Week 12 - Industry Business Analysis Presentations and General Review

Class Date: Thursday, 13th October, 2011

Today's class was the last class for the semester. The majority of it was taken up with presentations from students, including myself. This was followed up by a brief semester review from Prof. Shortis.

The presentations were surprisingly varied considering they were all being given by surveying students. Instead of seeing the same presentation ten times with only the company name changed we got to see many different aspects of the industry being represented. Sarah spoke about a supply group, Lachlan about  a firm that focusses on engineering surveying, Gerry about a company that specialises in green acre developments and Tri about an alignment design application system. 

Throughout the course I hadn't given a lot of consideration to the exact applications of the skills that I was gaining at uni. Today I saw a broad range of real possibilities. Luxury hotels in Dubai, motorways in Melbourne, rail-lines in Queensland, deformation surveys, engineering surveys, software specialists and even equipment gurus. It was much broader than the cadastral and road set out I was thinking about when I began. The international scope of the work on display was also encouraging. In the future I'd like to spend time working overseas and seeing that others have had important roles on large scale jobs shows that the possibilities certainly exist. 

The presentation that I found most interesting was Lachlan's. He looked at the company that he currently works for, Gertzel Survey. I enjoyed it because of the scope of the projects that he is involved in. The work on the desalination plant and motorway pylons seemed very challenging in that it demanded a high level of accuracy and attention. It seems that this is what his employer is focussed on achieving with all of the work that they undertake. And I was especially impressed that there was an in house auditor to ensure that all the work met their own standards. Though I am not interested in engineering surveying I think that a lot can be gained by working in that type of environment. 
Another interesting point for me was that the the application that Tri was speaking about was developed by the CSIRO. I always like finding out about Australian research and development and it is good to hear that it is being adopted in such a grand manner. It proves that the return on investment in R and D is justified and that more should be undertaken in this country. It is just a shame that an international company is the one that is distributing it. This is a topic that I am passionate about and always have to pass comment upon.  

I suppose that I should comment on the public speaking as we did have a lecture on it earlier in the semester. I don't think that any of us enjoyed being up there. I was not very well prepared and I think that I was rushed due to that. The nerves also didn't help. I could have expanded on some points or even just moved more slowly over others. I used a promotional pdf that was provided to me but since it did not align well with the information that I had gathered from my interview I chose to only use it to highlight aspects of my speech at the end of the presentation. I probably should have informed the audience of this as I saw eyes looking up at the screen waiting for me to stop speaking and for the real show to begin. I can't recall what my body language was like but I did put in an effort look around the room as I was talking.  I'll just chalk it up to experience.

All of the other speakers could be understood easily and all seemed to get through without any major problems. Some were nervous, some were awkward and others looked indifferent but I'm sure that like me they are just glad it is all over.

The semester review was brief with one big point made at the end. Communication is important. I hadn't seen that as the overarching theme of the topic but looking back over what we've covered it is quite clear that it is. Whether applying for a job or working with a team member how we put our message across greatly influences it's effectiveness. So consider who it is you are talking to, what you are trying to say and how you are going to say it. I can see the value in that. Perhaps the subtitle for the course next year can be 'It's not what you say, it's how you say it.'

Well this is the end. I had no expectations coming into this subject and though I don't think that I've learnt a lot of new things I have been challenged to consider what I thought I knew. And I've enjoyed that. I have also enjoyed the journal entries. A journal is something that I've attempted to keep in the past without any success. Though the merits of maintaining one are obvious to me my disorganisation and lack of discipline have meant that it is always over before it begins. Plus I prattle on a bit too much once I get going.

Finally, thank you to Prof. Shortis for organising the course and providing all the feedback and encouragement. It doesn't make the task any easier, or enjoyable, but I think it does mean we end up learning something, even if it is done so reluctantly.

