a, it's a sought after award. Some of the most recognizable brands in the world are our recipients. And you are just one of, I think one of two engineering firms that actually were named. And what does that mean for your role in business development to be able to go out to potential clients to potential markets and be able to say, you know, we were able to achieve this thing.
Tom Topolski:I think it means a lot. It's a, it's a huge differentiator. And I think what adds to that is that we've done it 11 years in a row. So it shows that we, it's not just something that we've decided to do because it was seen as something that was important in a given year. No, it demonstrates, I think, the ongoing commitment that just like our commitment to health and safety, environment, quality, sustainability, innovation, all of those core values, integrity, ethics and compliance is central to the way that we conduct ourselves, the way we do our business. And it is, it's it, yeah. As you know, very well winning the Ethisphere recognition. It's, it's not an easy task. I mean, there, it is a very rigorous process. So it demonstrates the commitment amongst all the 16,000 of my peers. Yeah. Yeah.
Host:And from your position, both as a certified ethics professional and then also on the on on the ethics committee at Parsons for if you were, if there was a firm there that was looking to either revise or to strengthen its own compliance program and you know, what, what are some of the top things they should keep in mind if they were to do that?
Tom Topolski:Great question Jeff. And I think because I've seen the other side of it, of firms that really haven't had quite the same commitment that Parsons has always had. I believe having someone, for example, I and indeed I may be the only a business development professional in our peer group who has a CCPI. But what it does is it demonstrates to the larger population the commitment that ethics and compliance is not here as a police force or an enforcement. No, it's rather we are here working with you to address concerns. You may have to address questions. You may have to ensure that we're imparting what it means to do business with integrity.
Tom Topolski:You know, to have the highest commitment to ethics. So having people from the business to, so for example, having me on the ethics committee, I know what it's like to run the business. I know what it's like to pursue with a procurement processes like or challenges come up so I can add a lot of value rather than just having somebody on the ethics and compliance compliance side who hasn't necessarily been in the operation. So we on the committee, we have two other of my colleagues. We have the EVP for corporate operations and then we also have a VP for corporate compliance operations. So it's a very tight group. We interact with each other on a daily basis, reviewing questions that come up, cases that come up. And the other thing that I always try to do too is I get the FCPA blog.
Tom Topolski:I don't know if you've ever heard of it. And so what I do is I share the FCPA blog, not all the time because then it's overload and people can look out of this perfunctory. But I give a good example when there was a Houston Astros scandal with the, with the cheating and the world series, and there was some articles about that and the FCPA blog. I was really delighted actually about the amount of dialogue that came out once I forwarded that article. And people expressed personal, very passionate stories about how it affected them because they were Houston Astros fans and so forth. But it's in that way, I believe that you build up the culture and people recognize, look, I need to not only do this from my peers, I need to do it for myself. Right? I mean, can you imagine if you had a compliance issue, right?
Tom Topolski:And you had to, you know, you had to, you lost your job or worse, you had, maybe you, you know, had a criminal case against you. How do you face your family, your friends, you know it's you never get your reputation back after something like that.
Host:And kind of a shameless plug for our webinars, but we actually do have a webinar available that, that focuses on FCPA compliance. Bill Steinman who contributes to the FCPA blog, actually, it actually held that webinar. So that's up there for members. If you want to go take a look, that's the foreign corrupt practices act. Of course that's more international work. Of course. But still, you know it's a body of law, which is the DOJ is doing a lot to enforce increasingly. So
Tom Topolski:Just like to let people know if they didn't know I last year in 2019, it was a record year for DOD DOJ enforcement of the FCPA violations, $2.6 billion dollars. So you know, even when we always talk about health and safety, of course the overall overarching objective is to make sure everybody goes home at least as healthy or more healthy than they were when they started out. But the same but the results. So of course the financial impact of it, right? Cause you don't want workman's compensation claims and so forth. Same thing with ethics and compliance. We want to do things the right way, but there is I, if you look in our peer group of all the firms that have either gone out of business or have become acquired that aren't on the map, firms that have had compliance issues tend to not survive it.
Tom Topolski:You know, because the fines are steep. Then you tack on the legal costs associated with that, the lost opportunity costs. It can kill the firm and you need to think about, you know, the jobs lost reputational issues.
Host:It's not an add on. It has to be a core business practice.
Tom Topolski:Yeah, you can't. And again, that's why you know, it is kind of glib to say tone at the top, mood in the middle, buzz at the bottom. But, but the point of that is, is to really drive home to everybody that it has to be in the DNA and that people can't just give a wink and a nod. You really, you have to believe it. You have to. And that's what's wonderful about Parsons too. It's always, you know, I've been with the company 12 years, over two stents and I missed the company while I was away because I did miss that really strong commitment. But I've always seen it from the earliest days I was with the company through to today right from our chairman, our board all the way through to people out in the field. People take it seriously and and believe in it. And you can feel that.
Host:Yeah. Well I wanna I want to take advantage of your expertise also in business development because some, some wider industry questions because we always try to get a handle on where things are trending and wanted to get an idea from you from your perspective looking at the infrastructure space and and, and where do you think technology is taking us? Where do you think the, you know, the next 10 years lays for firms or the industry doing work in the public sector? And, and you know, where's technology going? What's Parson's kind of looking at? How are you positioning yourselves?
Tom Topolski:Great question. I, I liked it. Well, first of all, I, what I always say to people too, I feel very fortunate to be in this business at this time because I think it's the most exciting time in our industry and probably over a hundred years. And you know, if you really look back, it was just over a hundred years ago that automobiles started to really take hold and have mass you know, ownership and replace the horse and buggy. And I think that right now the opportunities are immense. I liked it. I think Parsons with our focus on technology, our focus on innovation, always our quest for doing things better. You know, making it things more efficient and effective position us where the nexus between the traditional infrastructure, which we had been doing for over 75 years and technology enabled infrastructure. You look at construction, you're going to more modular construction, you're going to drones, robotics, you know, for example, if it's signaling in a subway system, right?
