• Question: are there decisions you knew were right but you ended up doing something else because of other people?

    Asked by gabby to Iulia, Katie, Mateusz, Ollie, Siobhan on 13 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Iulia Motoc

      Iulia Motoc answered on 13 Mar 2017:

      Not that I can remember. I am a very persuasive and ambitious person, so if I get something in my mind, I will do it… one way or another.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 14 Mar 2017:

      I am not super easy to convince, especially in a situation, where I know I am doing the right thing. My parents often remark as well, that I am a very stubborn person.

      I’d always check what I do against how it fits with the end goal, however. There are often multiple ways to complete a task, and some ways may feel more comfortable, than others. This is especially important if you lead a team.

      For example, when I was in my final year in the Uni, I led 5 other people for about 6 weeks or so. We had to write a report and present our findings about a maths algorithm and how well it worked.

      I was aiming for a very high mark in that project, but my team wasn’t as convinced. It would be the right thing for *my* working style to work tirelessly for hours on this project, but I knew, different people like to work in different ways. So, I had to adapt to what *others* were comfortable with, and still to get the best *results* out of it.

      So, we talked for a bit, and figured out what each of us could do that fits the individual styles: some liked to program, and not bother with the theory at all, others loved to read about stuff, but not to program anything.

      It was against my personal working style, but I wasn’t alone in this, and I had to account for that. We’d cross-check our findings to stay on track, and had a few rehearsals of the presentation as well.

      In the end, we got a pretty high mark, compared to others, and the team was happy too. So, adaptation is key, especially if you lead, and not just work alone, but at the same time, doing something else doesn’t mean that it’s something wrong – just something different.

    • Photo: Katie Pavey

      Katie Pavey answered on 14 Mar 2017:

      I’m quite stubborn, so if I don’t agree with a decision I will make my voice heard!

      However, once a decision has been made, it’s important to respect it, even if you don’t agree, otherwise you can disrupt the whole project.

      I try to see projects from everyone’s point of view, so usually I can understand why a certain decision has been made even if I don’t agree with it.

    • Photo: Siobhan Duncan

      Siobhan Duncan answered on 15 Mar 2017:

      Yes this happens to people all of the time.

      You have to be good a working in teams to be an engineer, because these projects can be large and no individual is better than a team of people.

      There are so many different ways on solving the same problem in engineering, all of which are just as right as each other, but might have different costs or benefits for a certain task. Some might be ess good, but are much much cheaper and you have to keep practical things like that into consideration.

      And just because what the team did against what you thought didn’t go well, doesn’t guarantee that your idea would have gone well either.

      So it’s better just to not dwell on these things and move one and learn from these experiences.

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