Celebrating the engineering profession

Take celebrating to a new level to spotlight the industry’s success and rewards.

We recently wrapped up the 2018 Hot Firm and A/E Industry Awards Conference, the AEC industry’s largest awards conference. At the event, we unveiled our new mission to “elevate the industry.” One of the five tenants of this new mission is to celebrate. We need to celebrate our accomplishments and the industry to bring more positive exposure to the important things this industry does for the world.

The truth is, we always have something to celebrate. We are the designers of the world. The development of communities, quality of life, and economic growth depend on the engineering profession. Here are some other reasons that celebrating is so important to the success of your firm and to the industry:

Celebrating creates momentum — The reality is that teams and firms that celebrate success attract more success. As the momentum grows, the team or firm develops an increasingly positive energy that is critical to further growth and evolution. Celebrating the accomplishments of individuals and of organizations can have profound impacts on both culture and operations.

Celebrating is physically good for you — Celebrating brings the mind, body, and spirit into harmony, releasing endorphins that make you feel good. This conditions you to seek the rewards of success more in your daily work and life. If we fail to celebrate, we are robbing ourselves of important reinforcing benefits.

Celebrating is a learning opportunity — Celebrating helps us understand what is working. It tells the culture what is good and educates us on what we should focus on. Celebrating enhances the educational value exponentially as we learn what we or others are doing that is working.

Engineers at all levels need to look for opportunities to celebrate success, from celebrating individuals, the team, and the firm as a whole. The benefits are numerous, in addition to those listed above. We need to take celebrating to a new level, working hard to get greater exposure for the success and rewards that can be enjoyed in our industry. This helps not only elevate our firms, but the industry as a whole, enabling us to attract much needed talent to fill the increasing demand of infrastructure.

Chad Clinehens, P.E., is Zweig Group’s president and CEO. Contact him at cclinehens@zweiggroup.com.