Tom Topolski:It's easier to have a robot go into some of those confined spaces than put people at risk. It's more efficient. And you know, again, sometimes there's labor shortages as well. So I think you'll begin to see more robotics in some ways, scheduling and programming, artificial intelligence coming into play. But I think some of the big transitions are, you know, you look at the smartphone, right? 10 years ago, if I held out a smartphone and said, you're going to be able to do your banking on that, you're going to be able to call a taxi on that. You're getting kind of all your videos, your music on that. You'd say you're crazy, right? Yeah. But think of the disruption that the smart phone has had on so many different industries, right? So I think Uber and Lyft are the first stage of getting us to connected and autonomous vehicles.
Tom Topolski:Now, right now, the impact is more traffic, but the convenience factor of Uber and Lyft, it took hold immediately, right? I mean, people adapted to that. They're willing to spend a little bit more money for the convenience and comfort. So the next step, and I think where we'll begin to really realize the benefits is when we do have the adoption of more autonomous vehicles. And I don't think that that's that far away. And I think the combination of that with electric vehicles as well is going to be transformational. And then a lot of it, what we, I always like to say I'm an airport is really a city with runways. And so I think that's another place where you can incubate a lot of the smart cities technologies that you can then more broadly apply across two cities and States. And so it's an exciting time for us.
Tom Topolski:And I think I'm, I'm delighted to be with Parsons because I think with the technology we have, we're incredibly well positioned to capitalize on the trends and shape the trends. In fact, absolutely. I think that, that, that sentiment is shared that technology is going to unlock a whole host of new opportunities for the industry regardless of size. Well, just as an example to think about airports, again going back there, you know, if you look at manufacturing and if you ever watch a manufacturing floor, most of that has robotics, right? Whether it's bringing parts, whatever, you know it's a very, very automated. If you look at the air side in particular, there's no reason why a lot of those activities couldn't be automated that are now you know, where you have people driving around on your, so from a safety factor and efficiency factor to automate the air side, I think we're not far away from something like that.
Host:Yeah. And that's, that's something which from a policy side ACEC has been working with the airports is the facility charge. It's getting that increased so that airports can look to make investments in physical plant.
Tom Topolski:We hope to work with ACEC on the land side as well because I think there is a massive opportunities for them.
Host:Without question, without question. We've got, we have a, we have a great opportunity for a, for a long term and substantial infrastructure bill and hopefully one that does take advantage of policy and policy pro projects and, and, and kind of test beds for bringing a lot of this from, from the drawing boards in the reality.
Tom Topolski:And, and Jeff, I think what we need to do, you talked about policy and funding and I think what we really hope to do working with the AECC in concert is, is ring fencing the funding because sometimes it, it, it's we don't have that consistent funding, right?
Tom Topolski:We're always sort of wondering, is a transportation bill going to be passed? Is there enough funding? Is chasing our tail in one way. And so consequently, if you look and you compare us globally, we've fallen behind and our infrastructure is in pretty dire shape. So we really need that focus and making sure that the funding is there, that it's consistent and allows us to really do her job and deliver infrastructure that again, will serve millions of people every day. Without fail. Yeah. And that's one of the things we always take to the Hill when we have meetings is, you know, our industry are a bunch of problem solvers. We know there's a problem and there's a solution and the solution just has to involve longterm predictive, sustainable funding to actually get this stuff done. Think about it, right? You look at, I don't know if you're aware, but the average travel speed in Manhattan during peak commute hours is about four and a half miles an hour.
Tom Topolski:Okay. So think of the economic impact that has where you can't move people and goods effectively and efficiently. So this is a, it's things like that and there are ways to solve it. And I do think technology is going to end up being a big part of improving congestion.
Host:Well it's, I think we should a good place to leave it off there. I'd love to have you back on the program later. We can kind of expand on this and maybe get into specific areas of infrastructure that have great promise. But again Tom Topolski, thank you so much for being onto the show on the show today with us. Talking about ethics compliance. Congratulations on the award. We'll have a link to that in the show notes and again just great having you on and thank you so much.
Tom Topolski:Jeff, It's been my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
 

What You Need to Know About The New DoD Cybersecurity Regulations

Engineering Influence sat down with Michael Flavin of SaalexIT to talk about the impact of the Department of Defense’s new cybersecurity regulations for federal contractors. Engineering firms not in compliance with the regulations, whether they are primes or subcontractors, will be barred from working on DOD contracts.
 

HED's Michael Cooper on Leadership

Host:Welcome to another edition of Engineering Influence, a podcast by the American Council of Engineering Companies. Today. I'm very pleased to welcome back to the program. Michael Cooper. He is the managing principal of HED out of Southfield, Michigan. He is also a new member of ExCom. You might remember our last conversation when the new ExCom members came down for orientation and we had them on the show, and he mentioned that he was very active and engaged on leadership development and coaching business leaders to really maximize their effectiveness and grow as leaders. And that's something that we want to talk about today. So, Michael, thank you so much for coming back on the program.
Mike Cooper:Well, thank you Jeff. Appreciate it.
Host:So how did, how did you get involved with, with leadership as, as kind of a thought leadership kind of project for yourself? I know that you speak at conferences, you do podcasts and you talk about these things. How did, how did that really become a passion of yours?
Mike Cooper:So, you know, I think it started because it paralleled my professional development, right? So I started out in, in the industry in the design community as a mechanical engineer working on projects and designing systems. And from there I went a little bit into project management where I had a chance to not just design projects, but we teams that were designing projects. And from there more participation in business development as I became a little bit more expert into projects, managing them project delivery, that became a natural extension. And then onto leadership of office and people and such. And so I, over the time, you know, I came to realize that I'm leading people, leading organizations. It's really its own skillset. It is, it is separate from, you know, engineering and sort of the technical world that I was educated in and I grew up in you know, if you look back at the industry 25, 30 or more years, it was not uncommon for, you know, the, the most talented engineer, architect, technical professional to become the manager to become the leader of the organization. I think that may be less common today as organizations are realizing that the business side of what we do separate from the design and the creative side requires professionals with a unique skill set to lead organizations and strategic plan and lead people. So it's something that I was involved with as I developed professionally. Something I realized was an important part of running our business and something that I found that I really enjoyed separate from the technical challenges, leadership comes with its own set of challenges.
Host:That's correct.
Mike Cooper:That I did, I enjoyed those as well. And so I think my career moved me in this direction and as you said, my interests and passion continued that and I was fortunate to get the opportunities to practice in this part of the industry.
