Aaron MacDonald is a senior mechanical engineer at MistyWest, well known on the team for his Squamish lifestyle that includes mountain biking, skiing, rock climbing, and camping adventures with his family. He also likes working on vehicles, like installing a suspension lift kit on his truck for a fun weekend project. While he’s been working …
Meet a Westie: Aaron MacDonald, Mechanical Engineer Read More »
It’s been a long pandemic. Industry-wide statistics indicate team morale and engagement are at all-time lows across most sectors and verticals. And it’s no surprise, with the transition to a fully remote workforce, the loss of brick-and-mortar cultures and general burnout & exhaustion across all company levels–most teams are not getting what they need to …
Sweet Retreats: Why Teambuilding Events Are Needed Now, More Than Ever Read More »
Sure, MistyWest might have 3 Kevins on the team, but while they share names, they each bring their own unique backgrounds and disciplines to work. Kevin Baillie (or Kevin B, as he’s known around the office) is a Mechatronics Engineer by trade and a Tech Lead at MistyWest. Like many Westies, the company’s mission of …
Meet a Westie: Kevin Baillie, Mechatronics Engineer Read More »
To my 20 year old self, You will soon be graduating university with biomedical engineering as your major. I’m happy to tell you that as I write to you today, on International Women in Engineering Day in 2021, you are a Project Manager for an engineering consultancy in Vancouver, Canada. You are leading a team …
A Letter To My Younger Self on International Women In Engineering Day Read More »
Josh is a very special Westie. Like most of us, he wears a few different hats, and originally joined the team as an Engagement Manager (MistyWest’s version of account reps) back in the fall of 2018. Coming from an Engineering Physics background in Ottawa, he specialized in power displays and later in applications for consumer …
Meet a Westie: Josh D’Souza, Hybrid Project & Engagement Manager Read More »
Dan is a multi-talented business developer with a hand in quite a few pies at MistyWest! A dual Canadian/US citizen, Dan originally hails from Portland, Oregon, and landed in Vancouver as a UBC Engineering student in 2010. While at UBC, Dan founded the UBC Lacrosse team and helped build it into an officially recognized sports …
Introduction Recently, MistyWest hosted a webinar on the Dark Side of Technology where we talked about the ethical implications society is currently facing as new technologies are developed. The conversation touched on issues like data sovereignty, (un)biased machine learning, and the increase in civilian/private access to technology previously only available to the military. …
How do you balance the complex social and environmental needs of a new hire during a time as uncertain and prone to alienation as COVID-19? What happens when that time you should be attempting to integrate, include and enculturate a new hire is simultaneously one where you’re being instructed (or forced) to isolate, distance and …
Monday signalled a turning point in the conversation on COVID-19. New measures to fight the spread of the virus have been announced throughout the world impacting all of us. Canada has closed its borders, Washington is shutting all non-essential businesses, and our clients in the Bay Area are beginning a 3-week shelter-in-place period. MistyWest remains …
In Part One of this blog series we talked a bit about the foundations of Holacracy as an organizational structure and how we deal with and utilize tensions as a thermometer of sorts. Innovative environments are steeped in conflict, and the successful ones learn how to leverage conflict to drive teams to deeper understandings of …
Colleagues, partners, clients, and friends – After a decade at MistyWest, the time has come for me to leave my day to day roles ahead of my move with my family to Australia. It is with very mixed emotions that I say those words. On one hand, I’m excited to start a new life surrounded …
In January 2019, MistyWest embarked on a quest to reimagine the way we structure our company, our teams and individual roles within the organization. We did this with the help of a new model of organizational management called Holacracy, and the patient training of mastermind Karim Bishay of Living Orgs (who we highly recommend, by …
