2 Effecting Global Change

Heavenly Father’s children are blessed by sustainable built environments. But changing our society and cultures to emphasize sustainability is not easy, particularly not on a global level. In this chapter, we will study how elements of teamwork and leadership can help amplify our ability to effect change in the world around us.

2.1 Self-awareness

Getting through life is easier when we have a good understanding of our own strengths and weaknesses. We can recognize our weaknesses and get help from others – including Christ through the Atonement – to augment our own natural abilities.

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. – Ether 12:27

The Johari Window is a tool developed by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham to help therapists explore issues related to self-awareness and internal conflict. Pictured in Figure 2.1, it is based on attributes of our inner selves that are known or unknown to us, or that are known and unknown by other. The arena is the parts of ourself that we know, and that others are able to see and understand. Attributes that are obvious to others but not to ourselves create blind spots, potential pitfalls in our relationships with others. Attributes of ourselves that we know but don’t want to reveal to others are in the facade, or a construct we show the world while living with some conflict about it. And then there is the unkown, elements of ourselves we have yet to discover.

In general, the more parts of ourselves that are in the arena, the more dynamic and effective our relationships with others will be.

Think

What facade are you building, or attributes about yourself you feel you have to keep unknown from others? What can you do to move these attributes into the “arena”? What is keeping you from doing this?

The Swiss psychologist and philosopher Carl Jung developed a hypothesis that people experience the world through four psychological dimensions: 1. sensation 2. intuition 3. feeling 4. thinking

In work heavily based on Jung’s theory, Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers developed a classification scheme originally released in the 1960’s and refined in subsequent decades. The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator relies on dichotomies on four dimensions:

Extroversion or Introversion – where the focus of our attention is, and where we derive energy to acommplish work.
Sensing or iNtuition – how we take in information about the world around us.
Thinking or Feeling – the way we make decisions about what to do.
Judging or Perceiving – how we approach the work we do.

It is important to understand that the terms applied to these dimensions are not necessarily used in the same way we use them in common speech: A Judging person in the Meyers-Briggs dichotomy is not necessarily more judgmental, but rather they approach their tasks with judiciousness, and an Introverted person is not necessarily shy but rather derives energy from individual thought instead of engagement with others.

The combination of the four dichotomies leads to a classification scheme of 16 personality types; an introverted, intuitive, thinking, and perceiving person would be called INTP. These dimensions are also spectrums, and many people are not entirely one or the other. In fact, data from Meyers-Briggs tests themselves show that along these spectrums the distribution of the population is largely normal, and not bimodal as might be expected were these true dichotomies.

Many people believe that Meyers-Briggs types can help people choose professions that best match their personalities, but in truth almost any personality type can be successful in almost any profession. And teams with multiple personality types are stronger, provided that the differences in individual world view do not create conflict that distracts the team from its goals.

Caution

Numerous scientific approaches have challenged different aspects of the validity of the Meyers-Briggs indicators. But they do introduce a method for talking about diversity in teams. If they are useful to you, then use them. If they don’t help you see yourself better, feel free to ignore them.

2.2 Goal-oriented teamwork

A team is a small group of people committed to a shared purpose. The members of a team have complimentary skills, mutual and individual accountability, and work both interactively and independently. When teams are successful, they accomplish considerably more work — and work with greater impact — than the members of the team could possibly accomplish individually.

The opening lines of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina are as follows:

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Though all families are different, happy families are universally committed to kindness and respect, and honor their covenants with each other. Teams are much the same way; well-performing teams all share some similar characteristics. These teams:

Have a clear and shared vision. This includes refocusing the initial vision when new problems arise.
Establish a collaborative and inclusive environment, where all the viewpoints of team members are considered and valued.
Clearly communicate with one another.
Set goals, planning tasks as stepping stones to meet them.
Divide and conquer according to strengths and weaknesses. Assign team roles based on individual strengths. Of course, developing new individual strengths and talents is often a goal of teamwork.
Build awareness of each team member’s roles. This requires good communication, but it also helps the team develop respect for all its members.
Celebrate successes.

When a team is created, the team goes through stages of development. Tuckman (1965) identified 5 stages, illustrated in Figure 2.2. In the forming stage, the team is just getting to understand each other and their objectives. This can immediately lead to storming, or the rise of conflict as the team has disagreements about what their goals are. Unsuccessful teams never pass this point, but successful ones establish standards for performance and accountability, a process called norming. Finally, the team reaches its performing output before disbanding.

