Chocolate engineering, helpful conflict, and starting with WHY

I can’t believe we’re just a few weeks away from the end of 2023. How will you make the most of this year? Are you already planning for an amazing 2024? We’ve got some fun things to discuss in this newsletter that will make you smile and get you thinking about what you need to change personally.

👀 In today’s newsletter:

• 🍫 The engineering of chocolate

• 🕊️ Conflict, but in a helpful way

• ❓ Why you should start with WHY

• 🔥💵 Hot Job – Electronics Technician

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📚 MUST READ

🍫 The Engineering of Christmas Chocolate

For some people, we connect our experiences and joy around holidays like Christmas with treats like chocolate. Maybe you’re a dark chocolate lover, but I prefer milk chocolate. Much sweeter 🙂

Milk chocolate came onto the scene in the 1800s when Henri Nestlé developed a process to produce milk powder. Just a few years later, a Swiss chocolate maker named Daniel Peter used the powder to create milk chocolate!

Obviously, now, chocolate is produced on a massive scale. Just one Nestlé factory in Hamburg, for example, produces more than 50,000 tons of chocolate every year.

Is there engineering behind all this? You better believe it. Just think about some of the ways engineers play into creating chocolate:

• ⚙️ Creating highly advanced, energy-efficient machines

• 🥽 Assuring high standards of food hygiene and safety

• 🪹 Creating precise molds that can be used millions of times

• 👑 Refining processes to produce a consistent product

• 👁️ And so much more!

So next time you bite into your favorite chocolate bar, remember the engineers that made it happen!

🏆 CAREER TIPS

🤼 The power of conflict

Wait… what? Can conflict really build trust in people and teams? Absolutely. In fact, I would say that one of the best indicators of a team that trusts each other is the amount of conflict in the team.

When I share this with people, often they get confused. Isn't conflict a bad thing? In many instances, yes, but not always. Positive, healthy conflict happens when we can challenge each other in open and honest ways that support better collaboration. 

⛅️ Disagreements are okay

The best teams I've ever worked on are teams in which people felt safe to disagree and challenge others. This kept the environment positive and helped build trust as we learned how to work through issues together. 

This is a difficult concept for me to embrace because I'm naturally conflict-averse. I don't typically enjoy challenging others - it's easier to be agreeable. But doing that is not actually helpful.

👀 How You React Matters

Creating a safe environment where people feel safe to disagree without being reprimanded or harassed is critical. In fact, you should completely acknowledge and consider the differing opinions. 

In fact, effective leaders should seek out and ask for ideas and opinions that are different from theirs. This reminds me of a great quote from Simon Sinek:

"Bad leaders care about who is right. Good leaders care about what is right."

Get your ego out of the way and look for the right answer rather than trying to be personally right all the time. You'll be surprised by how much more honest and trusting your team will be if you do.

🔔THIS WEEK’S HOTTEST JOBS

In this section you’ll find the latest jobs as featured on:

jobs.interestingengineering.com

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• The Search and Discovery Marketplace 

📚 BOOK RECOMMENDATION

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

This book served as the basis for one of the most popular TED Talks of all time – with more than 56 million views and counting. Over a decade ago, Simon Sinek started a movement that inspired millions to demand purpose at work and to ask what was the why of their organization.

Start with Why shows that the leaders who have had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way - and it's the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which to build organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with why.