[ChrisH]

One of the great moments of the BeachBots happened in a design review meeting. We were running over the list of requirements as a group and checking off which were high, low, and no priority.

All of a sudden there's this voice from the back of the room, "Excuse me, but I don't hear any students saying anything". It was the young lady who was student lead for the electrical team, and she was right. So we went back over the whole list, this time the engineers could only answer questions and the students did the ranking. There were only a couple of minor differences in the list as a result, but a major change in attitude.

Notice: she made this challenge in a polite and respectful way (or was it Graciously Professional?). She was also an experienced member of the team and therefore had credibility.

There is a need for the students to keep us engineers in line. We tend to get wrapped up in the technical details and ignore the people issues until things explode, and then we wonder what happened. It isn't because we're mean, sometimes we're just clueless.

Kind of like giving a colorblind person a pile of blue and green socks to wear and expecting him to come up with a matching pair. Can he do it?, generally if he's paying attention and looking closely. But probably not if he's just throwing stuff on because he woke up half an hour late. Because differences that are obvious to a person who sees in color are not obvious to him, he isn't equiped that way. ( A color blind co-worker of mine did this regularly. )

SO if you don't like the way things are going, speak up. Do it politely, and in a non-threatening way, be obviously trying to help. Mention the PROBLEM in a general way, don't talk about the PERSON, at least not at the first go.

For further guidance I suggest the book of Matthew, Chapter 18.