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According to Ron skills, experience and knowledge account for just 50% of our professional success. Networks, friends and relationships make up the balance – failure to nurture theses really is detrimental to our careers in the long term.

An interesting exercise we all participated in (and you can do right now) was to go through our contacts in our mobile phones. How many of them are honest relationships who might provide us professional or personal growth opportunities? How many of them can we provide growth opportunities to? Do we really maintain an active relationship with them? Perhaps some of our contacts have ‘dropped off’ because we get busy, we don’t keep in touch and life goes on. Unfortunately, this leads to a loss of potential opportunities for us professionally and personally that might come from those contacts where we’re just not front of mind anymore.

Ron gave us some great tips we can all use to help keep our networks growing, and more importantly, thriving. The top five tips for building honest relationships and nurturing our networks include:

1. Always have something to invite people to.

By giving we provide effective relationships, we provide value. It is important to invite someone who might be benefited from a special event, conference, development session, etc. The more you give, the more you receive. Simple.

2. Always have something to send them.

For example, emails, podcasts, videos or invitations. This will feed the relationship and keep relationships alive. You’ll continue to be front of mind. Again, the psychology of giving brings a higher level of engagement and learning.

3. Introduce people to each other.

By bringing people together they are likely to benefit mutually from a new relationship. Networking is inevitably reciprocal, and by taking the initiative to start this happening, we are much more likely to expand our own professional networks.

4. When we are networking and it’s not going as expected, then we are not always giving or helping in a meaningful way.

Take time to identify those who are uncomfortable. Networking is often overwhelming so spending a few minutes chatting to someone is a meaningful way to contribute.

5. Be genuine.

Establish meaningful conversations in which both parties enjoy and feel comfortable. In a room full of professional at a networking function, there is always some common topic of conversation. The speaker, the venue, follow up events, etc. are all fairly safe areas. It’s also important to remember some detail about contacts (when you can, although granted we’re not all human filing systems!), their football team, or holiday destination, an interesting project they’ve been working on for example. We should recognise networking as a process, and something we need to continue to work on. The more time and energy we invest in constructing a relationship, the more meaningful and mutually valuable it will be.

Networking is a continuous process, and the moment we stop investing our time and energy into it is the moment it starts to deteriorate. We need to keep meeting people and establish new relationships, while continuing to nurture and develop those we have. Get involved with organisations, accept leadership positions, write blogs, give speeches, and actively do the things which lead to a wider network.

As part of IWD 2018 #PressforProgress, Women In Subsea Engineering (WISE), a working group of Subsea Energy Australia, have launched a campaign aimed at making some of the amazing women working in the subsea industry visible.

The idea that ‘you can’t be what you can’t see' was the catalyst for this project. ‘Wavemaker Stories’ celebrates the achievements of twelve female subsea engineers – all of whom have forged successful technical careers within the subsea industry.

The campaign has been designed across multiple platforms to reach a variety of audiences.

The Online Campaign

http://www.wavemakerstories.org.au/ is a new website, which features the stories of the twelve female subsea engineers. They represent a broad range of science and engineering disciplines; and they also depict a global workforce. The women were asked to share their stories, their passion for science and engineering, what their careers entailed and how they achieved successful careers. Over 12 days, the content within was shared via our social media channels and #wavemakerstories

The Exhibition

Designed to be mobile, the exhibition has for the past several weeks been located firstly in the foyer of Parmelia House, 197 St Georges Terrace, Perth, then to the Australasian Oil & Gas Exhibition & Conference, and then to the foyer at Central Park, 152-158 St Georges Terrace, Perth. It is now available to loan to any school, community organisation or government group who would like to increase the visibility of women working technical professions and encourage younger girls to pursue STEM careers.

The Career Comic Book

The Wavemaker Comic Book features the Wavemakers as comic book characters. Aimed at children aged 7-11, it depicts realistic female characters, using real scenarios and real subsea technologies. The Wavemakers Comic Book is available for advance purchase at $25 per copy. Each copy purchased will also enable the donation of a copy to an Australian School library. Purchase online: https://wavemakerstories.org.au/comic-book/

Images below: Meet the Wavemaker Exhibition stands in situ at 197 St Georges Terrace. The stands feature artwork of glass, Silvana Ferrario (Siju Glass), who began her career as a subsea engineer.

