The 3-step method to stop making careless mistakes at work

The 3-step method to stop making careless mistakes at workThe 3-step method to stop making careless mistakes at workMistakes. Weve written about them over and over again here at CC. Weve made them over and over again, too.We think about them, talk about them, obsess about them. Theyre what make us human and help us grow, but they can also be devastatingly embarrassing, shameful, and costly to our companies and our egos.Its impossible to eradicate mistakes from our lives completely. In fact, humans are really only capable of remembering more than five unrelated pieces of information at once, as Joseph T. Hallinan writes in his book,Why We Make Mistakes How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average. Youre only human, in other words, and mistakes are part of life and work.How do I avoid mistakes at work?It is possible, however, to make a few small adjustments to the way you approach your work in order to mitigate those pesky, emba rrassing blunders. Just being willing to believe you might make a mistake puts you ahead of the curve. Aseries of studies on decision-makingfound that people who believed that they could be wrong were more likely to learn from and avoid repeating mistakes. On the other hand, those who thought that they were always right, or experts were bedrngnis only more likely to make mistakes, but were also more likely to make them again.So accept that youwillscrew up at work sometimes. But once youve done that, use these three simple steps to avoid the really, really dumb ones.1. Do a trefflich checkWhen you begin a task at work, you probably have a gut feeling about how important it is. Did your boss assign it to you with casual nonchalance or was she vibrating with stress when she passed it across your desk? Will your work be seen only by you and your department or will hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of eyeballs see it?When you work in a busy environment, it can be easy to forget th at your work doesnt just disappear into the ether when you submit it, send it, or release it. Internal team members, customers, users, readers, students, or patients might see it and interact with it, and if theres a mistake, those people will notice.Even though it might be hard to remember in the moment, take a second when you begin a new task to do a gut check about the weight of what youre doing. Just visualizing the people on the other end viewing or interacting with your work may be enough to remind you that the project is real and important to them- not just a list of annoying to-dos standing between you and happy hour.The good news? Most of us are actually really skilled at this part. Within a tenth of a second or so after looking at a scene, we are usually able to extract its meaning, or gist, Hallinan writes. But the rest? Not so easy. The price we pay for this rapid-fire analysis is that we miss a lot of details.2. Write a checklist, go through it, then take a break to rev isit your workThis parts super easy - you just need a piece of scrap paper. Once youve completed your task, take five minutes to think about everything you need to double-check in order to avoid mistakes. Did you run a spell-check, triple-check measurements, comb your spreadsheet for bugs, re-read that email? Write down everything you need to check before hitting submit, then physically check it off. This relieves you and your brain of the responsibility of remembering more than five pieces of information about the project.Then add another failsafeto your process. Go to the bathroom, come back, and check again before you hit send. Looking at your work with fresh eyes is never a bad thing. Even if youre on a quick deadline, our guess is that a bathroom trip wont make or break anything. But it will give you peace of mind.3. Ask yourself and your organization if youre working efficientlyIf youre reading this article because youre a type-A overachiever whos suddenly making a million mi stakes at a new job, consider thisitmight not be you. In Hallinans book, he talks about how anesthesiologists used to make frequent fatal errors because of inconsistencies in the machinery they were using. Then in the 80s, a group of doctors advocated for standardizing the machines to make their process more efficientand now, anesthesiologists rarely make those lethal mistakes.What does this mean for you? Many organizations hire expertsto make their processes and workflow more efficient, but others rely on the employees themselves tospeak upwhen something isnt working. If you feel comfortable enough to do this in your role, consider talking to your manager about what makes your job tedious, inefficient, and anxiety-provoking- but come prepared with solutions. Dont forget to thank your manager for taking the time to listen, even if she doesnt implement the changes right away.But the problem could also be smaller Is one of the processesyoureusing a little bit broken? Is there an Excel formula or keyboard shortcut that could streamline something time-consuming and monotonous? Consider this as youre doing your daily tasks, and then Google around or ask friends in similar jobs how they deal with the issue. Sometimes, thesolution is something youve never considered but is totally easy and doable.This article first appeared on Career Contessa.

