Communicating With Engineers

Most everyone knows that communications and collaborative thinking within organizations can be a challenge. One of the most critical areas where these communication and collaboration barriers need to be overcome is between engineering design teams and safety professionals.

Commonality in Cause

Luckily, safety professionals and engineers have an important thing in common – a focus on a systems approach to design. A systems approach demands that both safety professionals and engineers analyze problems in appropriate contexts and produce solutions that help prevent hazards and hazardous conditions from being averted both for the mechanical and work systems and in the environment that demands safety for the workers tasked with the system’s use, modification, maintenance, and integration into or alongside other

By looking beyond apparent problems to consider the entire system as well as the discrete system components, designers can expose root causes and avoid merely treating symptoms. They can then tackle deeper problems and be more likely to find effective solutions. Therefore, good lines of communication between engineers and safety professionals are essential, and a common environment of respect and communication be established.

Conflicting Goals

The disconnect in communication comes because those system approaches have different end goals and purposes:

• To design, build, and comprehend complex systems an engineer must consider all aspects of the system. An engineer must fundamentally know the parts of the system, the functions of those system parts and functions, how the system works, what can go wrong, and how to fix it. This requires an ability to think logically and evaluate and understand each element that makes it up. Engineers typically look at the design of systems (machines, processes, workflow, etc.) with the goal of designing out hazards primarily thinking about the equipment component and equipment systems interactions.
• Safety professionals typically look at the design of systems with the goal of designing out hazards that can potentially end in illness, injury, or even death, and be looking way to design out hazards before they lead to these adverse consequences for workers. Safety professionals are focused on regulatory requirements, best practices, and seeking out hazards and hazardous operations that have a high probability of human error potential.

Although the design thinking and priorities might appear vastly different, the concept that is trying to be achieved by both safety professionals and engineers is – “when in doubt, design it out.”

Engineers look at the world differently from non-engineers. They are usually extremely logical, pragmatic, and direct, while safety professionals have many of these same qualities, there tends to be emotional and aspirational components to designing out hazards. After all, saving lives is a highly emotional pursuit and one that safety professionals hold as a primary goal of their employment. Unfortunately, when working together, these different perspectives present unique communication challenges that can slow work, deliver sub-optimal results, and weaken company culture if not addressed.

Prevention through Design

Prevention through Design (PtD) is the primary way that engineers and safety professionals can come together to do the most that they can as a team to identify, investigate, mitigate, or design out hazards before they become a problem during operations. PtD can help formulate an operational risk management system, such as 30-60-90 percent design reviews that focus on collaboration and input from all stakeholders (including safety and engineering) and ensuring that these stakeholders are engaged with each other throughout the project on critical design features and changes throughout the project.

Collaborating effectively with an engineer, or any other team member for that matter, means learning to communicate with a common language of respect and inclusion. Observing group dynamics, identifying individual priorities or concerns, and adapting your communication style when working with engineers and others is critical to overall hazard identification, risk management, and hazard mitigation success.

Successful Collaboration and Communication Tips

Here are a few basics for collaborating and communicating productively with engineers and other varied stakeholders.

• Formulate a Project Charter - A project charter is a short but formal document that describes the design project in its entirety — including the objectives, who the stakeholders, and a plan of how the communications will flow. A project charter is essential because it is used throughout the lifecycle of a project and is formed through the input of all stakeholders (including the safety professionals and engineers). This is the first step in helping the project team see and here the goals and concerns of their peers.
• Build Trust - While this may seem obvious, healthy, productive relationships require trust. Trust is built from respect, conclusion, collaboration, listening, and talking with your team members toward the achievement of a common goal. Trust is built day-to-day and small win by small win.
• Collaborative Stakeholder Brainstorming - A critically frustrating situation when working on a project for any stakeholder —including engineers and safety professionals —is when they are told how to do their work or not having their input and concerns equally valued. Excluding or minimizing the contributions or ideas of other team members in favor of our own, means that work teams often we produce solutions that are not realistic or practical from an engineering perspective or a safety perspective. Using a closed approach to moving a project forward wastes time and money in rework, project delays. and extra work after the project is completed.
• Listen - Talk with engineers and other stakeholders instead of to them and do not present your ideas and concerns as demands. Ask questions, stay open-minded, and be ready to discuss options. Most often the final solutions for systems design and other projects come from the meshed perspectives of many parties with radically different approaches to the problems.
• Respect Each Other’s Time - Time is precious. To get the most of your time with an engineer or other stakeholders, it is important that you schedule and prepare for a meeting. Make sure you have reviewed plans, documents, and – most importantly – been active in the day-to-day communication and collaboration that is going on with the team.
• Structure Meetings - A structured meeting always runs smoother than an unstructured one. Clarify ownership in advance of the meeting so there is a moderator that can help others stick to the project charter, timelines, and objectives. Send an outline or an agenda in advance and get the input of all the stakeholders that will be in attendance so that the meeting is focused, small talk is avoided, solutions are brainstormed in a timely manner, and options and trade-offs are brought to light through the expected preparation of everyone involved.

Conclusion

The workplace today is increasingly diverse. It is important to understand not just differences in professional expertise but also the professional cultures and languages that influence communication, interaction, and thinking modalities. To effectively communicate with your stakeholders, especially engineers, safety professionals do not need to learn a litany of other languages, but it is helpful to speak the same language on a similar level. 

Need help establishing and implementing an advanced safety management system within your organization?

Mariner Gulf & Consulting and Services has extensive experience in establishing safety management systems that are intended to maximize the overall safety and health of the workplace for organizations in every industry. We can assist with the programmatic components of evaluating potential high-hazard producing processes and assist your efforts in ensuring that each and every worker is able to come home safe at the end of the day.

James Junkin, CSP, MSP, SMS, ASP, CSHO is the Chief Executive Officer for Mariner-Gulf Consulting & Services, Chair of the Veriforce Strategic Advisory Board, master trainer, and keynote speaker.

Contact Information:

James A. Junkin, CSP, MSP, SMS, CSHO

james@marinergulf.com

504-373-0678