Host:And over the course of your career, I mean, do you think there's a watershed moment where things kind of shifted? Like you said you had at in times you know, in past the most talented engineer, the one who is the best of problem solving and maybe on time performance for project delivery rising up the ranks and becoming the manager and then find themselves managing people more than they are projects. Was there a watershed moment in your mind where that kind of shifted away from just, you know, that focus to looking at executives who also had the soft skills of people management of developing their teams? You know and kind of where we are today?
Mike Cooper:Well, you know, I feel like if I, if I look back in the 80s, when we really started to hear more broadly about total quality management, about greater efficiency, I think that was the point in which you know, not in select pockets, but where broader industries and across countries, continents, professions. We started to see a greater push for efficiency and quality and process. And I think organizations started to look at their own processes the way, not just what they're doing but the way in which they do them and the way in which their people are trained in the way in which their people interact with one another and take on tasks. And that to me is where we really started to separate the, you know, the say the, the engineering or their creative design side stuff from the process and the leadership and the organizational stuff.
Mike Cooper:And I to me that's where I started to see that discussion happening. You know,, in a wider swath of people. And then I think it's just continued from there. And then global competition, Jeff might be the other thing that has has really driven this, I think all industries have felt in the past two or three decades more competition coming from more places. And so the drive to utilize new technology the drive to be more efficient and to be able to pass on the benefits of that efficiency to and customers has further driven us to be to try to be more effective in our, in our businesses and tried to have more sophisticated marketing systems and finance systems and technology systems and all of those things. I think you've just led us to a focus on leadership and management in addition to the focus on the core business, which in my cases is design, architecture, engineering.
Host:And I, that really just is a great segue into a really, one of the first points that we kind of discussed in advance of this show you know, outlining about six different points that kind of guide a conversation on leadership and that's purpose and strategic focus. And I think you touched upon that in your last answer, but, and essentially that, that focus in on - with the increased competition internationally with really an industry which is, which is evolving with increases in innovations in technology. The demands for both on the public side and the private side for a different kind of engineering work to be done. A greater focus on sustainability, resiliency LEED, all those things. How purpose and strategic focus is critically important in today's marketplace. How has the industry kind of coalesced around those two points?
Mike Cooper:Well, I think there's two places where that becomes critical. I think the first place is because the next generation of talented professionals, the one that are the ones that are entering the field today, they, I think are more purpose-driven than generations past. You know, and, and so I think they're looking for that. And so I think on one hand, organizations are needing to be able to define that as, as part of a mechanism to recruit and retain top talent. But I think further to that, and touching on something you said earlier about change and the rate of change, I think the, the, the evolution of technology of systems and such has, has never been faster. The rate of change is accelerating very quickly. And so we often find ourselves day to day dealing with what appears to be constant change and that makes the need and the ability to define a clear purpose for the organization. So much more important because we can get lost in the day to day. And it's one of those things, you know, separating the urgent from important. We've got to remember that there needs to be a clear purpose, a clear direction out there so that the organization and everybody in it knows where the finish line is they know what road we're on. And they can, and they can follow that path.
Mike Cooper:It's also the thing I think that inspires us to do great work. You know, when we coalesce, as you say, around a common person, a purpose, a common set of ideals a direction, that's what enables everybody in the organization to say, okay, I know where we're going. I know what I have to do to help us get there. You know, let's go. And we find we all end up pulling in the same direction. We find that we accomplish more. But the lack of that purpose, you find people spending their days very busy, but, but then at the end of the day wondering what it is that was accomplished that day. And I think we've all had days where we feel that way.
Host:Absolutely. And it's, and it's really important to keep that strategic goal moving forward. So everyone sees the bigger picture and doesn't get lost in the day to day work, which may be unrelated to something, but you're working towards a larger purpose. And, and keeping that in everyone's mind is a challenge, but is critically important to keep things moving ahead. And you mentioned, you know, having everybody kind of coalesce around that idea that, that one purpose, the strategic goal. Once you get to that point and everyone's kind of bought in, what's your philosophy on setting those teams up of how do you select talent? How do you balance teams and kind of set them up to achieve their objective and motivate them along the way?
Mike Cooper:So so when I, when I look at teams, I generally look at them through two lenses. The first is talent, and then the second is chemistry. There's, there's so you start out with the idea of talent and there's a quote by Jim Rowan that says you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And that to me is a reminder that when you surround yourself with great people, you yourself become better simply by being around them. And, and I'm a, I'm a believer of that. So I think you start out with the idea that I'm going to, I'm going to recruit the most talented people, the smartest people, the most strategic people that I can and begin there and then really have to focus on chemistry. I'm providing them tools, resources, and opportunities for that team to spend time together, get to know one another and grow together.
Mike Cooper:You know, I'm always reminded in the world of sports usually all-star teams struggle against championship teams. You could argue that they have more talent, but they can, they never seem to be able to win. And that's because championship teams, while they don't necessarily have the best individual players, they've coalesced and they've become a team and they've gotten to know one another the way that they play, how they can complement one another. So they've sort of mastered that one plus one equals three philosophy. And that's where I think we want our teams to be. We want to put teams together, let them get to know one another so they can anticipate their moves, what they need and how they operate so we can truly complement one another. And then as leaders, I think we have to make time for the team.
Mike Cooper:We've got to spend time with them. We've got to help them and support them. You know, there's, there's a saying that we've all heard right? When all is said and done, more gets said than done. And I think as a leader, it's really important that we focus on doing things, supporting things in a tangible way, and helping them to get better. It can't just be talk. There are times where we've got to roll up our sleeves and, and, and, and do some things. And, and as leaders we've got a great opportunity to lead by example and help teams come together and be successful.
Host:The point used the analogy to the sports teams is really good. I think the idea between an all-star team and a championship team you know, the, I guess the flip side of that is when you have an all-star team, you have a lot of competing personalities and they're very good at what they do and they want to make sure their voices are heard and that they're leading. You have a bunch of people who are leaders and they're very, very high level performers versus a championship team where you might have some standouts, but overall the team together pushes forward to get the championship. And that's a question of culture. How do you deal with I guess the, the different kind of voices that you can have in the room, you know, and how do you set a culture that really puts that strategic goal, purpose and mission ahead of individual accomplishment? Not to say that individual accomplishment is bad because you know, that's what leads to group success. But how do you put the team before the individual personality?