ASME Press and Wiley Publish Latest in Their Joint Book Series

ASME Press and Wiley Publish Latest in Their Joint Book Series ASME Press and Wiley Publish Latest in Their Joint Book Series ASME Press and Wiley Publish Latest in Their Joint Book SeriesApril 7, 2017 ASME Press and Wiley Sons recently issued the latest book in their co-branded Wiley-ASME Press Series in Mechanical Engineering imprint. The new title, Applications of Mathematical Heat Transfer and mutabel Flow Models in Engineering Medicine, is now available in both print and digital e-book editions.The Wiley-ASME Press Series in Mechanical Engineering welches launched two years ago following an agreement ASME signed with technical publisher John Wiley Sons to collaborate in the development and distribution of mechanical engineering-related books. In addition to the new title, the series encompasses several additional books, including Bioprocessing Piping and Equipment Design, Fundamentals of Mechanical Vibrations and Introduction to Dynamics and Control in Mechanical Engineering Systems.Applications of Mathematical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Models in Engineering Medicine, which was written by Abram S. Dorfman, is intended to acquaint readers with the various innovative fluid flow and heat transfer methods that have been developed and used during the past 50 years. The book focuses on mathematical models, which perform a vital role by validating the results obtained during fluid flow and heat transfer research activities.The new 456-page book is divided in to three partes, each addressing an aspect of the current application of modern mathematical models. In the first section of the book, readers will be provided with a comprehensive look at the applications of contemporary conjugate heat transfer models in various industrial and technological processes, from aerospace and nuclear reactors to drying and food processing. The second part of the book examines the theory and application of two recently developed models in fluid flow the similar conjugate mo del for simulation of biological systems, including flows in human organs, and applications of the latest developments in turbulence simulation by direct solution of Navier-Stokes equations, including flows around aircraft. The books third section covers the fundamentals of laminar and turbulent flows and applied mathematics methods. These discussions are supported by more than 360 examples selected from a list of 448 cited papers, 239 exercises and 136 commentaries.The book, which is the perfect reference guide for graduate and post-graduate students and engineers, also covers peristaltic flows in normal and pathologic human organs modeling flows around aircraft at high Reynolds numbers special mathematical exercises that allow the reader to complete expressions derivation following directions from the text procedure for preliminary choice between conjugate and common simple methods for particular problem solutions and criterions of conjugation, definition of semi-conjugate solutio ns. Applications of Mathematical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Models in Engineering Medicine (Order No. 861MHT), is available to ASME members for $96 ? a savings of $24 off the list price. Print copies of the new book can be purchased through ASME.org at www.asme.org/products/books/applications-mathematical-heat-transfer-fluid. The title can also be purchased as an eBook through the ASME Digital Collection.For more information on ASME Press publications, visit www.asme.org/shop/books.

A New Class of Polymers

A New Class of Polymers A New Class of Polymers A New Class of PolymersPolymers can be flexible, polymers can be hard. Their versatility is what puts them in practically every product imaginable. But these days, its not enough for a werkstoff to be useful. To maximize utility,it should be recyclable as well. Yet, the problem with the hardest plastics is that theyre also the hardest to break down.Of course, its a major advantage to be able to reform the plethora of water bottles that get tossed in the blue bin. But they dont need to be able to withstand heat, or much pressure, when used as intended. Circuit boards and dashboards, however, need to be more durable, and theyre made with thermosets. Heat up such a polymer and its chemical bonds change. It sets, never to return to its earlier form. Great for toughness, not so good for the landfill.Accidental DiscoveryChemists at IBM were looking to create a thermoset that could also be recycled. And they were doing that in the time-honored way of creating new polymers varying existing polymers with different chemicals. Jeannette Garcia thought she had done just that when she left the lab at IBM one day. She thought she had mixed three ingredients together as planned. In fact, shed left one of them out.Thanks to its unique properties, the new polymer would be ideal for the aerospace, transportaition, and semiconductor industries. Image IBM CorporationI had left it going overnight, and when I came back to it, it had solidified into a hard plastic in my flask, she says. I welches very, very surprised that anything had happened at all. I couldnt get this hard white plastic out of my flask. I had to break the flask with a hammer to get it out and it didnt seem to be effected at all by this operation. I hit it with a hammer and it didnt break up.Garcia had inadvertently made the very product that the lab had been searching for. The stubborn white plastic was as hard as bone and completely recyclablejust add an acid fluid a nd it returns to its previous uncured state. The combination is unique among thermosets.Under analysis it turned out that when heat was added, the material lost weightnot a phenomenon usually associated with polymers of this type. The amount of weight lost depended on the temperature at which the polymer was cured. The loss was due to water being trapped in a stable intermediate version of the material. This was a clue that the polymer was even more unusual than expected.The computational team that worked with Garcia soon confirmed that the thermoset was so unusual that it was in fact a new class of polymer the first discovered in decades.Garcia and her colleagues started tweaking the new polymer directly. By adding carbon fiber, the Youngs modulus went up from 14 to 20 gigapascals. That is, it became even stronger. By changing the monomer, they created polymers with other characteristics. One of them is a self-healing organogel. Trapped inside a polymer metric, you have an OH group capable of hydrogen bounding, says Garcia. When you cleave the gel and separate it and then put it together, those hydrogen bonds re-form.Polymer PossibilitiesThe potential applications are many. In particular, theres a good chance the polymer will soon be used in cars in Europe and Japan where, by 2015, 95% of every car will have to be recyclable. It could also be used in airborne vehicles and in computer chips. Because you can revert it and take it back down to its starting material, its good for manufacturing, says Ari Entin, of IBMs Research Communications Department. If you make a mistake, you can bring it back and rework it instead of starting all over again.The gel could be used to make self-healing paint. If scratched, it could be wiped with water and made new again. And, as the gel returns to water, it could be used with slow-release therapeutics or even perfumes.Flexibility made polymers versatile in use. Looks like they just became even more flexible and tough.Michael Ab rams is an independent writer. For Further DiscussionThe computational team that worked with Garcia soon confirmed that the thermoset was so unusual that it was in fact a new class of polymer the first discovered in decades.