Scheduling and task-focused teamwork is crucial to successful teams. Mapping out and scheduling benchmarks helps keep everyone on the team accountable and unified. In order to achieve a large goal, smaller goals are made. These goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. Each team member should be aware of the deadlines. By scheduling tasks the team is oriented toward a common goal. Many teams benefit from using some kind of formal project management system. These may include:

To do lists.
Kanban boards: these boards map out multiple tasks or ideas through all stages of development, from instigation to completion. Refer to the example of a construction project board Figure 2.3.
Task and team management software like Asana or Wrike or even GitHub helps keep team members abreast of what needs to be done, make assignments, and track task completion. These software usually place to-do lists or kanban boards alongside communication or time tracking features.

Figure 2.3: Construction Project Kanban board

Note

The best task management strategy is the one that you will use.

2.3 Performance Indicators and Feedback

Individuals and teams would obviously like to perform at their best. But what is the best? Who decides what good performance entails? What can a team do to learn whether their performance is at the level they want? It is important thefore for teams to define Key Performance Indicators and receive other forms of feedback.

The goal of a sports team is generally to win games, and thereby championships. Easy! But how a team approaches this overarching goal requires more fine-tuned attention. Does offense or defense win the most games? Who knows? We’ll be fighting about this for the rest of time. But successful teams generally track performance along a more specific, quantifiable set of performance indicators that lead to the goal.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (see Section 1.3) are lofty, general goals akin like “end poverty in all its forms everywhere.” This is a goal similar to “win games.” But progress toward these goals are tracked with specific indicators, such as “the proportion of people living on less than $2.15 per day.” We can continue this exercise:

Goal: Get an A in this class.
- Indicator: Complete each pre-class assignment and submit each homework assignment on time.
Goal: Complete the term project on schedule.
- Indicator: The number of slides in a completed state at the end of each week.
Goal: Be a kinder person.
- Indicator: Number of days you have reflected in your journal on how you treated others.

A general strategy to developing KPI’s is:

Establish an objective: Define the goal that the KPI will measure.
Outline the criteria: Identify the data that will be used and ensure its integrity.
Choose a measurement methodology: find the right way to collect the information needed.
Define and document performance measures: Use KPIs to drive the right behaviors and activities to achieve better results.
Assign responsibilities for KPIs. Who will track the indicator and report on it?
Regularly evaluate progress toward goals through KPIs.

Caution

Of course, it is possible to become overly obsessed with indicators. Goodhart’s Law (see Figure 2.4) is often stated as

When a metric becomes a target, it ceases to be a good metric.

College entrance examinations like the ACT were originally designed to assess how well a student is prepared for college-level work. But with the weight assigned to your ACT score, you probably took preparation classes and practice tests designed to maximize your ACT score. So, now the ACT instead is a measurement of how well a student prepared to take the ACT.

Don’t mistake your KPI as a replacement for the actual goal! And if you are killing it on a KPI but you still haven’t reached your goal, reflect on whether you need a new KPI.

2.3.1 Feedback

Feedback is critical when using key performance indicators and working towards a goal. By creating specific KPIs, feedback comes more naturally. We can see if we are meeting the measurable indicators and adjust accordingly. Feedback does not just happen once, but should be planned for and recieved continuously (see Figure 2.5). A successful team plans how they seek and receive feedback within and outside of their team throughout all phases of project development.

Feedback can be informal. Text messages to a colleague who missed a meeting may help your team stay accountable to each other or reveal issues in your team cohesion. Short messages of support (“good job on this slide!”) can reinforce that the work is valued. Effective feedback is both kind and clear; it should be possible to both give and receive feedback that is rooted in performance and an understanding of each person’s humanity. Figure 2.6 provides a couple of models for this. The “feedback sandwich” suggests placing substantive and constructive criticism between a “bun” of positive elements:

I enjoyed your presentation; you might think about this other thing. I look forward to seeing what you do next.

It is also important to provide feedback on elements that the person can actually act on. Giving comments on a presenter’s accent is usually pretty useless to them (and to you).

Figure 2.6: Feedback models, including the feedback sandwich and observation, impact, suggestion.

Feedback can also be formal. Regularly scheduled performance reviews help employees know where they stand, how their work is valued, and what corrections they might be able to make. KPI’s are another form of formal feedback, with a documented process for collection and assessment.

Think

When I teach a class, I look at the students and get a feel for things based on informal cues like body language (how many people are asleep or on their computers). I also get formal feedback through student evaluations. Both help me! Sometimes they are confusingly in conflict!

You should provide student evaluations that can help your professors improve. But you should also think about the feedback you send informally.

2.4 Leadership

As students and professionals in the built environment, we possess the unique opportunity to quite literally build a better tomorrow. Rather than acting as passive agents to the–sometimes harmful–trends of our society, you can actively participate in fostering sustainable and resilient communities here and across the globe by taking ownership of your involvement in the process. Doing this requires strong leadership, including a listening ear, advocacy, and accountability.

