MOMENTUM - February 2024 - 13

STUDENT GENERATION

quickly resolving the pneumatics issue mentioned above is our team culture.
On Purdue Formula SAE, we have a strict zero-blame culture. Overall, pointing
fingers and blaming other people for mishaps is simply ineffective. It breaks
the team apart and puts people against each other, which is exactly the
opposite of what needs to happen for the team to solve the problem that has
risen. Instead, we focus heavily on learning from our mistakes, and working
together to fix any issue on the team as quickly as possible. I think supporting
this culture is vital to maintain high performance since people are more open
to admitting mistakes that they made and don't feel afraid that they will be
punished. This especially applies in a college setting, where on top of
designing and building a custom racecar, we are expected to keep up with
classes. Not to mention, it is almost never one singular person's fault. Although
it may seem like one action caused the failure, there are always indirect actions
that also caused it. Everyone involved can have better training, better
communication, or better systems in place, and those people are responsible
for the mistake as well.
The other aspect of team culture that I think is vital to any team's success is
simple: people cannot be afraid to ask questions. The moment that people
start being afraid to ask questions is when parts start to get designed
incorrectly, assembled wrong, etc. As a leader on the team, it is important to
never negatively respond to any question being asked, no matter how " stupid "
you think the question is, or how many times the person has asked you. The
same goes both ways-never be afraid to ask questions! If you don't know
what a variable represents in a piece of code, or don't know how to use a team
excel calculator, ask people! If everyone is driven by a common goal, anyone
should be more than happy to answer your questions or redirect you to
someone on the team who does know! Although, in an ideal world, people will
come with questions and feedback directly to you, we also implemented an
anonymous feedback form. This has been a huge help to leadership to dissect
what we are able to do better within the team and contributes to the team's
MOMENTUM
FOLLOW PURDUE FSAE
Inst
https://www.instagram.com/purduefsae/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/pufsae https://www.facebook.com/PurdueFSAE
MOMENTUM - February 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of MOMENTUM - February 2024