Week 10 - Geospatial Careers

Class Date: Thursday, 29th September, 2011

This week Prof. Shortis stepped aside and handed over the floor to three guest speakers. Claire Davies from Geomatic Technologies, Damian Smale of Breese Pitt Dixon and Colin Hall of the Surveyor General's Office. The first two speakers looked at life in the workplace and the third at a quality management aspect of the surveying industry.
Claire Davies is a graduate of the University of Melbourne who initially worked with Thiess before shifting to her current job. Her talk was interesting because it was from the perspective of someone who is at the second stage of their career. She had established herself at Thiess from 2005 to 2011 and has only recently moved into the role of business analyst at Geomatic Technologies. Her role at Thiess looked challenging and demanding and I can understand her desire to move on. A comment of hers that stood out for me was that the technology that we use at university quickly becomes redundant due to the rate of development and adoption within the industry. To me it highlights the importance of a strong theoretical grounding so that you don't confuse the tool with the process.
Damian Smale is a recent graduate of RMIT who is aiming to become a licensed cadastral surveyor. From his presentation it is easy to see that he is a focussed individual. He spoke from the position of a recent graduate and offered workplace advice from this perspective. The two pieces of advice that I noted were that we are not expected to know everything and to be proactive in furthering our career. The first piece of advice is useful as it reminds me that the end of of university is a starting point, not a finishing point. The second highlights that often our interests will be secondary to those of the workplace we end up. Unlike university, the workplace does not exist to service us so in order to get where we want to go we have to take responsibility upon ourselves.
Colin Hall was the third speaker. The focus of his speech was the auditing program that is run from the Surveyor General's Office. This is a quality management program put in place to maintain the integrity of the cadastre. In my opinion a program like this can only improve the industry. By being conscious of the fact that your work is inevitably going to be checked at some point it encourages you to abide by the regulated standards. Well, the theory seems sound. Mr. Hall showed us that they have never been able to hit their desired result of 90% satisfactory surveys in one year. It seems to be floating at around the 80% mark. He also pointed out that only around 2% of the surveys get audited. This implies that of the 98% of unaudited surveys two out of every ten will have a notable error on them. This is definitely something to keep in mind.
I believe that I shall get to go out on audits next year and I look forward to it. It appears to be an excellent way to learn about surveying techniques and expectations. And the knowledge pool within the office appears to be very deep indeed.

Week 9 - Duncan Brooks and Emotional Intelligence

Class Date: Thursday, 22nd September, 2011

Mr. Duncan Brooks is an RMIT surveying graduate who has forged a career as an industry leader in spatial data. He is the acting director of Spatial Information Infrastructure (SII) at DSE. His talk covered both the information that his department is custodian of, the relationships with the information providers and the uses and innovations in the industry amongst other things.  I found his talk to have the deepest level of content from all of our guest lecturers. In part it was due to all of the projects that SII is involved in. Also because his talk had historical and speculative aspects. He spoke about how he was seen the uptake of spatial information over his career and how he can not guess as to what the spatial information industry will look like in 5 years time.  The information is there, it is being collected and anyone at all can view it and manipulate it to the degree that the technology that they have access to allows them too. 

This is an area that I find to be overwhelming. The amount of data and rate of innovation leave me boggled. I must admit that all my mobile phone can do is make phone calls and I still draw mud maps to put in my pocket whenever I cycle somewhere new. So there is a bit of the Luddite in me.  However the descriptions of the advantages gained from having this information left me thoroughly impressed. The fire response, lidar mapping, the dynamic Vicmap base all impressed upon me the importance of this field, as well as the expectations that we all have that the most up to date info is available for us right now. 

The second half of the class looked at emotional intelligence. I really have no idea about what mine is. I think that I perceive and understand emotions well but I am not so good at using or managing them. The clip of Daniel Goleman included a discussion about ability vs ambition and how emotional intelligence is allied with ambition. It reminded me of the characters in a piece on mathematics called Manifold Destiny by Syliva Nasar and David Gruber. In it there are two prominent mathematicians, one who is devoted to the numbers and the other devoted to influence. Both with massive ability but it is obvious that the mathematician who seeks to be a powerful figure has far more emotional intelligence than the one who lives with his mother and solves incredibly difficult problems.  In this example both seem to be achieving their personal and career goals. Being severely lacking in the quality of genius it seems that I have something to gain from looking into EI. In fact, this whole series of lectures around personalty traits has offered up a lot for reflection and even though I have not agreed with it all there will be benefits for me from having encountered it. 

