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

4Q2025 NA Engineering & Construction Outlook (FMI)

Highlights:

• Growth in 2025 is being led by investment in water and wastewater utilities, power transmission projects, and data centers.

• Underperforming areas include rate-sensitive and consumer-driven sectors such as housing, retail, lodging, and manufacturing.

Global Inflation Projections for 2025 and 2026 (Visual Capitalist)

Highlights:

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Management Perspective

People are biased towards solving problems through addition rather than subtraction.

This is especially prevalent in management.

When things go wrong, managers look for ways to course-correct and prevent recurrence. These include additional reviews, more contingency budgets, and supplemental contractual language.

A lot of times, those additions are helpful or even necessary. But adding means more complexity.

Subtraction, on the other hand, can be an attractive way to solve problems because it reduces complexity.

Furthermore, professional service organizations are often incentivized to add complexity. Why? Two big reasons.

1. Desire to look like an expert. Clients hire firms for their expertise to advise and consult on complex technical issues. By showing that a lot of steps

2. Financial. For contracts structured where every hour put to the project is billed, there is an incentive to add complexity so more hours can be billed.

Despite these tendencies, seeking simplicity by subtracting can be a differentiator. Show your clients that you are simplifying solutions to streamline their operations. Communicate with contractors that curtailment expedites schedules and lowers manpower needs. Convey to your staff that subtraction can lead to smaller deliverables and better work/life balance.

Subtraction isn’t the solution to everything, but it needs to be part of the process.

Management Insights

Robert Hughes on confidence:

“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt; perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.”

—

Paul Smith on what you see:

“What we see in people is determined, in large part, by what we expect to find.”

—

Scott Kelly on actually being the smartest person in the room:

“The smartest person in the room, I’ve learned, is usually the person who knows how to tap into the intelligence of every person in the room.”

Management Resource

Will ‘Moderate’ Pay Raises Be Enough? (Korn Ferry)

A survey finds that firms plan to boost salaries 3.5% on average this year. That’s above the reported inflation rate, but it’s trending down from years past. This article discusses ways for managers to set expectations on pay raises and other methods that can be used to incentivize staff.

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• Let me know if you’ve found something worth sharing.

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

Collin

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