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Join the dots

I

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of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.

was asked to help facilitate a meeting

of 40 members at IChemEs London
office in March and it proved a
fascinating and valuable exchange.
Boiled down to its bare bones, the
mission for the day was essentially twofold:
break out into small groups to suggest
possible opportunities and actions for
IChemE in the areas of energy; food &
drink; water; and health & wellbeing (the
four vistas in IChemEs strategy document
Chemical Engineering Matters). And
secondly, come up with a short punchy
mission statement that conveys to the
layman why they should sit up and take
notice of chemical engineers for each of
the four topics above and a selection of
themes that cut across them (including
process safety; education, training & skills;
research; and external engagement).
The sessions were intense, as a mixing
pot of members gathered together from
different disciplines and sectors, put
forward ideas and through constructive
debate worked to arrive at a shared set of
prioritised actions.
Prioritisation lay at the heart of the
exercise, Jon-Paul Sherlock, Chemical
Engineering Matters Council Champion
and Judith Hackitt IChemE president
explained in their remarks to the group.
Chemical Engineering Matters provides a
foundation for everything IChemE does but
with such a breadth of opportunity due to
the vast array of areas touched by chemical
engineering its essential that IChemE
prioritises its activities to ensure it does not
over commit, under deliver and damage its
reputation.
To this end, we used dotmocracy (a
clumsy portmanteau, but an elegant
method) to gauge the levels of support for
each statement created.
For example, the group of ten members
focussed on the energy topic proposed that
IChemE needs to bring together member
expertise by combining special interest
groups currently working as closed shops
in the fields of nuclear, energy conversion,
oil & gas and so on, into a pan-SIG Energy
Centre.
The statement was written on a sheet
and all 40 attendees then added a dot to
indicate the strength of their support for
the idea. In this case, 79% either strongly
agreed or agreed while the remainder
were neutral. During lunch and coffee

We save lives as chemical

engineers our goal is to never
put anyone in harms way as
a result of the processes we
design and operate.
breaks, attendees took time to read each
of the dozens of statements written
on dotmocracy sheets pinned to the
walls around the meeting rooms, and
anonymously dot their vote. IChemEs
policy team is now collating the results into
a report for Council. Plans are being made
to run similar sessions at other events
around the world.
The wordsmith in me was especially
fascinated watching chemical engineers
trying to concisely define for the public and
policymakers why they matter.
I think the one created for process safety
is strong: We save lives as chemical
engineers our goal is to never put anyone in
harms way as a result of the processes we
design and operate.
Its not perfect because the man on
the street and I speak from experience,
thinking back to before I applied to work
at IChemE will immediately ask: whats a
process?
The goal here, surely is to spark interest
in the claim made, and not a furrowed
brow followed by a request for you to
explain the words and terms youve used.
One of my favourites, though its
purposely over-simplistic, is the tonguein-cheek definition for health & wellbeing:
Making better stuff from ordinary stuff
without making bad stuff.
So heres a challenge from me to you and
your colleagues one for a coffee break
or team meeting perhaps: pick one of the
eight topics discussed above and in fewer
than 75 no-nonsense words explain why
we are here, why we matter and why people
should sit up and take notice. Send your
answers to aduckett@icheme.org. tce

Adam Duckett
Editor, tce

april 2014

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