Mike Cooper:Yeah you know, the, they say, and I, and I believe this also people join firms, but they quit their managers. And I'm a, I'm a believer of that and I think that's true for our clients as well. I think that they hire firms, but if they gravitate away, it's the team and the leaders of the team that they're moving away from. So you know, I sort of begin all of this with the idea it's all about people. And particularly when we're talking about engineering, design, service, a service profession. It's about people and, and we need to make them are our top priority. If somebody says, you know, you know, Mike, what's the most important thing to I would tell them, don't listen to what I say. Pay attention to how I spend my time.
Mike Cooper:Time is the most valuable commodity for all of us. And if you want to know what's important to me, simply look at what I choose to spend my time on that that will tell you everything you need to know. And for me by focus is on the people making time for them. You know, making sure that we are celebrating our successes and making sure that we're celebrating our failures and we're learning from them and we're understanding that when we don't succeed, it's often the path to greater success. Making sure that we're giving back to our community and we're, you know, and we're free to try to make the world a better place. It can't only be about what is on my desk. We, we in our world, we are working on projects that help our communities and help our societies. They make people's lives better every day. And I think it's important that we understand that. And that we embrace that and we foster that.
Mike Cooper:We need to mentor one another. We know we don't have enough people entering our profession. We know that we need more people. And that's one of the great challenges that we all have. And so let's mentor people and let's help bring people into the profession and let's help develop them. And so I think it really starts with this idea that you've got to focus on your people. You've got to make them your top priority, not because somebody tells you to, because you, we have to know that in a service business, everything happens because of people. People do everything. And so you know, whether we're talking about our markets and understanding our clients and doing the research to know the trends, those things are critically important.
Mike Cooper:But then when we do those things, at the end of the day, we're going to ask our people to put those things in motion and use all of those tools to serve our clients and help our communities. And and I, and I think you know, you sort of start there. The other thing with respect to culture that might be worth mentioning is the importance of sort of an inspirational message to motivate hard work. You know, we talked about focus and purpose and creating a rallying point for the organization. It also often is what motivates us to leapfrog and to make great jumps. And there's nothing, you know, that's more powerful for a culture than a rallying point that gets people super excited and super fired up to do something. Back in 1962, when John F. Kennedy talked about going to the moon, you know, we choose not to go to the moon. You know, not because it's easy, but because it's hard. You know, in 1962 we had no business talking about going to the moon with confidence. We were not winning the space race. I, a lot of people felt that Russia would get there first. They were more advanced than us, but that was the rallying cry. And that was, was one of the things that galvanized the country. It got us working towards a common purpose and inspired us and though we weren't positioned in 62 to get there, we got there in 69 and we got there first. And, and I don't know that that would've happened without JFK first putting that stake in the ground. As unlikely as it seemed at the time. You know, all, all big things start as small things. All great initiative started as small as a small ideas.
Mike Cooper:The last thing I'll mention on the subject I have in my office an all company photo of Microsoft from 1978. It's one of my favorite photographs because it's got 11 people in it and it was taken in a garage. And most people can't picture Microsoft Corporation being a startup. Microsoft Corporation was a startup and not that long ago. All big things begin as small little nuggets. And I think when we build a culture and we look to inspire ourselves, we've got to think big and remember that we can think big even when it doesn't look like we can get there. Nelson Mandela said it always seems impossible until it's done. I think a, another way people say that is, you know, when you're going through hell, keep going. You know, keep pushing, keep pushing, you'll get there. And, and, you know, a big part of culture is a reminder that we've got to put our stake in the ground and get fired up and work towards it because we can do much more than we think we can do when we, when we begin working.
Host:Yeah, absolutely. And, and that kind of you know, it's, it's interesting because I think there's always in organizations, there's always a drive or a desire by a number of people to try to, you know, shoot higher to try new things. And they might not have the immediate tools to do that or they might not have the confidence because they've never been in a position to do that or they're a little bit, you know, afraid of the blow back for maybe trying something different or suggesting something. That really comes with just like you said, professional development for a firm of varying size. I mean, if you're a large firm, you can easily invest in, you know, expansive leadership development and coaching and things of that nature. But how important do you think it is for firms of all sizes, quite honestly, to have some sort of structured professional development program internally or even retaining the services of a coach or some executive out there who can help groom talent.
Mike Cooper:You know, I think it's critically important. You know, and so everybody can gain from seeing how other people do things, from seeing how other industries and professions do things, the other perspectives that are out there. You know, we can't grow if we aren't learning, if we're not being educated, if we aren't being exposed to new things, different things. And so you know, not certainly smaller organizations may have less resources than very large ones, but they have resources to to do this. And there isn't a right way or a wrong way. But helping our people continue to learn is what is what fosters their growth. And so you know, pairing people up in apprenticeship kind of a model. It's an old school thing, but it's incredibly effective. If a young person is paired up with somebody who's more experienced in the field and they're working together on a project, but they're taking some time to spend talking about what we're doing and why we're doing it and how we're doing it.
Mike Cooper:And a little bit of the background. You know, it always, it surprises me, but it shouldn't, how fast somebody newer to the profession can grow when we take the time to help them. The folks that come into our profession are really smart. They're really smart, they're really committed, they're hardworking. If we put in a little bit of time to help them they can grow very quickly. And then I think you mentioned something which is, you know, let's take advantage of some of the opportunities that are, that are out there where we don't have to do it all ourselves. So, you know, ACEC as an organization provides lots of opportunities for growth. Some of them in the form of webinars which are inexpensive and very easy to engage in. Others are in the form of more structured classes, which are a little bit more of a commitment, time and money, but you probably get a little bit more out of that. You know, that way. But there are organizations out there and places where we can find, you know, whether it's an executive coach like you said, or an organization that has educational programs where we don't have to figure this out or invent something, we can simply leverage the tools that are already out there that were created by somebody else and we can put them to use for us.
Mike Cooper:And I think in some cases we, we learn from, you know, other industries and other professions and other organizations who show us new ways of doing things. We always take the biggest leap in our organization when we, when we're able to learn something, something that our profession isn't doing and we're able to adapt it and we're able to leapfrog a lot of what's happening and get into a new place be able to offer a different kind of a value proposition, maybe one that's unexpected and that's new.