Image below: Wavemaker comic sample stills stories written by the wavemakers themselves, illustrated by graphic designer Dimas Yuli.

International Women´s Day 2018 was an excellent opportunity to learn about the status and challenges of female inclusion in the STEM industries. Morgan Harland, General Manager of Subsea and Pipeline at Woodside, shared with us his professional experiences and some honest reflections of what have been achieved and the barriers women still face.

In his 28^th year of working in the oil and gas sector, the invitation to key note at the Wavemaker stories launch provided Morgan an opportunity to consider where we stand today, which does show a positive statistical trend. However, he questioned whether this data really means diversity has been achieved since there is still an absence of women in team lead roles and few women performing in senior engineering roles.

An important step in achieving true diversity is exploring and adjusting one’s own unconscious attitudes, which might be influenced by learned perceptions and personal experiences. “We need to attend to “differences” as these are really our “assets”, and this attention will exploit the incremental creativity of diverse group”, Morgan stated. Perhaps humans tend to sub-consciously evaluate people and develop perceptions about others, but it is a combination of differences and backgrounds that fuels this instinct and certainly means diversity.

According to Morgan, “we are entering the era of cognitive diversity and self-awareness is a critical component”. He suggests that, rather than trying to mould people or trying to change who they are, we should become more consciously accomplished and aware of the origin of our perceptions and evaluations. After establishing that, we would be much better prepared to raise awareness of diversity.

Morgan stressed the importance of leadership to achieve diversity and shared four main attributes of successful leaders and people who have inspired and motivated him:

1. Integrity - an internal true north compass to guide the right decision

2. Courage - to challenge for positive change

3. The ability to communicate the context consistently and broadly

4. The ability to listen and in doing so travel outside their own view of the world.

Clearly, the pathway of diversity is complex and sensitive, and we should commemorate the goals achieved so far, being clear that there is still work to be done to ensure that every business and every individual benefits from true diversity.

Every year, International Women’s Day provides us with a global opportunity to come together and acknowledge the achievements and aspirations of the women amongst us. It’s a day to reflect on past struggles, and a day to realise how far we have to go. This year, it was the perfect day to launch the Wavemakers project, an initiative developed over the course of the past year by the WISE Task Force. 

Wavemaker Stories celebrates the significant achievements of twelve outstanding women in the subsea industry. Their stories are told through the mobile exhibition on show throughout various locations in Perth. There is also a Wavemaker Stories website and a career comic book being developed. The comic book tells the professional story of the twelve Wavemakers, taking the reader through real problems solved by real heroes.

The evening was guested by two keynote speakers, Dr Anne Aly, the Member for Cowan, and Morgan Harland from Woodside’s subsea division, both of whom are accomplished leaders in their respective fields. It was a fantastic chance to hear some words of wisdom from two passionate speakers on diversity, equality and fairness, two speakers who practised what they spoke of.

Dr Anne Aly graced us with an inspiring call to arms, sharing her childhood memories and the course of her experiences through the classically patriarchal industries of academia and politics. With reference to the below average representation of women in STEM industries, Dr Anne Aly reminded us of the potential that all young women have, and gave her heartfelt encouragement for the supporting and nurturing of all aspiring women around the world.

Morgan Harland, General Manager of Subsea and Pipeline at Woodside shared with us his professional experiences, and described the companies demonstrated commitment to equality and diversity. Morgan tempered these achievements with some honest reflections on the barriers that women still face in and across the STEM industries, as well as the work that’s still to be done. It was a sincere appraisal of both what has been achieved in the name of diversity, and the opportunities that remain.

Complimenting the company and guest speakers was the talented musician Grace Armstrong who charmed us throughout the night with her guitar and beautiful voice. The evening was a wonderful opportunity to connect with colleagues over a glass of wine and celebrate all the achievements of women internationally, and especially the Wavemakers amongst us.

Congratulations, Wavemakers!