NCSEA Summit: The Diversity Imperative
By Jordan Terry, SEAU Board Member
As the NCSEA delegate for the Structural Engineers Association of Utah, I had the privilege of attending the NCSEA Summit this year in Anaheim, CA to share ideas and learn from other Structural Engineering Associations throughout the country.
A welcome surprise came when I registered for the conference and noticed that two of the most impactful mentors in my career would attend as keynote speakers (John Gavan and Dani Paxton). Their message was regarding the imperative for leaders in our industry and organizations to develop a diverse talent. Their discussion focused on the need to think differently about the way we develop, coach, and mentor our future leaders.
It’s natural for those in leadership to see themselves in people with a similar background. Leaders often advocate for people who look, act, and have similar strengths as themselves. After all, these are the qualities that got them into the leadership position in the first place. The reverse is also true. It can be tough to see a path to leadership when everyone above you on the org chart has similar life experiences that don’t look anything like your own. In this way, our talent pipeline becomes somewhat of a self-reinforcing feedback loop.
“If You Always Do What You’ve Always Done, You’ll Always Get What You’ve Always Got.” – Henry Ford
Diverse teams foster innovation and allow for better decision making by reducing the tendency towards “groupthink” and “inbred ideas”. Tapping into a broader talent pool also provides a competitive advantage by discovering talent in a tight labor market. Mark Cubin summed it up best when he posted on X, “Good businesses look where others don't, to find the employees that will put your business in the best possible position to succeed.”
Here in Utah, organizations such as the ACE Mentor Program and NOMA Utah’s Project Pipeline have done excellent work in introducing and attracting young students into the AEC industry, which is an important part of building our talent pipeline. The next segment of the talent pipeline requires attention to what the SE3 committee identified as the career advancement gap. Once we’ve recruited a young, hungry, diverse talent group to the AEC industry, the onus is on firm leaders to provide the coaching and encouragement to support our people throughout the arc of their careers. To create a team of the most talented structural engineers, we must be intentional about looking outside our own biases to identify future leaders whose life experiences don’t mirror our own, encourage them, inspire them, and equip them with the tools to lead.
“People who make major strides are rarely freaks of nature. They're usually freaks of nurture” – Adam Grant (Hidden Potential).