Mike Cooper:But then our clients who are really clamoring for and just didn't see being offered anywhere else. That opportunity comes from professional development. And in particular getting exposed to, to things happening outside of your organization. A long way around saying it's absolutely critical and there's no, there's no point in time where you reach a level where you don't, you don't need to continue to grow. You don't need to continue to learn. I think it'd be a sad day to wake up one day, you know, and say, you know what? I've plateaued. This is as good as it gets for me. You know, I come to work every day, you know, looking for those opportunities to learn something new, to do something new, experience something different to grow to, you know, I'd like to think that tomorrow I can be more effective, be better than I am today. I believe that's true, but only if I'm still learning.
Host:Yeah, absolutely. I think that that's kind of ties up almost all the stuff that you said because if you have a strategic goal and a mission and you're able to foster a culture that pretty much enrolls everyone into that that mission. And you create, like I said, the culture that allows people to think maybe outside the box or look at opportunities that might not be readily present. And again, this also goes with the whole idea of an engaged workforce and a diverse workforce with different perspectives and different backgrounds who may be able to see things other people don't. You're able to look at new opportunities in the marketplace and like you said, offer things to clients or open up new client sectors that you never thought you had, which is the key to growth.
Mike Cooper:Absolutely. And it is - a lot of these things tie together cause you know, you talk about some of these things in the context of you know, of culture and a learning organization. It's, it's, it's part of culture. The, the other, the other thing that learning does, I think is it's, it sets a foundation that says it is okay to experiment. It is okay to explore. It's okay to fail. In, in, in design and engineering we know that the first solution we come up with is very, is rarely the one that actually gets built. The one that actually is constructed. There's an editor of process that goes along. We get better, we get stronger.
Mike Cooper:And one of the favorite stories that I heard when I was in school was the story of WD 40. Right? We all know what WD-40 is. The name WD-40 stands for water displacement formula number 40, the inventor so strongly about the 39 attempts that came before that that he named the product to celebrate that. His story was there was no way to go from one to 40, you know formula number one taught him something that he used to develop number two, which taught him something he used to develop number three, and so on and so on. And you get to 40. There's no way to go from one to two to 40. It was a scientific process, a process of discovery. He realized that one through 39 weren't failures. They were steps right on the way to success. And a learning organization I think frees up people to explore and to look for new ways. Understanding that if, if this one way, if this thing doesn't work out, that's not a failure, we'll learn something from it, we'll come back stronger and we'll get there. But that, that trial and error mentality often gets us some of the products to rely on every day.
Host:Yeah, absolutely. I'd say it's always interesting to look at what we actually use every day and realize that the end product wasn't actually the goal of the company or organization actually doing something that's just a byproduct of it. It's, I think a it wasn't oh, I forget what I remember in the, in the early, you know, early 20th century when, you know, the rubber manufacturers and, and the, and the, and the petroleum manufacturers. And I think some of the things that we use, I was some nylon derivative, I think was a complete mistake. And, and that's, you know, something that, that, that we know today and I forget exactly what it is, but it's, it's interesting to look at that kind of history. So really, I, you know, coming in and looking at all of these different ways to organize and develop you know a firm - when you, when you acquire talent, how critical is that onboarding stage and how important is it to start laying the groundwork for this kind of more inclusive and open a workplace that, you know, puts an emphasis on, on culture, on mission? How critical is it in that first 90 day period to really get someone into that system?
Mike Cooper:Yeah, it's, it's sorta like the story of the first impression where you, you know, you've got one chance to make that first impression. And in a lot of ways that sets the tone for the relationship moving forward. It's really, really important. We talk a lot these days about the difference between engagement and employment. And so if, if you want people to be engaged, if you want them to really feel like they're a part of something bigger and act that way, then it starts with the recruitment. Just as you said, we, you know, you to you want to get them engaged in the organization, even through the interview process. You want people to feel like this is a place where they could find a home where they could be a part of and would give them a real satisfying, rewarding kind of an experience.
Mike Cooper:And boy, when you're in, when you're in a 50 year low in unemployment I don't know that I can emphasize enough the importance of recruiting new talents and pulling out all the stops. It has never been harder to find people because we are so over employed, right? As a country. And so you know, we want to begin on day one. In fact, even, I'm looking at interns differently. If you can bring interns into the organization and maybe not just for summer, but maybe they work year round part-time and they work full time in the summer, but we're, we're building a connection. And we're building a relationship. So that when they, when an intern is ready to begin looking for a full time job, they don't really have to look. They already have a home. They already understand. And that's something that our organization does. And I know a lot of organizations are looking at.
Mike Cooper:You know, bring people on, making that first impression. Jeff, as you said we want our staff to stay. We want them to recruit their friends and people that they know perhaps to come to our organization. And the way to do that is to really get them engaged. You know, you've got to, you know, we're asking people to work hard in return. We've got to communicate with them and we have to share information. If you want somebody to feel a part of the organization, they have to know what we do, why we do it, how we do it. There's very few things out there that that for me are, you know, out of bounds that we don't share.
Mike Cooper:You know, we don't share, I wouldn't share health history of, of our, of our employees. I wouldn't share compensation or salary information. I certainly wouldn't share information that I'm contractually prohibited to share. But, but beyond that we should be open and honest. We should be authentic and make sure people feel like owners, they feel like they're a part of this thing because that's when they're going to buy in and they're going to rally around our purpose and they're going to do the work that needs to get done to help the organization succeed. Sort of goes back to what we talked about earlier. People do everything in an organization, so the more engaged they can become, the more a part of the organization, the stronger the emotional connection is. That's going to translate directly to the work.
Host:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's a lot of really good food for thought. For leaders, organizations and, and kind of how to approach just people and people management. And just getting everyone together on the same page, bought in on the same mission and, and just following through to success.
Mike Cooper:And Jeff it's more fun.
Mike Cooper:People that we ask people to work really hard when you're part of a winning team and you, you know, you like the people around you and you and you, you're working well, a cohesive unit, then those are the people who wake up in the morning and look forward to going to work.
Host:Yeah
Mike Cooper:Absolutely. And that's a part of this too. We work really hard, you know, there's gotta be a part of this that we really enjoy.
