A big part of structural engineering is about analyzing loads and stress. But when you’re heading up a dynamic team with multiple complex instructions, perhaps the biggest part of the job is resource management so that our load is always balanced and we don’t become stressed! As a manager I always have to be thinking ahead. I rely on my senior team to keep me informed so that we can be as adaptable as possible to deliver excellence to our clients. We’ll often pivot to meet client’s needs when there are last minute changes. That’s not always easy in an SME where you have little stretch in your capacity! We meet every Friday morning to talk about resource. We recap planned work, talk about provisional work and we block out our resources. We try to keep lines of communication open with clients and potential projects so that we know when to expect new instructions, or unforeseen changes on those in the works. I’m lucky to have a brilliant team, so we rarely find ourselves over stretched, but I’d love to hear how other managers cope with the load… any tips for resourcing, gladly accepted! #Buildingexcellence #management #resourcing
I think as you get higher up the management ladder you essentially become a ‘project manager’.
Nice photo!
Great insights, Oliver. How's Friday planning going?
Principal Structural Engineer | P.Eng. CEng MIEI
2moOliver, sounds like you are on the right track. I like that you meet on Fridays instead of Mondays, this allows for a more productive start to the week rather than losing up to half a day in meetings and discussions. SMEs obviously face more pressure here but you cannot react to every Client demand in any timeframe, especially if that demand is unreasonable. What tends to happen if you do that is that organised employees end up having to reset several times a week with hijacked resource. Think ahead as you said, don't be reactionary on a weekly basis.