Week 8 - Surveyor General and Learning Styles

Class Date: Thursday, 15th September, 2011

The majority of this week's class was taken up by a presentation from the Surveyor General of Victoria, John Tulloch.  I found it to be an interesting presentation as it outlined the umbrella of considerations that surveyors in Victoria have to work under.  Another point of interest for myself is that I shall be working in the Surveyor General's office when I graduate. It seems strange that I should be learning about my future workplace while at university but sometimes the broad overviews are hard to come by when in an organisation (I am currently working part time in the Land Titles Office). Of most interest to me was the section on the geodetic responsibilities of the office. I enrolled in this course aiming to become a cadastral surveyor but now I am more inclined to work in the geodetic field and it is encouraging to see that I'll be in a workplace where I can gain experience in that area.

The learning styles presentation from Prof. Shortis was a continuation on from last weeks class on personality types and working in teams. I'd come across this before due to previous studies. Many years ago I considered becoming a high school teacher. My classroom practicals made me quickly realise that it was not the career for me. Learning styles, personality types and psychological development were all covered early in the degree. I can see the benefits of identifying your own biases in order to be able to adapt yourself to your surrounding circumstances. It is also good to be able to gauge the styles of those who you are dealing with in order to effectively communicate with them. 

I have similar hesitations to this as I did with personality types. I'd hate to see people take this too seriously and not realise that it is merely a rough categorisation tool and not a specific measurement of the person.  And I would be disappointed if someone took a test and thought that they shall forever be one type of person and veer away from fields associated with the other classified areas. Both they and the community would be poorer because of it. 

Week 7 - Personality Types and Working in Teams

Class Date: Thursday, 8th September, 2011

Today's class looked at the individual and then how individuals work together. Prior to the class we were asked to undertake a test that is similar to the Myers-Briggs personality test. I had done a similar test 13 years ago during my final year of high school and my classification was the same, INTP. I view these things with strong skepticism as to me their foundations seem shaky. Psychoanalysis is to the personality what astrology is to astronomy, a starting point that needs very much to be improved upon. However, my objections were not quite so strong when I was told that I had shared traits with Socrates, Newton and Einstein.

But I realise that this is just a tool to view and understand ourselves and other people. It does not provide a definite definition of the self. And, like all tests, there are factors that limit its accuracy. Is the person being honest? Is it a complete test? How is the person feeling that day? And so on. So the results are not absolute and should never be used to define a view of a person, be it yourself or others.

I do think that there are good personality and psychological tools out there. The book The Happiness Hypothesis  by Jonathan Haidt provided me with an excellent overview of the history of psychology and the search for the good life. It looked back as far as Buddha and the ancient Greeks and included up to date empirical research. It pointed me to an academic website called Authentic Happiness that has a suite of interesting and evolving tests. I don't know whether these would be useful for teaching as there isn't a large peripheral industry around them yet and so I don't think that the ideas have become part of modern business culture. Which is a shame as I do think that they offer a richer analysis of the individual. (edit 15/9/2011, I just found out that Geelong Grammar include positive psychology as part of their curriculum and that they base it upon the researchers behind Authentic Happiness.)

The second half of the class dealt with working in teams. I've never had a bad team experience, or if I have I've never dwelt on it. I guess that may also mean that I've never learnt from it. In the class the notion of team work and how to structure teams was looked at. The previous topic of personality types was a good lead in. Teams are comprised of different people completing separate tasks so to have the best team possible you want to have the most appropriate person in each role. And by knowing which personality types suit specific roles you are part of the way there.  Again, this classification of roles bothers me. I realise that the categories should only be used as guides but if they are out there and become part of the business norm then there is every chance of people taking them too seriously and letting them become the sole guide of the decision making process. But perhaps that is just my personality type makings a stand.