Host:Yeah. And when you have that sense of ownership that that organizational success becomes individual success because you are part of that process and if you're part of that team, yeah. That, that, that really makes it personal. And it's beyond the, the numbers of course, you know, benefits and all that. And of course, salary, everyone you know, is working not just because it's personally beneficial and enriching, but also because, you know, you have to pay the bills. But that other intangible quality, that you're accomplishing something and that you're moving the ball forward and you're doing something greater than just, you know, on its face it could just, you know, be a a design task, could be an administrative task to be anything like that. But and I think the other, the other story right, is, is for NASA, you know, when, when they brought people down to Kennedy and they were talking to everyone about, you know, the space program and you know, a guy, a janitor was, was, you know, you know, sweeping the floor and, you know, the, the government people said, you know, what do you do here? And the janitor said, I'm, I'm putting somebody on the moon. Because he wasn't, that was, that was the overriding purpose of their existence there all the way down to the person who is sweeping the floors, they're all part of the same team that's going to put a man on the moon. So I mean, if you can get that into an organization that just leads to success.
Mike Cooper:That's a great, it's a great story. You know, I, I sometimes I look at the organization like a jigsaw puzzle in that there's lots of pieces and if one piece is missing, it's not complete. And it doesn't matter which piece it is. And I think it echoes your story really well. We all are and we need every one of us to get where we want to go. That's a, it's a great story and I, and you hope that all of your people will, will feel that way, that we've done what we need to do so that the people who are part of the organization really feel that way. That that's, we're all, we're all here for that single purpose. That's great.
Host:Absolutely. Well, Michael, thank you very much for, for taking the time today. There's a lot more to go into and I want to come have you back on the show because there are other aspects to this which we need to cover because I think the next time we should talk about how that new generation of engineers coming out of universities, the way they view work, the way they view their purpose. Like you said, it's moved into more of a purpose driven field. And how firms are kind of changing to meet that because it's not just a goal of people management. And then you get into the other issues that are equally important for clients to look at, which is, you know, CSR programs and things like that, which you know, potential clients are looking at more than just delivery. They're also looking at the type of organization that they're contracting with to do work for them. And that's a whole different, different conversation to have, which we should have pretty soon.
Mike Cooper:Well, I would love to come back. I would look forward to that. There's an awful lot to talk about and all of it is really important. The next generation are not just going to be, you know, our employees. They're going to be leaders of our firms. They're going to be our clients. They're going to be leaders in government and in community. And so understanding, you know, their sensibilities and where they're coming from and leveraging that is going to is help all of us get to a better place. Got to start the conversation. Oh, that's great.
Host:Yeah. Well, Michael, again, Michael Cooper, he's managing principal of HPD out of Southfield, Michigan. And he is a new vice chair on our executive committee at ACEC and look forward to seeing you, of course, at our conference coming up in in April. And hope to have you on sooner than that. Thank you again for being on.
Mike Cooper:You're welcome. Thank you, Jeff. Have a great day.
Host:You too.
 

Rep. Dina Titus at the Moving America Forward forum in Las Vegas

Engineering Influence sat down with Rep. Dina Titus (NV-1) at the Moving America Forward presidential candidate forum on infrastructure in Las Vegas.  We discussed the current infrastructure proposal in the House, prospects for congressional action on FAST Act reauthorization and what the candidates for the White House should say about infrastructure investment.
Transcript:
Host: Welcome to another edition of Engineering Influence, a podcast by the American Council of Engineering Companies coming to you from Las Vegas at the site of the first ever single issue, presidential candidate forum focused on infrastructure, which is a long time coming and we're joined with a number of the presidential candidates, vice president Biden, Senator, Klobuchar, Tom Steyer, and Pete Buttigieg. And I'm very, very pleased to be joined by Representative Dina Titus who represents Clark County in Congress. She is also a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and a member of the Subcommittee on Aviation, which is an issue that already popped up with the PFC charge and vice president Biden saying that he would support that. That was welcome news and I want to welcome you first onto our program and to get your kind of thoughts on where things are right now, both on the Committee in Congress for infrastructure and what the outlook looks like.
Rep. Titus: Well, thank you for having me. I'm very excited that this forum is right in the heart of my district and on the campus of UNLV where I taught for 35 years. I enjoy serving on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee because it's so important to Las Vegas. You know, we are growing constantly. We're building new stadiums, new convention centers, expanding roads. And so these are important issues on the Committee right now. Just recently, Chairman De Fazio has released a draft and that's what they're calling it. It's not legislation yet, but just to get the ball rolling on infrastructure. When the president first took office he was talking about infrastructure, he promised $3 trillion. It's gone nowhere. So now we need to really get down to the nuts and bolts of it. And of course, the big question is how do you pay?
Host: Absolutely. That's the big question. And there's been talk all over the place. I mean, a lot of the States have - over 30 states - have taken it upon themselves to address their user fees. There's talk about VMT, there's talk about the bridge to that next funding scheme. What are your thoughts on that? The best way to address the actual revenue stream going into the highway trust fund?
Rep. Titus: Well, you've got to raise the gas tax that hasn't been done since the early 1990s and then you have to trigger it to increases that go in effect automatically. The state of Nevada did that. You did that here in Clark County and it wasn't a political issue because people know we need infrastructure. So I think you look at that, but that's not enough with so many electric cars and also with cars that are getting better mileage, we've got to figure out a way that all users can contribute.
Host: That's a really good point because something that a lot of people might think about is that when they see a Tesla on the road, they're not paying into the user fee. And it's an interesting thing. It's, it was brought up in the last Congress about how do you capture that? And I remember Chairman Shuster put out that draft proposal where it was talking about capturing some of those, you know, free riders on the system, I guess you could say on the Republican side. There's always been that feeling of saying, okay, well gas tax is a third rail. With so many states and Nevada included taking action on their own. Do you think there's any crack in that argument that saying that? No, it's actually not a political third rail. The movement to where we have to address those revenues?
Rep. Titus: Well I think you do have to and that can be a combination of things. You know, it would be interesting if we had earmarks again because that might incentivize some of these Republicans to vote for a gas tax. So everybody likes to cut a ribbon and hand out a check. And if you make 'em make those where they're transparent and only go to public entities so the whole system can't be abused, that might be a way to move this ball forward.
Host: And I know that that was brought up a little bit in conversation by the Chairman. And, and I don't think it was really part of that draft proposal specifically. Do you see that issue moving in the Democratic Caucus for bringing back those earmarks?
Rep. Titus: Well, I know Steny Hoyer supports it. Our leader, not speaker, but leader, but he's not going to move it without it being bipartisan, but both sides have to agree to it so that the other side won't use it against people in vulnerable.
