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Sunday, April 13, 2014

Engineers ... experts and the hidden need.

First of all I have to make my biggest thanks to the author of this video, because is the perfect exemplification of what happens in reality.



The real problem is that engineers (I know a bit on them being part of the professional order) usually really think they are experts that know how to do all.
Engineers often consider themselves modern “Leonardo da Vinci” able to cook, build, plan, draw and whatever and often, as in this case, they end up falling prey of the old saying “Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference”.

In fact, engineers usually like to get tangled in these sort of discussions to be able to demonstrate their expertise in “drawing red lines” and remarking that others do not know geometry.
Unfortunately this is not the proper way a real professional should behave.
Here the customer is presenting himself not with the need but with his “better” solution, usually because asking for help is much more difficult and generically customers have the approach “I'm paying you and you have to do as I ask”. They need to be in control.
The real expert has to be able to explain that if the customer is looking for a professional he should before describe the need and letting him propose the solution, so the right question here is “why?”.
Being able to go to the root of the problem and not letting the customer draw you into useless discussions. “You have a problem and you need a professional solution? I will be your expert!” “You have a problem and you have your solution? Ask the expert that came up with the solution to implement it for you!”.
This is why many project fail, because few people were asking the right questions or simply refused to stand up and leave.
Again thanks for this wonderful video.