Leadership in the context of civil engineering and construction management refers to the ability to guide, influence, and inspire a team towards achieving a common goal. In these fields, leadership is not just about managing tasks and ensuring timely project completion; it also encompasses ethical decision-making, problem-solving, and innovation. A leader in the built environment must balance technical expertise with interpersonal skills, ensuring that the technical, environmental, and social aspects of a project are harmoniously integrated.

Effective leaders are responsible for making critical decisions, resolving conflicts, and adapting to unexpected challenges, all of which are essential for a project’s smooth progression. Moreover, strong leaders foster a positive work environment, enhancing team morale and productivity. By providing clear direction and support, leaders help team members understand their roles, feel valued, and stay motivated. This is particularly important in these fields, where collaboration and communication are vital for coordinating complex tasks and ensuring safety. Ultimately, strong leadership in the built environment is the cornerstone of delivering successful projects that meet client expectations while sustainably contributing to societal development.

While quality leaders are essential in sustainable infrastructure, that leadership should extend beyond the narrow confines of our careers and into a plethora of other contexts in our personal lives. Whether you are navigating a group project for a college course, a church calling, relationships with family or friends, etc, leadership plays a prevalent role in how you thrive around others, and how they thrive around you.

2.4.1 Leading like Christ, Leading with Christ

Leadership in any capacity can be a daunting call. Luckily, the greatest leader in history is well-documented. Jesus Christ played, and continues to play, many roles for God’s children. John 14:6 teaches us that He is “the way, the truth, and the life,” demonstrating how we can return to our Father in Heaven. There are moments in the scriptures where the Lord directly tutors us on how to do something; for example, how to prepare and partake of the sacrament, how to pray to our Father, and how to repent. He demonstrated these important principles by way of explicit instruction. But let’s take a deeper look at what we learn about leadership from Christ’s own experiences.

We are invited to become like Him. While this may appear a daunting task–-and it is–-breaking down what that means at a more granular scale can help us discover which parts of us are on the right track, and which parts need extra help.

Jesus Christ built trust. Trust, like a covenant, works best as a two-way system. A good leader invests time and attention to build trust among those they work with. Your team should trust you, and you should be able to trust your team to accomplish appropriate tasks and hold one another accountable.

In Ether, we learn the story of the Brother of Jared and his family, who had to cross the ocean to reach the promised land. When the Brother of Jared asked a premortal Christ for help lighting their barges for the journey, the Lord exercised trust by encouraging him to find his own solution for Him to help with. He gave the Brother of Jared reason to trust Him based on past experiences (ex. warning his family of their civilization’s destruction, instructing them to build barges, providing a solution for air inside of them). The Brother of Jared gave the Lord reason to trust him by consistently seeking Him and following his instructions.

We can model similar trust in our personal and professional partnerships by:

Showing empathy for others’ concerns
Demonstrating reliability
Following through on our promises
Communicating our needs regulary

Jesus Christ delegated. Even the Son of God, who could have done it all, didn’t. He prioritized tasks and delegated them to others, like His 12 disciples. Delegation is directly linked to empowerment. A leader demonstrates trust in their team when they give them real responsibility, and the effect of that trust causes the team to feel like their contributions actually matter. It may be tempting to try to take on as many responsibilities as you can by yourself. Perhaps you fear you are the only one who can accomplish things the “right” way, or maybe you don’t want to burden others with additional tasks. However, this approach to teamwork can cause some serious burnout and organizational misalignment, which ultimately harms the team and project.

Instead, take a note from Christ, who regularly and intentionally relied on his disciples to aid in carrying out His ministry. He delegated teaching opportunities, the working of miracles, and performance of ordinances to these men. Though they were less qualified than the Savior, this delegation shaped them into better disciples, deepened their understanding of the work, and formed stronger bonds among their group. Sometimes they initially failed, but in that failing they also grew.

We can model Christlike delegation in our leadership efforts by:

Asking others for help
Organizing tasks according to team members’ strengths and opportunities
Checking in on progress and offering support along the way
Providing quality feedback and allowing iteration

Jesus Christ honored agency. Take the parable of the Prodigal Son, for example. The teachings in the parable of the Prodigal Son underscore the value of respecting individual agency by illustrating the father’s unconditional love and forgiveness. Even though the younger son chose to squander his inheritance and live recklessly, the father patiently awaited his return and welcomed him back with open arms. This act of forgiveness, without judgment or resentment, highlights the principle of honoring others’ choices and supporting their journey, regardless of the mistakes they may make along the way. By doing so, Christ demonstrates that true compassion involves respecting the agency of others and allowing them the space to learn and grow from their own experiences.

