Jeff’s venture into engineering management isn’t quite what he expected. He manages a group of seven engineers at a semiconductor company, but he continues to work as a hands-on engineer. He’s highly regarded for his technical expertise, which is why he was offered the management position five years ago. Continue reading
The Compliance Manager’s role in the modern organization is to enable/empower decision makers to take action and leave the building defensive walls to the Risk Manager with his heat maps. So how can compliance managers start realising their value adding role? Continue reading
Focus on What Adds ValueSo many environmental management systems have an environmental management manual! Why? There isn’t a requirement in the standard for a manual. It adds no value. It wasn’t a requirement in the 2004 standard. It isn’t a requirement in the 2015 standard. Why do some organizations choose to have one? Continue reading
The Engineered Nanomaterial (ENM) industry is developing rapidly worldwide, bringing with it an expected increasing presence of ENMs in municipal wastewaters and ultimately, community water sources and supplies, over time. Happening in parallel, there is an increasing integration of the water cycle to help optimize use of our precious water resource – an integration that may increase exposure to ENMs. Given their increasing prevalence, what are the exposure pathways and public health risks posed by these ENMs? Can our water utilities really say we need not fear ENMs in our water supplies? How safe is the water we drink? Continue reading
Firstly, what is ‘good communication’? Many people have views, but my definition is “the effective and efficient transfer and receipt of information by the right people, at the right time, in the right medium, at the right place and in the right amount”.
The key word though is ‘efficient’. A voluminous report to the right person on time covering everything may be effective but will the recipient be able to synthesise everything and make a decision; or would an email, letter, SMS, ‘phone call, or face-to-face meeting be the more efficient? Continue reading