Perspectives by Kelly Harrison

If I’m completely honest, when I was asked to write this blog, I hadn’t realised how therapeutic it could be. I was originally struggling to define the exact message I wanted to give. What have I learned? What makes a good engineer? Why are we in need of diversity and change? How do we get there? The process has in fact brought some clarity to my recent thoughts and experiences.

I started by making a chronological list, of every year of my career – what did I love about my job in that year? No, I won’t bore you with the full transcript, but some themes emerged, including people, communication, challenges, and learning. A thirst for knowledge, a thirst for sharing, a thirst for like-minded friends and colleagues.

The big stand out though was creativity. Throughout my career I’ve been fortunate to be able to work with extremely talented people, helping them build their visions for sculpture, staircases, unusual furniture, and installations, I’ve fed off their imagination and determination and developed a strong passion for what I do.

It’s not just artists and designers that I’ve been fortunate enough to surround myself with, but also the engineers hungry for a challenge, ready to design a solution as if it were a product, and get excited about it, creating beautiful and inconceivable meticulous details, finding inspiration in form and function.

Looking back, I now realise it was these interactions and the feeling of satisfaction on seeing the results, that kept me going. Kept me eager to get to the office each day for a new challenge and collaboration.

I found myself applying learnings from these projects onto larger, more commercial ones. Often this has meant that these projects had a finer finish and therefore value and were essentially more materially efficient and therefore sustainable. Thinking differently, new perspectives, and as my now colleague Sebastian Wood would say ‘as if people mattered’, was appearing to be how we might reach a more just and sustainable industry.

As I’ve progressed in my career, I found my passions evolving into making change, improving how we do things, and having an impact. Using creative approaches to try and solve industry-wide barriers, learn from academic research, and change the ‘business as usual’ mindset.

But still, I crave the detail, the drawing, the making, the expression. At times this has been to a point of distraction. It was something I had to find balance with.

Finding great calm and clarity from movement and interaction with others when dancing, has always been an important part of my life. As I progress in my career, I find this to be more and more important. It started with being simply time for my brain to stop thinking, and worrying, and simply focus on what my body is doing. But that developed into the thinking behind what it was saying, the art of storytelling, communication from another perspective, and then the logistics of performance, set design, creating film, visual arts and experiences that relay that message. These are all skills that I’ve also learned to a point during my engineering career, but now I’m also able to approach them through a different lens and apply that in my day-to-day work.

I recently learned that in Bali there is no word for ‘artist’ this is because everyone is one, whether it be a painter, sculptor, musician, and so on… In ancient Greece ‘Art’ was not limited to physical depictions, they saw professions such as medicine, philosophy, and engineering as part of the arts.

So, what am I really trying to say here? It feels as though my story needs to arc back down to a conclusion of some sort.

I recently came across the term ‘Slash Career’, (One Person/ Multiple Careers: The  Original Guide to the Slash Careers, by Marci Alboher) the concept that we are not only one thing/ profession, but multiple slashed next to, or even into, each other. I found myself realising that most of my friends, engineers and dancers alike, and the most successful people I come across are in fact, ‘Slashes’. I am a Structural Engineer/ Dancer/ Activist/ Set Designer/ Researcher/ Educator/ Entrepreneur/ Painter… I perform optimally at each when I have them all in balance. We often talk of the ‘work-life balance’. I learned from talking about this that it’s actually a ‘passion balance’ that we need to thrive, and that can look different for every individual. 

And so, I believe that my message to all engineers is to be true to yourself and balance your passions whether they be child development, touch rugby tactics, ancient civilisation architecture, carpentry, horticulture, violin playing, car mechanics, millinery, etc, etc. with your work, and bring perspectives from each to the other for them to be mutually beneficial. With this diversity of approaches, and ways of thinking, collectively I believe we can make change, at a moment in time where change is necessary and urgent.

As a child I was normally found enjoying one of three things, dancing, making, or homework (even if none was set…). I find myself having gone full circle, I’m back there, it’s who I am, and how I operate at my maximum. So, let’s all do that, you don’t have to ‘fit in’, ‘conform to the norm’, or deliver the ‘business as usual’, the only way we make our desperately needed industry transformations is to gain and embrace other perspectives, and collaborate.