Engineers are story-tellers who use their analytical skills and an economy of words to positively impact humans.
“Mutually Exclusive” is a term often associated with statistics and identifying mutually exclusive terms, ideas and points also benefits technical writing and communication. The “MECE Principle” i.e. “Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive” was invented by Barbara Minto and learning to apply it on this course helps engineers to express ideas clearly and also structure their thoughts more logically.
This virtual and immersive course creates a safe space to practise the principle and adopt other good communication habits:
Day 1 (2.5 hours) will focus on reviewing different forms of technical writing, writing style, conventions, and best practice.
Day 2 (2,5 hours) will extend these principles to digital forms of communication such as instant messaging, collaboration, and project tracking.
Learners review their own technical documents and reflect on how they currently utilize digital communication tools (email, messaging, etc.) to identify immediate areas for improvement.
Programme Outline:
Day 1 - Morning, 21st February.
- Making writing structured for quality documents.
- Making writing clear and concise based on MECE principles
- Handling style, tone, and voice
- Handling typography, images, tables, captions
- Approaching various engineering genres
- Structuring time when drafting, collaboration and reviewing.
Day 2 - Morning, 22nd February
- Sharepoint/wiki pages as portal for projects and organizational information
- Instant messaging, best practice, and potential pitfalls
- Getting to know communication and tracking tools. Peer to peer learning and putting a continuoud learning plan in place
- Good Document creation, sharing and collaboration habits