Curiosity

The power of Mon Geotech’s leading value.

I’d like to write about why ‘curiosity’ is the leading value at Mon Geotech and how that allows us to find solutions that un-stick our client’s projects and work collaboratively to deliver them.

Let’s start with the obvious – understanding your subject. I have sometimes been asked by colleagues how I know about so many geotechnical products, specialist contractors and design techniques. There’s always a boring answer – I’m interested in it. When I encounter a new product, I’m curious about how I can use it to solve a problem. When I meet a new contractor, I’m interested in their capabilities and equipment. When I read about a new technique, I want to understand if it offers something novel and if I can reliably use it to solve a problem. In CPD presentations, this makes me the ‘I have a question’, and I’m not ashamed of that!

The reason there are so many opportunities in civil engineering, is that every site is different. It is the uniqueness of each site in terms of geology, topology, existing assets and constraints that dictates the level of engineering effort required to deliver projects. Being curious about our sites and understanding the creative constraints placed upon us by them, is vital for developing appropriate solutions. Beware of any civil engineer who tells you ‘we did it like this on the last site’ or (even worse) ‘we always use this solution’! After all, necessity is the mother of invention.

So, curiosity furnishes us with knowledge of our subject matter and with an understanding of the constraints posed by our site. But there isn’t much value in developing a solution if you can’t convince the rest of the team to adopt it. It’s convenient, for our egos at least, to conclude that everyone who opposes our solution doesn’t understand how brilliant we are or is just hard-of-thinking but this isn’t going to help us get them on side. This is where being curious about others comes in. Without getting too Ted Lasso (reference for the uninitiated), being curious about others, their motivations, preconceptions and concerns, helps us to address the constraints this puts on our solutions, and to influence their decisions.

You might think this sounds a bit like ‘being innovative’ and I’d agree with you. However, you can’t target innovation directly, no matter how many times the word features in your marketing materials or how many meeting rooms you rename. In my view, innovation arises spontaneously as a result of knowledge, confidence and freedom in engineers. What’s the first way to develop these? Be curious and foster curiosity in others.