Host: Well that's something that, that you know, as an association, ACEC is supportive of as well cause we think that's a good way of moving projects forward. And if you can do it in such a way where you actually have accountability...
Rep. Titus: That's right and transparency.
Host: Absolutely, but it's critically important that the money that, that Congress is constitutionally mandated to be you know appropriating it goes to the right places.
Rep. Titus: And I'd much rather people here in Nevada be making decisions about what our needs are than some bureaucrat in Washington who's not knowing exactly how it works here.
Host: Absolutely. from your position on the Aviation Subcommittee, PFCs were brought up at the forum already. Where do you see that going at the Committee level?
Rep. Titus: Well, I know the Chairman supports it and so I suspect that it will be put forward. The airlines are against it, but certainly the airports are for it and and many of the members are, and you need that funding for you know, keeping airports up today, then expanded and being able to serve not just people but also commerce.
Host: Absolutely. I guess from the forum perspective, we have a lot of presidential candidates here. What are you hoping to come out of this this event? It's first of its kind specifically focused on infrastructure. What are you hoping to come out of it?
Rep. Titus: Well, this kind of setting is much better than a debate because you have a length of time with each candidate. You can get more in depth into the issues in a debate with a bunch of people on the stage it's just hit or miss. So I think there'll be some pretty serious discussion about infrastructure. Shouldn't be ideological, shouldn't be everybody needs bridges and roads. So I think this is a good way to approach the topic and get some commitment to move forward.
Host: And I know that you're short on time, so I just wanted to kind of end it out by saying, if you have a message for the engineering community in Nevada and of course in Clark County anything that you want to say to them?
Rep. Titus: Well, they are a vital part of certainly any kind of infrastructure, whether it's water pipes or highways or railroads, and talk about railroads. We want to speed train from here to Southern California. I learned early on, you don't just talk about shovel ready projects. You talk about pencil ready, and that's where the engineers come into play.
Host: Well, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate it. Good luck today and of course, back in Congress and look forward to a very successful legislative session.
Rep. Titus: Well, thank you. And stay in touch with me as this moves forward through the Committee.
Host: Absolutely. Thank you.

DiscoverE Discusses eWeek 2020

It's National Engineers Week, or eWeek, for short, and there's no better way to celebrate this week of recognition than to sit down with the organizers of the event itself, DiscoverE. Engineering Influence sat down with Thea Sahr, DiscoverE's Director of Communications and Programs to talk about the week, the events happening across the country and how eWeek has grown into a year long celebration of engineering.
Transcript:
Host: Welcome back once again to ACEC's Engineering Influence podcast. I'm your host, Alan Crockett, Director of Member Communications and it's Eweek, everywhere around here at ACEC and throughout a lot of places in the US this week. And as a result, we are very, very honored and pleased to have Ms. Thea Sahr. She's the DiscoverE Director of Communications and Programs, that has a lot to do with all the activities that are going on in celebration of Engineering Week. Thea, welcome to Engineering Influence podcast.
Thea: Thanks Alan. I'm really happy to be here.
Host: Well I know this is a busy busy time for you. Is this like Christmas season for a DiscoverE?
Thea: Oh, it sure is. It sure is. You know, you work year round, getting ready, getting all the materials, all the resources together, and then you kind of watch what everyone around the country does to be pioneers of progress and really engage kids and celebrate all the wonderful things that engineers are doing. One of my favorite things to do during Engineer's Week is to Google Engineer's Week 2020 (#eWeek2020) and just see everything that people are doing. It's really incredible.
Host: Well, that's a very interesting because I think a lot of people don't realize that Engineering Week celebrations are throughout the next year.
Thea: You're right.
Host: We're at the beginning and and we've got a whole week worth of activities planned. What so how things are going so far?
Thea: Things are going great. You know, across the country on engineering universities at college campuses, their celebrations lots of small and medium sized engineering firms are going out there, volunteering with their local schools. Some of our larger corporations are doing multiple events around the country, but it's really individuals out there, people who say, you know, this week I'm going to go into my kids' school, or this week I'm gonna work and find an organization that I can partner with. And you know, while we call it Engineer's Week, it's really a 365 year round mindset of, you know, just taking a moment, volunteering, going out there, talking to a child about what engineering is. Cause sometimes we forget that you know, us an engineering community, we know a lot of engineers. We know what engineers do. Most Americans don't know what engineers or technicians do. They've never met one. They don't run across them in their daily lives. So and we know that role modeling and telling kids what's involved in engineering is one of the first and best ways to engage kids and get them excited.
Host: Well, we have, you know, ACEC represents more than 5,200 individual engineering firms throughout the nation. And it's always a pleasure to just see all the activities that our member firms are engaged in. And I remember organizations to celebrate the the importance of, of engineers and engineering overall. So tell me a little bit about yourself. How long have you been involved with the discovery?
Thea: I've been involved with DiscoverE for nine years. But before that, I mean, I've been an employee of discovery for nine years, but I've been an Engineer's Week volunteer and advocate for the last 20 years. I was at a PBS station in Boston and we created Design Squad and Engineer Your Life. So I've been working to engage kids in engineering for a long time. And yeah, and what I like about it is we really think that engineering is the gateway to math and science. You know, that that's that hands on problem solving you get the kids hooked that way and then all of a sudden they're going to be like, Oh, if I know math and science, if I know those concepts, then my, you know, my catapult or my lever or whatever they're working on or whatever problem they're trying to solve, they'll go and look for the science and then it becomes real. And then, you know, engineers and engineering can really answer that "so what" question for kids?
Host: Well it sounds like, you know, these programs also help take the fear of mathematics out of the equation and brings it back to a more realistic, a realistic plane for, for kids who are curious and wondering what to do and how things work. I was scared to death of math coming through school, so that's why I went into words. I can handle words, but math is kinda hard. Well, I know we had we, you know, in, in DC we, we had the big future cities competition yesterday and we got a lot of pictures and some story for that for our blog. Tell me what else is, what are the other big highlights that are coming up through the end of the week, both here and throughout the nation that you guys are focuses on?
