From grade school to higher education, business and engineering an treated as separate subjects. In general, they are separate because “business people don’t need to know engineering concepts and engineers should just focus on engineering”, right? This is a typical argument for separation of duties – why do people need to know how the other thing works if they can be really good at one thing?

In the real world, we see business and engineering become increasingly intertwined as problems become complex. Realistically, these two subjects are extremely reliant on each other because people are complex. From a corporate perspective, engineering needs to be funded and business doesn’t happen unless there is some (typically engineered in some way) product to exchange. In every case, people are consumers of these types of transactions. Corporate organizational structures assign eccentric titles and positions, divide departments, and restructure responsibilities in an attempt to make sense of these complex systems; however, there is a common denominator in every case: business and engineering are treated as separate entities until it really matters to treat them as one.

Why treat them as one? To build better engineering leaders.

Here’s a (quick and extremely simplified) thought experiment. Assume a company focused on selling some engineered product is looking for a 1:X ratio of manager to direct reports. If X is 19, that means 5% (1/20) of the company is someone with decision making power. If X is 9, then 10% (1/10) of the company has direct reports. If X is 6, then 14% (1/7). Even with bigger teams under a single manager, think about 5% (1/20) of the entire company being someone leading other people with the ability to influence the morale* of every person they manage. With a wagon wheel structure, this could affect everyone they work with. With great power comes great responsibility (^insert more cheesy lines here^). Really, the point of this is a couple bad managers could tarnish company reputation while making employees feel overworked and underappreciated. On the other hand, a couple great managers could have a really wonderful impact on a majority of the company! Here’s where things start looking up!

Engineering leaders should prioritize strong business practices to filter out unnecessary drama and “people problems”, while motivating their teams by sharing high-level project updates and future plans. Sharing strategies with the team ahead of time can spark excitement about the future, giving them a clear sense of purpose and the ‘why’ behind the work. Dumping a pile of work that needs to be completed “as soon as possible” damages morale and consistently chips away at respect for the program they manage and the team as a whole. Regardless of pressure to deliver, engineering leaders should abstract unnecessary drama away from reaching their teams.

How do we accomplish this? We teach business and engineering as a co-dependent, interdisciplinary system. More on this next week!

* Substitute “morale” with “output”, “productivity”, “personal fulfillment”, “disposition”, “salary”. Anything that can affect people, you name it!