We can honor agency like Christ by:

Respecting the autonomy of others to make their own choices
Providing guidance and support without imposing overbearing control
Demonstrating patience and understanding
Encouraging personal growth through self-determined goals and constructive feedback

Jesus Christ listened. In 3 Nephi 17, after His resurrection, Christ visited the Nephites and perceived their need for healing and comfort. He responded to their needs by healing their sick and afflicted and blessing their children. This interaction shows His attentiveness to their physical and spiritual needs. These verses of scripture show the importance of both listening and discerning. The Savior discerned the feelings of the Nephites through their nonverbal communication and through the Spirit. He also listened to their needs as they were expressed verbally. A good leader strives to do the same.

We can model Christlike listening by:

Being fully present
Asking meaningful questions
Paying attention to verbal + nonverbal cues
Seeking the gift of discernment
Creating a safe space + validating others’ experiences

Jesus Christ sought revelation. When He spent 40 days in the wilderness prior to the Temptation, it is written that He fasted and prayed. A clear act of seeking revelation, this is one of many proofs that the Savior communicated regularly with God in order to be strengthened, receive guidance, and talk through His Plan together. We are instructed by Christ and prophets both ancient and modern to “pray always,” “ask…seek…knock,” and “counsel the Lord in all thy doings.” President Nelson has repeatedly emphasized the necessity of increasing our personal revelation, which is available to everyone. Just as Christ counseled with His Father in various circumstances, we should too. Personal revelation is not limited to obviously spiritual matters–God is eager to help His children make good decisions in every aspect of their lives.

We can model Christlike leadership through seeking revelation by:

Learning how the spirit speaks to us individually
Praying often
Listening often
Living in accordance with Gospel principles and commandments to remain worthy of the Gift of the Holy Ghost
Talking through our ideas with God and others

Think

Elder David A. Bednar describes the different ways personal revelation can come to us as patterns of light. Ponder which patterns of light you commonly experience and how you can seek personal revelation more diligently.

Remember, “it has never been more imperative to know how the Spirit speaks to you than right now…do whatever it takes to increase your spiritual capacity to receive personal revelation.” - President Russell M Nelson, 2020

We are invited to become like Him. In all the many forms that takes, we are never asked to do so alone. Just as important as it is to lead like Christ, a good leader understands how to lead with Christ. Regardless of where you stand on your personal covenant path, and regardless of the direction you may be facing, the Lord is anxious to provide you with the personal revelation required to help you succeed. He stands at the ready to join in the cocreation of our lives and the many small but meaningful opportunities that they are composed of. Leading with Christ requires discipline, meekness, eternal perspective, patience, and compassionate inclusivity.

2.4.2 Leadership Theories and Styles

Christ-centered leadership can be woven into a variety of established leadership styles (see Figure 2.7). While some are generally more effective than others, the right approach often depends on circumstance and team dynamics. Taking time to discover which style best aligns with a leader’s strengths and a team’s needs is invaluable in engaging in the development of quality work and innovation.

2.4.3 Key Leadership Skills

Every leader possesses strengths and weaknesses unique to them, regardless of the style in practice. It’s important to understand both so you can leverage your skills and avoid blindspots as you guide people and projects. There are a plethora of qualities and skills that build an effective leader, with some more universally applicable than others. Whether you’re the project manager of a major residential construction or are stepping up in a class project or church calling, the leadership mind map below offers some basic insights into the building blocks of great leadership in any context.

2.4.3.1 Diminishing vs Multiplying Leadership

When leading a group of people a leader can either diminish or multiply the efforts of those they are leading. Refer to the figure Figure 2.8 to see how a diminisher or multiplier would react in certain situations.

Figure 2.8: Diminishing vs Multiplying Leadership

Accidental Diminshing

Without intending, leaders can diminish those around them while trying to do good. Most dimishing is accidental. As we become aware of these accidental diminishing traits, we can consciously become multipliers. Refer to the two figures below produced by the Wiseman group. The Wiseman group has also created a quiz to identify which diminisher tendencies you have.

Figure 2.9: Accidental Diminisher Tendencies

Figure 2.10: Graph Showing Effect of Diminishers and Multipliers

As shown above in Figure 2.10, diminishers only get 1/2 of the true branpower of the people they lead. In contrast, multipliers access 2 times the brainpower of their teams.

2.5 Impact and Engagement

Social impact refers to the improvement of an individual and/or community’s well-being and ability to create productive lives for themselves. In the built environment, understanding and addressing social impact is crucial as these projects typically directly influence public safety, accessibility, economic development, and overall quality of life for residents. Prioritizing social impact ensures that projects are not only technically and economically viable but also beneficial to the community, promoting sustainable and inclusive growth that is backed by the people it most affects. While the process of engaging in effective social impact work may vary from profession to profession or stakeholder to stakeholder, a few key steps remain foundationally grounded across most approaches:

Understand the problem + its context: In order to help a person, you must first try to understand the challenge they face from their perspective. Building empathy and investing in a relationship with others is essential to finding the true roots of their problems. Not only that, but becoming familiar with the cultural context, historical background, and local nuances of the issue will aid in properly framing a problem in order to solve it sustainably. Discover what primarily contributes to the problem you’re solving for, and how those factors directly negatively impact your client(s). In the built environment, this can look like doing secondary research, chatting with an expert who has successfully completed similar work, or meeting with local people in person to talk through projects.

