An e-mail came in from Josh Dillier inviting me to be the luncheon speaker for Oncor's New Engineer Development Program. The offer was quite enticing as I love to meet with upcoming engineers. That said, I get an immense number of e-mail requests. They tend to stack up in my in-box until they make their way to the bottom of the list where they are flushed out after a period of time into never-never land.

But that isn't what happened here. Not by a long shot. Instead of pestering me, Josh tapped into his connections and had Rob Trimble give me a call. Rob happens to be my buddy, and he's also the recently retired president and COO of Oncor Electric Delivery.

Rob left me a message that went something like this: “Rick, I promised I'd call and to see if I could cajole you to come down and speak to our new engineers. They want your take on where the industry is headed, so let's work out the times and get you on down here.”

Now Rob is a straight shooter and a hero of mine, so I just couldn't tell him no. So this past May, I found myself conversing with 48 young engineers. Now I didn't take this task lightly, because this room of 20-somethings will shape the future of this utility and in the doing, shape the future of our industry.

Something different is going on at Oncor. I am witnessing engineers who are stepping up to create opportunities and take charge of their profession.

These Engineers Own Their Own Training

I was a part of a three-day training session that was held for new engineers but also put together by these same engineers. They decided the business, technical, personal and interpersonal skills they needed, and they solicited instructors to come in and meet those needs. The course instructors were made up of a mix of Oncor and outside experts. Below is a sampling of the training obtained at the session I attended:

• Richie Harp with Oncor shared underground distribution line inspection and failure investigation techniques.

• Ridley Thrash with Southwire provided an understanding of how overhead conductor is manufactured and then he went over the advantages and disadvantages of the various construction types.

• Dana Crissey with Oncor discussed the basics of transmission line design with a focus on sag clearance and alignment issues.

These Engineers Appreciate Executive Mentors

Josh mentioned that his mentor, Wes Speed, vice president of transmission, had been a real asset to him. Curious to see if this was an isolated instance, I asked the engineering class to raise their hands if they had a mentor, and every single person in the class raised his or her hand. When I had the chance to pull several engineers aside, they informed me that it wasn't a cast-in-stone formal program but rather one-on-one relationships. The engineers shouldered the responsibility to connect with their mentors when the need or desire arose. Alternately, mentors would occasionally check in on their protégés. On average, these engineers would connect with their mentors every month or two. Can you envision a better opportunity for new hires to truly understand what is going on inside their utility?

This Generation is About Service and Relationships

I shared pulled pork with three engineers who were on the same team in a recreational basketball league. They were ragging one another because so far the team hadn't managed to win a single game. But you could tell these guys were buddies. Another group is playing soccer together and yet another set of friends is training for a marathon.

A minority of the engineers were married and some even had kids. Maintaining relationships is key to this generation, whether it is Saturday picnics, serving for the Special Olympics or signing up for community projects. Needless to say, this next generation of guys and gals are doing life together, while building relationships they will count on as they inevitably move up and around within the company.