When you think about resilience, what comes to mind? This question was posed by Jim Boire to those who came to hear his presentation, “Resilience in Design — Begin with the End in Mind.”
Engineers, he said, often think of a formula when they consider resilience. How can something be made stronger? But what about the people you work with? He encourages engineers to consider them as a source of resilience. This matters when working on projects, which bring together a group of people—each with their own personality type, skills, experience, and preferences—to work well together so they can be effective and deliver a result.
The lesson of resilience coming from those you work with was reinforced for him during the pandemic. He was leading a team working on a project that developed an emergency use ventilator that was certified by Health Canada and sold to the province of Saskatchewan.
Before he got into the details about that project, as well as another that developed a wall manufacturing system used in modular construction of multi-story buildings, he explained more about how he approaches leadership and his team through his company in Saskatoon.
Boire is the President and Founder of RMD Engineering. He began his career by becoming a journeyman machinist before earning his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan. Since 2017, he has been a Project Management Professional (PMP). He also founded the company One Health Medical Technologies, which is certified as Saskatchewan’s only medical device manufacturer. He is currently registered as a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan.
The theme of Boire’s presentation came from Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Habit two is “Begin with the end in mind.” As part of that habit, Covey encourages readers to envision what they want for themselves in the future.
Developing a personal mission statement is recommended by Covey and matters to the team at RMD. Boire shared his own, which is: “To spend life learning the best way to support and mentor those in my circle of influence in a way that provides the best opportunity for them to create the biggest impact possible with values that improve our world. I will do this by continuously improving my knowledge and practice in servant leadership.”
Another habit from that book is “Sharpen the saw.” Boire said that means individuals must take care of themselves. Find ways to restore your resources, energy, and health to be resilient.
Boire embraces learning about people and their personality types. He has learned a lot about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator system. With it, individuals create personal inventories that help identify their strengths, weaknesses, and preferences.
While RMD chose the Myers-Briggs system, Boire pointed to many other personality type systems that can be used. The key takeaway about these systems, he said, is that when a person is forced to use a style over time that does not align with their preferences, they will burn out.
Boire said his own personality type is ENFP, which indicates he has extraverted, intuitive, feeling, and prospecting traits. At another point in his presentation, he said he “loves living in the realm of possibilities.” He gains energy by interacting with people and willingly shares personal information about himself. His own personal hell would be having to work through a prescribed list of tasks on his own.
Boire introduced Myers-Briggs training at RMD, bringing in Bruno Konecsni and Rita Priestley to deliver training to his team. A valuable piece of advice he gained from Konecsni about leadership is that a leader needs three things:
- Know yourself very well.
- Know the people you work with.
- Know your stuff.
At work, we tend to talk to other people who are like us. To be resilient as an organization, Boire said everyone needs to be engaged and involved to get the best out of everyone. Working in a group means embracing differences.
This includes discovering and appreciating differences in communication. People are more likely to be open to hearing what you have to say if you approach them in a way they appreciate, Boire said.
Working with others in an open, honest, and respectful atmosphere where individuals listen to understand and then talk can yield strong relationships. When people can talk, work, and react in a safe way at work because they trust it won’t get used against them, an incredible work environment can be created. He shared what those at RMD view as excellence: “We believe excellence is achieved when our environment of extraordinary trust and successful relationships is built through open, honest, and respectful communication, resulting in effective collaboration.”
Boire explained how the ventilator project came to be during the pandemic. His daughter is a nurse who works in a Saskatoon hospital. She shared with him that more ventilators were going to be needed. That was the end they had in mind when starting the project.
Understanding how that piece of equipment works as well as the regulatory requirements involved was just the beginning. Gathering the knowledge needed to advance the project required bringing together several people who each offered their own expertise. Some were external to the company, and some were employees. While there were engineers working on the project, others were also involved, including a respiratory therapist, computer programmer, and a machinist.
Maintaining respect between one another was crucial, especially when they were trying to simplify the design, which is challenging. They wanted to keep the number of components to a minimum and be able to manufacture everything in-house.
In days, they were able to produce a working prototype. Perfecting it required precise adjustments, but that was accomplished as well. They focused on the two most important components of a volume-controlled ventilator—flow measurement and positive end expiratory pressure. There was a lot of detailed testing of the components, including the flow meter and the variable orifice flap disc. By December 30, 2020, they had received medical device ISO certification for the U.S. and Canada.
RMD was able to do what typically takes an experienced company three years to accomplish. What was learned from the project can be applied to help medical professionals treat patients with other lung conditions.
The other project Boire described involved manufacturing wall panels used in modular construction. This project required developing equipment to be used in a facility where the manufacturing would take place and having tradespeople apply their skills in new ways. It meant adhering to strict dimensions and consistent production that was better and faster. Again, the success of this project was due to the people involved trusting one another and contributing towards achieving an impact through their work.
