Path forward
By Dr. Ryan D. Evans, STLE President | TLT President's Report January 2023
Reviewing the road already traveled helps us to identify opportunities and needed resources to continue to drive our plans.
I have an obsession. While traveling, I feel compelled to check my trip progress constantly. It all started with the invention of GPS technology for automobile travel. Now I frequently annoy my wife by insisting on having the route map visible during long road trips—not the driver’s perspective turn-by-turn view, but the full route view with start and end points visible. Flying is no exception. I snapped this column’s photo while flying home from the ELGI-STLE Tribology Exchange Workshop in late October 2022 and self-reflecting on this tendency.
The ELGI-STLE Tribology Exchange Workshop was held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and it was an excellent event. European tribologists presented on sustainability and other cutting-edge tribology topics such as the use of machine learning image analysis of wear scars and a surface science-based treatment of slip in contacts, to name a few. The workshop felt like a friendly STLE Local Section meeting, open to the entire European continent. I was happy to see several colleagues that routinely make the trip in my North America direction for our STLE Annual Meeting each year. In addition to a great tribology program, the group had a bowling and Brazilian steakhouse activity during an evening within the two-day event. Tribology, bowling and grilled meat? That’s my community for sure.
Returning home on my trans-Atlantic flight, while wedged in a small seat against the person next to me and listening to a true crime podcast (having caught up on the STLE Perfecting Motion:® Tribology and the Quest for Sustainability podcast episodes), I stared at the flight tracker on the seat back in front of me. Sleep is rarely an option for me, especially on the ride home, so I reflected on my route tracker monitoring habit. Most simply, I like to have real-time visibility of where I’m going while also appreciating where I have been.
I had a factory production manager during an undergraduate co-op assignment insist on a “Path Forward” bullet list for every communication and presentation. That term was not taught in college, but it is one that I’ve used professionally ever since. Mapping out a path forward in your work life is not always easy, but it is an effective approach to meet goals. In addition to the path ahead, route trackers also show where you have been. While there is always debate about how much energy to spend in reviewing the past, I find it helpful for lessons learned, celebration and admonition. Sure, headlights point only forward in a moving automobile (ever notice how dark it is behind a moving car while driving at night?), but the trusty GPS shows you both where you started and where you are going, and that simultaneous bidirectional perspective is important to me.
STLE’s path forward is most directly mapped in our Strategic Plan (
www.stle.org/StrategicPlan). The most recent version was developed to cover 2020-2023, and it contains four domains: Professional Development, Technology and Innovation, Communications and Advocacy and Organizational Excellence. Within each of these domains are path forward tactics upon which STLE staff and volunteer leadership are focusing our efforts every day. We also review our progress in these strategic directions with backward-looking metrics. Reviewing the “road already traveled” helps us to identify opportunities and needed resources to continue to drive our plans on the path forward.
Currently, STLE is working on the 2023-2026 Strategic Plan update. Many important topics will find their way into this refreshed path forward. We are looking for modern and effective ways to improve our education offerings and delivery media, now focusing on education and professional development products and member benefits as an end in and of themselves, not just a means toward certification. We are preparing a new STLE Report on Emerging Issues and Trends in Tribology and Lubrication Engineering that builds upon our previous reports and introduces new subject matter expert content. Communications and advocacy continue to be a priority, leveraging our STLE content outside of our own publications and into other trade blogs and magazines. We also are focusing on how to broaden our community present and future with an eye on diversity, equity and inclusion tactics and a reinvigorated scholarship program. Like most organizations, succession plans and staffing challenges ahead are at front of mind. Are we there yet? No, but the path forward is exciting, and the journey to this point has been a great ride.
Dr. Ryan Evans is director of R&D at The Timken Co. in North Canton, Ohio. You can reach him at ryan.evans@timken.com.