Thea: Right, right. Yes. So future cities, our competition for middle school students where we ask them to design and build a city of the future. With 45,000 students from around the world participate and we crowned the world champions yesterday and they're from Indiana, which is very exciting. So that was great. So a big shout out to them and their hard work. And then tomorrow, Thursday the 20th, is introduce a girl to engineering day. So that's a time during seven days to really focus in on girls who may not know about engineering or be engaged in engineering. And you know, we've turned a lot of attention to this area, but there's still a lot of work to be done to kind of bring more girls into the fold. And so we released a report back in December called despite the odds where we looked at why girls choose STEM and why women stay in the field.
Thea: You know, we know all the reasons why they leave, but we were like, what can we learn from why they stay? And what we've found is the importance of role models. You know, volunteers going out there talking to kids, doing hands on engineering activities and, and telling them what engineering is, how engineers solve problems, what those problems are, you know, what are the kinds of fascinating things all of your members and their employees are working on. That's, you know, and there's no magic bullet, right? It's just really getting out there and, and doing the outreach. We know the formula. We just need more people to be doing it. And that's what we love so much about ACEC and your members is that they're so close to their local communities that they're doing that work. And we just want to give a big shout out to everyone and say thank you and keep on keeping on.
Host: Oh, excellent. Excellent. That will bring a smile to a lot of people's faces. And just on a personal note, I've been at ACEC for 17 years and I've been going to you know, the national meetings, the fall conferences and the annual convention twice a year. And I've noticed a difference just in, for example, we would get 800 to a thousand attendees at these conferences and it would be rare back in, you know, 15 years ago, it'd be kind of rare to see a woman engineer. Everybody would notice. It's not rare, it's not rare anymore. And you know, just to dovetail on that, we give numerous scholarships out to engineering students to help them finish and proceed in their educations. And I had noticed that over the years you know, five out of, you know, six out of 10 scholarships that we give out, we'e going to women, we're going to women students. So I think your messages and your your efforts are paying off - women are engineers and it's not a rare thing anymore. And I'm old enough to be able to realize that. So kudos to everybody at DiscoverE. So tell me what does discovery really want to accomplish? What's the overall mission of your organization?
Thea: So we have a dual mission of celebrating engineers and you know, really elevating the field. And, and giving a big, you know, making sure that the world, just how much engineers contribute to, to our way of life and making the world a safer, stronger, better place. Right. That's, you know the work that engineers do is just, is mission critical and it is awesome. And then our second our, our second piece of that pie is really encouraging kids to investigate and explore engineering. We know not every child is going to become an engineer, no one wants that. But if we could give kids the, the tools, the engineering design process, project management, if they take those skillsets, any career, imagine how effective they could be just to kind of break down large problems into bite sized chunks and tackle them and solve them. And, and, and, and bring that kind of mindset. I think would be wonderful. And our big audacious goal is that every child around the world, every year has an engineering experience. You know, cause so many kids just don't know that it exists or it's even a possibility or that they have, you know, that they have the chops for it.
Host: Or the role that engineers play in practically everything that goes on. So.
Thea: Exactly.
Host: So really incredible and worthy, worthy endeavor for sure. You said you'd been there for discovery as you know, working on staff and then, but you said you had volunteered before. What changes have you seen in what DiscoverE offers and, and tries to accomplish over the years? And how have you seen that reflect on the results and the reaction to your efforts?
Thea: Sure. I think, you know like all good engineering organizations has been an iterative learning process, right? Try something or put it out there, what works, how can we make it better? How can we make it better? And we look at the evolution of the resources that we offer the training that we offer. We're continually saying, okay, you know, what's resonating with the kids, what messages can we share? What hands on activities can we share, what's working? And then just, you know, constantly improve the resources and the delivery mechanisms that we have, you know, as technology changes, can we take advantage of of community, you know, ways to communicate to reach more students. You know, if you're in a rural area, can we try a webinar, you know, a webcast bringing on an engineer right into your classroom electronically.
Thea: So I think, you know, we're always willing to try new things. And I think that the volunteers out there working with kids are a lot more, and sophisticated is not quite the right word, but they've been doing it a long time. They know what works. And so it's really listening to all our wonderful volunteers out there and responding to what they're asking for, what resources they need. You know, cause we can't, we're a tiny staff of six people. So how do we support the work of 50,000 volunteers out there reaching a million kids? So I think that's just kind of our constant thinking is, what do you guys need? What do you gals need and how can we help you?
Host: Yeah. Well, you know, I think one of the one of the benefits also that I had discovered when, when preparing communications for the upcoming Engineers Week I went to the DiscoverE website and, and you guys provide all kinds of ideas and, and, and, and pointers for activities to further on your mission that I believe a lot of our member firms who, and I've talked to a few, they want to do something but they just don't know quite what to do. What's the best way to go about it? I think going to your website would be would be a great thought starter on PRI trying to, you know, basically pitch in and do our part as an industry.
Thea: Well definitely we have a right on our homepage. You can download the ultimate how to guide. In four pages it outlines for you what you can do to engage a child in engineering. And there's really simple steps and then it takes you to all the other resources. But we have an extensive library of activities. We have an extensive library of how, you know, messages that you can share with kids. And like some people are like, I don't even know how to reach out to my school. I have a cheat sheet of what you can say and, and and who you should ask for when you call the school. So, you know, how do you arrange a classroom visit? So, and then videos of engineers. And then we have an extensive section on engineering careers, so you can send kids who might be interested in engineering to our website. So it's all there. DiscoverE with an E dot org. I hope folks will visit us
Host: I'm pretty sure they will. I know you're very busy lady. You getting ready to head back to Boston. So good luck to you. Thank you for sharing a few minutes with us this morning. And good luck to the entire, for the rest of the week of all the activities you guys have your hands on and we'll see you again next time.
Thea: Yeah, thank you and thanks to all the pioneers of progress out there, all of your engineers, your technicians who are, who are, you know, doing such great work to make my life easier and safer. I really appreciate it.
Host: Okay, thanks Thea and have a good day and we'll see you on the next one. Enjoy.
Thea: Okay. Bye. Bye.
Host: Once again, that was Thea Sahr, Director of Communications for DiscoverE, which basically coordinates all the eWeek and Engineering Week activities that just don't occur once a week. There are ongoing throughout the year program and activities and knowledge and awareness and seminars and they obviously do an excellent job. So thank you for joining us today. My name is Alan Crockett, once again, Director of Member Communications and we'll see you on the next side. Enjoy.