Brian Wagner, PE, Author at Dabldo

Leverage Your Quality System to Combat Burnout

Leave a Comment / Leadership, Quality Management

I was concerned about where the civil engineering industry was in March 2020 as shutdowns and emergency directives from the government sought to limit the spread of COVID-19. My mind reverted to the housing bubble pop of 2008. I remember the lack of development engineering work that was experienced, lasting well after the initial collapse. Yet as we move toward two full years of a pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 800,000 Americans*, the engineering and construction industries are strong and growing. For many, 2021 proved to be a year of challenges to deliver the work on time to clients. Keep in mind, that as workload increases, so does the possibility of employee burnout.

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Leverage Your Quality System to Combat Burnout Read More »

4 Great Traits My Kids Remind Me to Embrace

Leave a Comment / Leadership

Learning new things can be hard in itself, let alone implementing new policies and guidelines in the workplace. I have the privilege of raising two wonderful children with my wife. My oldest is 9* and she is showing what I believe is an engineering brain with her inquisitive and curious nature. My youngest is 6* and he constantly seeks our approval in both doing what is right and letting him do things to help around the house. After spending a wonderful long holiday weekend with my family, during a bit of a time of reflection, I realized four traits that my children show over and over again in their daily routines and they are things that we, as adults, can learn from. Let me describe how my kids reminded me how important perseverance, patience, asking questions, and trying are to our success in life.

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4 Great Traits My Kids Remind Me to Embrace Read More »

A 5 part Framework for GREAT Quality Deliverables

Todd Burrier: How His 3 Circles Changed My Life

Leave a Comment / Leadership

In the fall of 2018, I began Leadership Carroll, a professional learning course provided by the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce. The first two days of the course are at a retreat focused on team building and personal development as a leader. The second day of the workshop-style sessions literally changed my life forever: Because was introduced to Mr. Todd Burrier.

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Todd Burrier: How His 3 Circles Changed My Life Read More »

Three Simple ways Your ISO 9001 Certification is Falling Short

Leave a Comment / Engineering, Quality Management

The International Organization for Standardization known as ISO has a family of quality management systems (QMS). The set of standards is known as ISO 9000 series and we are specifically talking about ISO 9001:2015. This standard specifies requirements for an organization’s QMS. Certification requires the candidate company to demonstrate its ability to provide consistent services to meet client requirements and is designed to enhance the customer experience.

ISO 9001 is used by more than one million companies in more than 170 countries around the world. These range from manufacturing, pharmaceutical, construction, and civil engineering firms among many others. Having experience working for civil engineering firms both under the guidelines of ISO 9001 and without it, I offer my take on how your certification may be falling short for you and your clients.

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Three Simple ways Your ISO 9001 Certification is Falling Short Read More »

The Challenges of Waiting on Your PE Exam Results

How Does Your Team Compare to Cookies?

Leave a Comment / Leadership

With the holidays just around the corner, I look forward every year to making cookies with my children. I am normally responsible for the chocolate chip cookies while my wife and her siblings handled the sugar cookie creations.

If you know me and have spent time with me, especially working with me, you will know that my mind flows in a million different directions at any given time. It is no different when doing things around the house including baking cookies. When making cookies last year, I noticed the various ingredients spread across the kitchen counter, ready to be mixed for the next batch of batter when I literally thought, “is the team of people I work with like a cookie?” In that moment, I began to want the team I work on to be a cookie.

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How Does Your Team Compare to Cookies?Read More »

How Does Your Team Compare to Cookies? Read More »

The 3 Types of People Exceptional Leaders Embrace

Leave a Comment / Leadership

Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of working directly with hundreds of people and indirectly acquainted with thousands. I have had the opportunity to learn from a diverse variety of managers and leaders in several different organizations. The end result is the development of a concept that considers the similarities and differences of human personality. It further challenges each employee and manager to be a STAR.

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The 3 Types of People Exceptional Leaders Embrace Read More »