Success skills for Engineers — Part 3 — A Winning Mindset
You can achieve what ever you like with the right mindset. This will help the tone of your communication and what you actually would like to communicate.
If you missed it check out Part 1 — Tell Me a Story; and Part 2 — Clarity of Direction
TL:DR — You can achieve what ever you like with the right mindset. This will help the tone of your communication and improve the clarity of the message you are trying to communicate. Focus on being deliberate about moving your work forward and accountable to make it happen — there is always something you can do to influence the outcome. Seek to be 1% better everyday and be curious about the world, volunteer and learn as much as you can — your job is to say yes to everything that could be a learning experience, even if the learning turns out to be that you never want to do it again! Always go beyond the obvious answer and ask yourself “So what?” — is this the answer my stakeholder really is wanting. What second order thinking can I apply to deliver the full solution before it is asked. And finally remember that it is all an experiment — try something, iterate improve and continually make it better — It can always be better.
A Winning Mindset
Iterated and make it better
A key theme to learn about is that of quickly putting your work out into the world, looking to get feedback on your concept and design as soon as possible from stakeholders from which you can begin to iterate and improve your ideas. Accept that you are going to get it wrong and it will only be once you put it out into the world that you will begin to find out how wrong you are. It is easy to change and improve at the early stages. Far harder to address once the bridge is built!
- Design thinking and lean startup concepts -
- Doing basic tests — good framework for asking better questions
- Agile framework for iteration -Steve Blanc -
- Experiential learning cycles — Framework for continuous learning
- Ash Maurya — The lean sprint — love the problem -
- Steve Blanc — Why the lean startup changes everything -
Be Deliberate — Own the Outcome
A key step forward is to realise that you are in control of your work and the direction it takes. What are you doing to take ownership of your 50%?
- Optimising to deliver value or look busy
- Brene brown on Blame — What is your 50%
- Take ownership of your actions by taking responsibility
Curiosity and continuous learning
Learning to ask better questions will go a long way to making you more effective in your career. Also of great importance, is continually seeking out stimulus of all sorts to be able to generate new ideas with. Louis Pasteur famously quipped that “Luck favours the prepared mind” — what are you doing to prepare yours?
- Fixed vs Growth Mindset — Carol Deck
- 10x engineer — A comprehensive list of models and tools to 10x your engineering skills.
- Systems for knowledge work excellence — developing systems to use as knowledge workers to help you develop a creative rhythm and consistently deliver better work.
Additional Reading
Continuous learning and stretching yourself
- Learning from your failures — How an F1 engineer made a big miscalculation in the race planning, owned the mistake and was able to turn it into a big positive
- Staying in the discomfort zone -
- Why the right change often feels wrong -
- Standford social review — the promise of lean experimentation