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Involve the people: A solution is only as useful as its users believe it to be. By engaging local people who are most proximate to the problem in every stage of your solution design process, you ensure that it is a solution that is desired, supported, and understood by its beneficiaries. Allowing them to participate in framing the problem, designing the solution, and providing feedback provides a sense of ownership and co-creation, rather than the crutch of dependency. Survey distribution, brainstorming workshops, town hall meetings, and other forms of feedback are all viable resources for engaging local stakeholders in built environment projects.
Design + Implement Solutions: Combining your deep understanding of the problem, industry best practices, and cultural/community responsiveness, you’re now equipped to design informed, supported, and practical solutions. This involves creating actionable plans and designs that address the identified needs and constraints while incorporating feedback from stakeholders. Implementing these solutions requires careful planning, resource allocation, and collaboration to ensure that the proposed interventions are effectively carried out and meet the intended goals. This phase is crucial as it transforms ideas into tangible outcomes that can directly impact the community. Project management tools and regular stakeholder meetings can be particularly useful in achieving success at this stage.
Measure + evaluate: We’ll rarely get an intervention right on the first try….often, it requires repeated iteration through continuous measurement and evaluation of its efficacy to enact real shifts for good. In the gospel of Jesus Christ, we believe in daily change and eternal progression. It’s no different in social impact work, as we recognize that people and problems are constantly evolving, and therefore the solutions will too. It’s important to collect real data regularly in order to inform the necessary pivots for truly improving quality of life. Both qualitative and quantitative data collection can provide valuable insights for solution improvement. The data captured in this phase of iteration depends on what information is deemed most valuable to understand in order to maintain and/or improve a given intervention. It is important to clearly map out the desired outcomes and impact you and the people you design with wish to accomplish, and establish a robust system to measure progress toward those end goals.

2.5.1 History of colonialism, development and aid

Our world’s history of colonialism has established deep-seated economic and development disparities across the globe. As world powers exploited resources and suppressed local economies, they damaged infrastructure and social systems. Efforts to remedy these disparities today often inadvertently exacerbate issues, as well-intentioned interventions can overlook local contexts and perpetuate dependency.

Let’s take a look at Haiti, for example. In 2010, an earthquake devastated the nation, which prompted an influx of international aid and development efforts. Despite the good intentions, these efforts led to the Haitian people’s increased dependency on external aid rather than sustainable development that would allow them to thrive in self-sufficient ways. Many large-scale foreign interventions bypassed local government and organizations, instead imposing external solutions that didn’t align with the local context. For instance, the influx of foreign food aid disrupted local agriculture markets, causing long-term harm to Haitian farmers who struggled to compete with the free or subsidized goods.

The disruption of local agriculture and economy due to foreign aid was a notable contributing factor to weakening the country’s ability to build a resilient and self-sufficient economy. As a result, many Haitians were left with limited opportunities for sustainable livelihoods, fostering economic frustration and social unrest. This economic instability, coupled with political corruption and weak institutions, has played a role in the pervasive violence and insecurity we see in Haiti today. The lack of effective, locally-driven development exacerbates existing social inequalities and creates an environment where criminal organizations can thrive. This further perpetuates the cycle of violence and instability.

There are hundreds of case studies just like this spread across history and throughout the world. It’s important to understand the root causes of what went wrong in order to be agents for real and sustainable change. Luckily, there are now a number of tools and frameworks available to guide our efforts to serve and collaborate with others.

2.5.2 Ambiguity

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a rumor circulating the mill that civil and construction engineers in development work adopt a one-track mindset, believing that all complexities can be resolved through technical precision alone. While this perspective can certainly serve as a strength, without balance it leads to unsustainable development that poses some serious unintended negative consequences. Not only that, but it excludes a whole gamut of good ideas that might be combined to serve a population better than one single solution. This is where ambiguity steps into the picture. The reality of ambiguity often feels uncomfortable to most, and students and professionals of the built environment are no exception. It is far more comfortable to follow a straight, well-lit, single track path with a clear destination than it is to bushwhack through a messy trail with many forks and no end in sight. Ambiguity can feel a lot like the latter. It may be tempting to navigate problems with a clear-cut, straightforward solution in mind from the start. Such an approach provides a sense of control and success that seems consistent throughout the entire process, from start to finish. However, creating space for ambiguity–or in other words, creating space for multiple ideas–is a gamechanger. And while it may initially feel more out of control than its clear-cut counterpart, it is the very space that serves as the birthplace of genius time and time again.

