Hey, it’s Collin. Welcome to Engineering Echelons, a newsletter full of ideas and insights to help engineers excel at management.

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week.

• New and noteworthy news

• A management perspective to consider

• Leadership insights to delve into

• And more…

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Alright, let’s get into it.

Noteworthy Headlines

Without data centers, GDP growth was 0.1% in the first half of 2025 (Fortune)

Highlights:

• The surge in technology-led growth comes against a backdrop of wider economic sluggishness and paradoxically strong GDP growth.

Federal Shutdown Idles Most OSHA Activity, Raising Safety and Compliance Concerns (ENR)

Highlights:

• OSHA furloughed more than 1,200 workers and halts routine inspections and training

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Management Perspective

Leaders are constantly making choices. These range from minor daily options to major strategic shifts.

It’s easy to focus on the first-order effects of the choices: the relationship between the decision and the outcome is simple. Second-order effects are trickier. And one of the major second-order effects is that decisions, behavior, and what is tolerated by leaders set precedents.

A precedent is an action or decision that serves as a guide or justification for subsequent, similar cases. And these precedents contribute mightily to team culture and performance.

Here are a few ways leaders influence culture.

How they spend their time

When leaders spend most of their time with one department or reviewing a particular operations metric, they signal that is what the organization truly values. This sets a precedent for where effort should be directed and how someone can be “successful” in the company.

How they treat different employees

When leaders hold certain employees to company policy but not others, they show that the rules don’t apply to everyone. Instead, if an employee shares an interest with the leader, or is a high performer, or some other quality, then they are entitled to special treatment.

How they signal work-life boundaries

If a leader consistently sends emails late at night or on weekends, they are setting a silent precedent that employees are expected to be “always on”. If not working nights and weekends, employees could see that as a barrier to promotion in the company.

What they tolerate

When certain behaviors are ignored, such as tardiness to meetings without appropriate notice, those behaviors are reinforced. The precedent is being set that everyone’s time is not valuable and schedules can be ignored.

How they compensate staff

If a leader gives a blanket 3% raise to all employees regardless of performance, the underlying message is that outcomes don’t matter; just clock in, go through the motions, and clock out. Likewise, if a manager overworks their team to achieve tremendous results and consequently earns a big bonus, then that incentivizes others to exploit their teams for short-term results while jeopardizing burnout.

The power of a precedent is that it can outlive the leader’s tenure and shape the organization for years to come. Recognizing this means leaders must shift their perspective from merely solving a problem to actively shaping the future.

Ask yourself this critical question before you act: “What will this decision tell my team about our values and how we operate, not just today, but for every future challenge?”

Management Insights

Peter Thiel on thinking long term:

“If you focus on near-term growth above all else, you miss the most important question you should be asking: will this business still be around a decade from now? Numbers alone won’t tell you the answer; instead, you must think critically about the qualitative characteristics of your business.”

—

Andrew Wilkinson on successful people:

“Most successful people are just a walking anxiety disorder harnessed for productivity.”

—

Matthew Gerber on the trait successful business people have:

“Contrary to popular belief, my experience has shown me that the people who are exceptionally good in business aren’t so because of what they know, but because of their insatiable need to know more versus defending what they think they know.”

Management Resource

Labor Productivity in Construction (Aspen Institute)

Productivity in construction has been limited primarily due to its inability to introduce process improvements without adding costs elsewhere in the system. This paper examines strategies to improve productivity.

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Looking forward to hearing from you. See you next time.

Collin

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