Beyond the Codes: Repositioning Towards a Sustainable Development

by Engr. Nimot Muili MSC; MNSE,

Civil Infrastructures EngineerLead Auditor - Quality Management System ISO 9001: 2008

Chairman, Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria, Lagos Chapter (APWEN Lagos)

* INTRODUCTIONS &DEFINITIONS

* WHERE WE ARE

* THE NEED

* REQUIRED KEY FACTORS

* CHALLENGES

* BASIC COMMUNICATION CHANNEL

* FACTS

* SOLUTION

* CONCLUSION

CONTENT

INTRODUCTIONS & DEFINITIONAccording to International Institute of Sustainable Development, IISD,

"SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT in a simple term means development that

meets the NEEDS OF THE PRESENT without compromising the ability of

FUTURE GENERATIONS to meet their own needs.

NEED - Necessity or Obligation

FUTURE - Time regarded as still to come.

Why are these terms important to us as Female

Child, Mothers, Wives . . . and Professionals

INTRODUCTIONS & DEFINITIONAs Professionals we support families (directly & Indirectly) by cooperating with

others (Professionals & Non Professionals) to

- Earn Wages

- Preserve Professional & Traditional knowledge

- Maintain Biodiversity,

- Ensure Household Food security

- and Maintain Nutritional Needs & Balance

As engineers and project managers we are involved in one or more of the following

project management phases either as Team Leads or Team Member

Initiation

Planning

Execution

Monitoring / Control

Closing

Women are just under half of the general workforce in the various industries . . . Yet the custodian of the future

THE NEED TO REPOSITION. . .

REQUIRED KEY FACTORSAs professionals, strategy for sustainable development involves bringing existing initiatives

closer to an effective strategy, a vision and set of co-coordinated mechanisms and

processes to improve their complementarity, smooth out inconsistencies, and fill gaps when

needed. These includes :

• People-centered: To ensure long-term beneficial impacts on all

• Long-term vision with a clear timeframe

• Cost / Budgetary priorities: to ensure that plans have the financial resources to achieve

the desire objectives

• Effective participation. to open up debate to new ideas and sources of information;

expose issues that need to be addressed; enable problems, needs and preferences to be

expressed; identify the capabilities required to address them; and develop a consensus

on the need for action that leads to better implementation.

• commitment and influential attitude

• Develop and build on existing capacity

• Strategize to expand your network

CHALLENGES• Lack of Confidence – sometimes we don't always believe

that we have something of value to say or that we deserve

to be taken seriously.

• Appearance (women tend to be judged far more harshly for wardrobe

malfunctions than men), these include

* Clothing

* Make-up

* Composure

* Physical appearance - Body Size , Facial Look, Dressing, Hair Style

* Voice - A soft or high-pitched voice could be a challenge. As women,

we are associated with soft voice naturally which is sometimes

associated with timidness or lack of assurance. A soft voice can also

make it difficult for the audience to hear, which then makes it

challenging for them to stay engaged.

• Lack Collaboration / Cooperation (Internal & external)

CHALLENGESOne of the major challenges of sustainable development is

Ineffective Communication

o Information overload – No Assessment & Evaluation

o not readily available / Affordability

o hard to evaluate

o not output-oriented enough

o lack the necessary knowledge and skills for strategic communication

o Focus on convincing people individually while their social sphere is not analyzed

o Communication is an end-of-pipe activity, isolated from the rest of a project

o Content and message are secondary and cannot answer “why” or “what” questions

o Target Audience Uncategorized

o Irrelevancy – unfiltered Information

o Inappropriate Medium

o Lack of effective Policies, Procedure and / or Technology

BASIC COMMUNICATION COMPONENTThe four (4) basic requirements

• Sender - Source (where the message originates)

• The Message

• Transmitter /+ Transmission Medium (device used to transmit

the message)

• Receiver / Destination - (Medium used to receive the message /

will be placed)

SenderReceiverMedium

Message

COMMUNICATION CHANNELTo promote good Information Exchange, there is need to establish efficient

communication and promote REGULAR FEEDBACK ANALYSIS

FACTS

Its no news that the world is now a global village . . . . Yes

BUT how well are we connected? How close are We?

The fact is that Information and development are like Siamese twins.

FACTS

For Nigeria the trend shows that Mobile

Communication Channels is common and

growing to become the default communication

channel. These mobile devices affords the

owner the option of VOICE, VIDEO AND

DATA communication all in one.

SOLUTIONS

• Self-Confidence and assertiveness – This is a long term endeavor.

* Visualize yourself feeling confident and recognized, by reading your

stakeholders reactions, that you are indeed adding value

* Know something about your meeting(s) / projects and take time to be

extremely well prepared

* anticipate what questions , problems and approach to

answering and solving them

• Appearance - Focus, Smile, Show Commitment and embracing

strategies that will make it happen

• Be discipline – Promote What You do & What You Plan to Do

Remember - No fine work can be done without concentration

and self-sacrifice and toil and doubt. ” — Max Beerbohm

SOLUTION

• Leadership – Lead by Action

• Collaboration – Show concern

• Innovate - to make impact, Efficient, Quality & Affordability

• Promote Effective Advocacy Programme

• Show Responsibility & Cooperation

• Take Up New Challenges - Explore new grounds, Be open to

meet new challenges

• Access & Evaluate New Technological requirements

SOLUTIONEffective Communication should be concise and straight forward,

effective & affordable on the go to :

• supports effective participation and decision making

• Communication is a crucial strategy

• Improve management tool

• Conflict resolution

• management knowledge and information systems

• helps balancing top-down and bottom-up approaches

• Monitoring & Evaluation of long-term vision

• building alliances for goal- and actions

• setting priorities

• logical consistency in unfolding plans

• Powerful elements for strategy

• managing activities, budgets and human resources systematically

Summary• Have a strategic plan

• Collaborate with others

• Be open to new challenges

• Establish Effective Communication

• Evaluate your targeted audience

• Define your challenges - Technological as well as

personal

• Set realistic expectation - Perfection is achieved with

continuous practice

• Keep your eye on your set goals

• Carry out continuous appraisal

Remember . . .

• Said is not yet heard

• Heard is not yet understood

• Understood is not yet approved

• And approved is not yet done

All hand must be on deck to achieve a Sustainable

Environment . . . It begins with YOU, spread the

news.

Together we can make it happen

COMMENTS / QUESTIONS

MY CONTACT

nimot.muili@hotmail.com

lagosapwen@yahoo.co.uk