Throughout history, embracing ambiguity has led to some of the most innovative inventions we rely on today. For example, the invention of the Post-it Note by Arthur Fry came from a failed attempt to create a super-strong adhesive. Instead, Fry saw potential in the weak adhesive for a new kind of bookmark–one we use regularly today for many different purposes. Similarly, the pacemaker was invented by Wilson Greatbatch when he accidentally used the wrong type of resistor while building a heart rhythm recorder. This mistake revealed the potential for a life-saving device. The microwave oven was discovered by Percy Spencer when he noticed that radar waves melted the chocolate bar in his pocket, leading to a new way to cook food. Even our smartphones are an example of genius born of ambiguity! We started with radio communication for things like information-sharing and emergency services, and now we rely on our mobile devices for all of that and much, much more. We’ve combined cameras, libraries, newspapers, board games, radios, television, and even catching up with friends all into one tiny little pocket-sized box. This is the fruit of ambiguity over time.

It’s important to recognize that ambiguity is not objective. Rather, it is rooted in our individual contexts: our life experiences, personal histories, character and values. It’s okay to allow these contexts to influence our creativity on behalf of others, and to allow the same for those we work with. Doing so multiplies the genius and broadens our horizons of innovation and also empathy. Navigating ambiguity is a team sport. And knowing how to play it becomes particularly useful when a problem is handed to us that is not clear or static. The way we frame a problem influences the way we understand and consequently solve that problem. It’s like sticking a painting inside of a gold frame vs a black one. A different frame brings out different elements of the painting. > Blockquote “Knowing who I am informs what I want to change” - Lesley-Ann Noel, Designing Social Change

2.5.3 Tools for Social Impact

While all these considerations may seem hard to keep straight, there are many tools available to help us navigate ambiguity through simple yet thorough processes. Practices like the ones introduced below are just a handful of the tools available to guide you in your design process. Keep in mind that this introduction is not comprehensive, and these resources can be molded to suit your needs depending on the problem, project, and stakeholders. While they operate usefully on their own, you may consider combining some of their elements into hybrid models or adjusting them to fit your context more appropriately. These tools function to provide systematic, data-driven evaluations to aid in sustainable problem-solving.

Root cause analysis: A method used to identify the underlying causes of a problem or defect, rather than addressing its symptoms. This method involves gathering data, identifying possible causes, and verifying the root cause with evidence. This is shown in Figure 2.11.

Social impact cycle: An interdisciplinary framework used by BYU’s Ballard Center for Social Impact to create and measure sustainable social change. It emphasizes the importance of properly understanding a problem in order to minimize a solution’s unintended negative consequences, and highlights the need for community engagement and project evaluation.

Logic modeling: A visual representation that outlines the process of achieving a desired outcome by detailing inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes. To create one, identify resources, planned activities, expected results, and long-term impact goals.

Empathy mapping: A tool used to gain deeper insights into users or stakeholders by visualizing their experiences, needs, and emotions. To perform one, create a four-quadrant map labeled “Says,” “Thinks,” “Does,” and “Feels,” and populate each section with observations and insights about the target group. Empathy mapping is relevant to built environment projects as it helps understand the perspectives of diverse stakeholders, leading to more inclusive and user-centered design solutions.

Stakeholder mapping: Another way to think of stakeholders is as players in the game. These are all of the people your project touches. Mapping out stakeholders–and regularly updating that map–is essential in ensuring that the right people are involved at the right levels. It can be useful to delineate the “touch points” of your stakeholders, as shown in the graphic above. Stakeholder maps aid in organizing communications, resource allocation, risk management, community engagement, and strategic planning and evaluation, among other things.

Human-centered design: An approach to problem-solving that focuses on the needs, experiences, and perspectives of the people for whom solutions are being developed. It involves a process of empathizing with users, defining problems, ideating solutions, prototyping, and testing alongside the target user, and is often performed in workshop format.

Think

Consider this scenario: On a trip to rural Nepal, you notice that most of the village’s school-aged children are not attending school. This makes sense to you, as the nearest school building is several miles away. Your team decides that building a classroom closer to the village is the perfect solution to improving educational opportunities for this group of people. You build a school within walking distance of every child in the village, and visit again a few months later to see how they’re enjoying it. Upon your return, you find the classroom empty and the children just as they were the last time you visited: out of school.

What are some potential root causes of the problem that you failed to consider in your initial solution design? How could this have been avoided?

2.6 Ethics in Professional Leadership

Engineers and construction professionals occupy positions of trust in society. The general public expects infrastructure that is designed and constructed appropriately; they have to be confident that retaining walls will not collapse, or that water will not be poisoned, or any number of places where public safety depends on the built environment. Beyond this, the choices of what gets built, when it gets built, and who will benefit from it can benefit some and potentially harm others. And many projects are built with public funds. It is therefore essential that built environment professionals behave ethically in all circumstances.