Some random thoughts that crossed my mind during the class......
- In a workplace personality types should be known to make dealing with each other easier (it probably will never happen as it will just become another label and path to discriminate).
- If I need to find another house mate, or try my hand at speed dating, I'll include the Myers-Briggs test, just to make it interesting.
- Team building by statistics seems to be taking place in the now Brad Pitt movie, Moneyball.
- My two favorite teams were created due to horrible circumstances. The enigma crackers and the Manhattan Project.
- I wonder if anyone has looked at the structure of the Circus from Le Carre's Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy and personality types of it's members.
- Though there is not a hint of team work the personality types of the characters in I, Claudius would be very interesting. Though historical and cultural differences would probably mean that the the personailty types are completely redundant.

Week 5 - Professional Societies and Professional Indemnity/Risk Management

Class Date: Thursday, 18th August, 2011

It was a very busy class today. Prof. Shortis gave the floor across to four groups of guest speakers. In the first hour representatives of three professional societies hopped up to sell their wares to us. First off was RICS. I was aware of them from an event at Melbourne University that I attended in my first year. I am also on their emailing list. I've even taken advantage of their international scope. I was curious about gaining work in Japan so I looked up their Japanese representative and sent him an email. I got a very informative reply. So the international reach of the group was already an attraction for me. Previously I thought that if I end up a cadastral surveyor then I will attempt to becomea member but I'm now unsure. I can see how it would suit the career aims of some people but would be unnecessary for others.
The SSSI was next. The role of the SSSI as a multi-discipline body was the great selling point for me. They pointed out that the boundaries between the different disciplines in the geospatial industries are disappearing. By having one group provide information and services for members of the broader geospatial community then there will be a cross pollination of ideas. The threat of becoming stagnant is decreased. I was impressed that SSSI allows membership to all people in the field, not just those with qualifications. In the past this allowed me to attend some events put on by the Young Professionals group while I was working and before I had decided to persue a career in surveying.
Mr. Scott Jukes was the representative for ISV. For me his major point was that the support and the options that these groups provide can assist you in developing your career. If you already have a notion of where you want to be in 5 or 10 years then you can be put in contact with people who can assist you in reaching that position. If you are unsure of your future then there is a possibility that a germ of an idea might nestle in the mind when attending an expo, chatting with a colleague at an industry event or while reading one of their publications.
All three groups have their own purposes and aim to act as advocates for their members. All have worthy roles in the geospatial community. I just wonder which ones I'll be a member of in 5 years’ time.
The second hour was filled by Ian Marler who is the director and chairman of Acsis. They provide insurance for surveying and spatial information industry. His talk looked at risk management and how it relates to professional indemnity. His talk was the rare trifecta of being interesting, informative and entertaining. I especially enjoyed his straightforwardness in regards to the errors we shall all make in the future and the consequences of not picking them up.  His speech really reaffirmed the need to check and recheck work. He also stated clearly there is an expectation to get everything 100% right 100% of the time. And even if something does go wrong and you have not got anything to do with it you might get sued anyway. What fine times we live in.  So it is best to keep this as unlikely as possible by managing your risk and having good in house quality management.

Week 4 - Quality Management

Class Date: Thursday, 11th August, 2011

This weeks class provided us with an introduction to quality management. This is an area that I use to have an aversion to due to being told that becoming a consultant/analyst was the most likely career for me when I was studying philosophy. The idea of constantly reviewing business structure and management was not at all appealing, and definitely not exciting. But now I am more orderly (perhaps just older) and I've also had the experience of working for an employer who placed great emphasis on quality management. I saw the results gained from a well considered and constantly evolving system. It was not based on a model like Sigma Six of TQM but rather one refined from experience. So I can now see the importance of quality management. Rarely do works of a consistent quality just appear due to just doing the work. But the system being instigated must be sincerely followed. Merely stating that you are certified in an attempt to garner trust and business defeats the whole purpose of quality management.

From the lecture I found the best advice on the first slide: say what you do; do what you say; prove it; improve it. To me the rest appears to be details. The case study we looked at showed just how many details can be included. And with a group like RMIT it seems that there is a constant requirement, as well as need, to constantly review different aspects of the institution. 

There is also the chance that some organisations might become too transfixed on quality management and the process ends up degrading instead of improving the business. Something similar to the bureaucratic dystopia of Terry Gilliam's Brazil.  And then there is the question of who reviews the reviewers?  On and on it goes. A rabbit hole that I hope I never have to venture too far down.