Monday, 12 February 2007
Navigating Complex Issues
« Mentoring Our Future Leaders | Main | A Balancing Act »Bio-mimicry. Pedalogically correct. Fragility curve. Giggle-test. These words are what I call techno-babble...complex words that convey something extremely important in a fancy way. If you've ever been in a meeting where a group of people are trying to develop a mission statement, it's hard to sort through all the technical jargon. Here's a new one for you: "We should use multi-attributable anticipatory management with Cartesian thinking taking into account interdependencies with cross-sector expertise tied into by-product synergy and bio-mimicry to provide an integrated design, or to be pedalogically correct, we should just manage our firms like a hickory forest." As evidenced by this example, it's tricky to categorize techno-babble and find meaning behind the words. But as I learned recently at the Civil Engineering Forum for Innovation's (CEFI) conference, once you sort through all the techno-babble and try to read between the lines, the meanings behind it can be critical to understanding the complexities of our infrastructure crisis.
I recently attended , I attended this conference in Washington, D.C. The program was full of excellent insight into the issues surrounding sustainability and it drew some high-powered speakers. I felt this conference was a great opportunity for "captains of industry" to discuss sustainability with a room full of engineers from government, academia and the private sector. The concept of sustainability is a complex one, which needs to connect innovative industries with the technical know-how of civil engineers. When these groups of people get together, there is a lot to talk which extends beyond the need for more federal funding and support from Congress on infrastructure issues. I hope that the next conference will attract even more captains of industry to the table.
I'd like to hear what you think about our nation's infrastructure crisis. What can we learn from industry leaders about sustainability? What can they learn from civil engineers? And lastly, how can we get the captains of industry to the table?