The American Society of Civil Engineers and the Construction Management Association of America each have professional codes of ethics that their members are expected to follow. Members of the profession that violate these codes can face professional sanction, and in some cases criminal prosecution.

While every professional society’s ethics codes are different, common elements of these ethics codes include injunctions such as

Prioritize the public’s safety
Protect the environment and the disadvantaged
Act as a faithful agent for your clients, placing their interests above your own when in conflict.
Treat employees and others in the profession with respect, avoiding discrimination and working to enhance diversity.
Avoid dishonest and deceptive business practices.

2.6.1 Norms, Morals, and Ethics

It is common for people to confuse being ethical with “being a good person.” Rather than being a list of do’s and don’ts, ethics provides a framework that allows us to interrogate the decisions we make outside of cultural expectations or value judgments. It is important to understand the difference between three distinct concepts:

Social Norms are expected practices that people in a society follow. People don’t interrupt in class.
Morals are value judgments associated with particular behaviors. It is rude to interrupt in class.
Ethics are guides that help you place your actions within a framework. Interrupting class prevents others’ learning.

More examples of these three concepts are shown in Table 2.1 Norms can change from culture to culture, or with time. Morals are likewise often based in religious or cultural systems that can differ or come into conflict. Ethics hopes to help people make good decisions regardless of their time, place, or background. Ethics also helps people with different moral systems agree on common best practices and decisions. Additionally, there can be norms or ethics that exist without a particular moral attachment; like beards in the BYU dress and grooming standards.

Table 2.1: Norms, Morals, and Ethics

Situation	Social Norm	Moral	Ethic
Emergency aid	People typically help others	It is good to help someone who needs it	People in need deserve your help
BYU dress and grooming standards	Men at BYU are clean-shaven	Beards are evil?	BYU students agree to follow the dress and grooming standards.
Dating	Members of the Church often delay dating	Dating when you are too young leads to sin	Following principles of consent shows respect for your dating partners.

Often these three concepts lead to the same choices. But there may be times when they are in conflict.

Think

In the Book of Mormon when Nephi feels impressed to kill Laban and take the gold plates, is his decision based in social norms, morals, or ethics?

2.6.2 Common Ethical Dilemmas

Parents, church leaders, and school teachers have likely trained you to choose the right, and many of you are good at it. But dilemmas frequently appear in professional practice that may not have an obvious solution because norms or morals — or even ethics — appear to be in conflict. These ethical dilemmas can be challenging to resolve or navigate.

Think

Members of the Church believe we are blessed with the Holy Ghost as a companion to help make good choices in difficult situations. But Doctrine and Covenants Section 9 teaches that having the Holy Ghost guide you in a decision requires study and thought.

Some questions to ask yourself as you are faced with an ethical dilemma may include

What are my responsibilities in this situation?
Who would be hurt by the choices I am making?
Am I caring for the most important people to me? Or the most vulnerable?
Would I be happy if the logic for my decision appeared in the newspaper?

Agle, Miller, and O’Rourke (2016) place common ethical dilemmas into categories. Some of these categories are shown in Table 2.2.

Table 2.2: Categories of Ethical Dilemma

Dilemma	Definition	Pitfalls
Skirting the Rules	You could keep a rule for a worse outcome or bend it to achieve some good.	Leaning on loopholes, Letting rules define your ethics
Dissemblance	Misrepresenting or concealing the truth could create a better outcome.	Ruining your reputation, Making assumptions
Loyalty	You're not sure how much you should give up to honor a relationship.	Offloading accountability—you are responsible for your own choices, Trusting blindly
Intervention	You see something wrong and you're not sure how to proceed.	Signaling acceptance through silence, Acting without information
Conflict of Interest	Multiple roles put you at cross purposes.	Failing to recognize the conflict, Running from or hiding the conflict
Unfair Advantage	You have the opportunity to wield an unfair upper hand.	Justifying your abuse, Blaming the other party
Standing up to Power	Someone in power is asking you to do something unethical.	Assuming too much, Not protecting yourself
Sacrificing Personal Values	Living true to your own beliefs might impose a burden on others.	Forgetting your family in your decision-making, Seeing only yourself and your values

2.7 Cultural Competency and Empathy

Through technological advancements and globalization, we live in a world of increasingly transparent borders. This shift grants us the opportunity to regularly engage with individuals and teams from different backgrounds than our own. It can be challenging to understand cultural differences and how they may impact a collaboration. It’s important to take the opportunity for humility and inclusion by learning about one another and engaging in empathetic leadership through considering their experiences in addition to our own.

2.7.1 Understanding Cultural Differences

In the fields of civil engineering and construction management, leading diverse teams is a common and crucial aspect of the job. Understanding cultural differences is essential for effective leadership in these environments. Cultural awareness helps leaders appreciate the varied perspectives, values, and communication styles that team members bring to the table. By recognizing and respecting these differences, leaders foster an inclusive environment where all team members feel valued and understood. This not only enhances team cohesion and collaboration but also drives innovation and problem-solving, as diverse viewpoints lead to creative solutions. In projects that span different regions or involve international stakeholders, cultural competency becomes even more critical, ensuring that decisions are made with a nuanced understanding of local customs and practices, thereby avoiding misunderstandings and conflicts.

Understanding cultural differences extends beyond inviting diverse ideas. It also includes, but is not limited to: * Executing meetings and deadlines across different time zones and different time management expectations * Navigating unfamiliar power dynamics, the interplay between role and respect, and control hubs that may differ from your personal context * Paying attention to diverse channels and styles of communication, both verbal and nonverbal

2.7.2 Empathetic Leadership

Empathy is a key element of Christ-centered leadership and a cornerstone of effective leadership in civil engineering and construction management. Empathetic leaders understand and share the feelings of their team members, which builds trust and strengthens relationships. This understanding allows leaders to address the concerns and needs of their team more effectively, leading to higher job satisfaction and productivity. Empathy enhances leadership effectiveness by creating a supportive work environment where team members are encouraged to express their ideas and concerns openly. This openness leads to better problem-solving and decision-making, as issues are addressed proactively rather than reactively. Empathetic leadership promotes team cohesion, as team members are more likely to support each other and work collaboratively towards common goals. In the high-stakes world of the built environment, where teamwork and clear communication are vital, empathy is an indispensable trait for successful leadership.

2.7.3 Leadership in Sustainability

Sustainable leadership in engineering and construction involves integrating environmental, social, and economic considerations into project decision-making and management. Leaders in these fields can promote sustainability in a variety of forms through their decision-making skills.

Building sustainable teams: Have you ever tried to complete a project with a team that is always changing? While not impossible, cohesive teams that build experience together certainly make successful project execution more attainable. A leader should contribute to building sustainable teams by fostering a positive work culture that invites people to stay, avoids the risks of burnout, and implements sustainable work-flow processes that enable project continuity when turnover does occur. Environmentally sustainable practices: Environmentally sustainable considerations involve making decisions that protect and enhance the natural environment while balancing the needs of the present and future generations. A champion of sustainability evaluates the long-term environmental impacts of projects and incorporates practices that reduce ecological footprints. For example, integrating green infrastructure, such as permeable pavements and natural stormwater management systems, helps mitigate urban runoff and supports ecological health. Prioritizing these practices may require consulting environmental experts to pull into your stakeholder pool. Socially sustainable considerations: Socially sustainable considerations focus on fostering positive and equitable impacts within communities. A good leader prioritizes inclusivity, equity, and respect, ensuring that decisions support social well-being and address diverse needs. For instance, addressing the urban heat island effect with cooling strategies in underserved neighborhoods helps mitigate the disproportionate impact of heat on vulnerable populations. By integrating these principles, leaders enhance social cohesion and create lasting benefits for society. Economically sustainable decisions: Economically sustainable decisions often require a long-term perspective, recognizing that the most cost-efficient solutions may not always be the most sustainable. A good leader evaluates the balance between economic efficiency and broader sustainability goals, integrating ethical considerations into the decision-making process. This approach avoids short-sightedness by prioritizing long-term benefits and holistic impacts over immediate cost savings. Ultimately, it ensures that decisions contribute to enduring economic and environmental well-being.

2.7.4 Conclusion

Leadership plays a fundamental role in civil and construction engineering. Without quality leaders, we cannot foster sustainable and resilient communities. Effective leadership involves more than just managing tasks; it requires ethical decision-making, problem-solving, and the ability to balance technical expertise with interpersonal skills. As you strive to lead like Christ and with Christ in every aspect of your life–professional and personal–you will find success and growth in your efforts. Applying His power to the leadership styles and responsibilities that suit your strengths, needs, and work will equip you in your contributions to sustainable, equitable, and culturally-responsive teamwork and infrastructure.

Homework and Activities

HW 1: Indicators

Develop goals and associated KPI’s related to your team project. These may be indicators related to participation in meetings, the number of meetings you hold, the quality of the meetings, etc. They may also be related to target completion of the project, or other indicators you feel will help keep your team accountable and inform your overall performance.

Document your KPI’s, and track them throughout the term project. Include a description of the indicators and your accounting of them in your term project report.

HW 2: Feedback

Develop a process to seek feedback on your term projects at stages when it will be most useful to you. That is, if the only feedback you receive is your grade, you may not have maximized your ability to succeed in this project! This feedback can come from internal KPI’s, from other teams, from TA’s, or from the professor.

Document your feedback and responses to it in your term project report.