Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1355791
18 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2021 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE it's an evolution. And if I stick with it, eventu- ally I'll be back to not exactly where I am but back doing something similar because it's a rotation. It's not a sine wave. It's a rotation up a column. We're getting better, but we're kind of doing the same thing around it. If you have ever seen the change circle, it's around the change circle, but it walks you up a column. Goldman: I know what you mean. An upward spiral. McConnell: Within IPC, they manage that change. Being a member of IPC and being on a committee, where we add this word, and then we change that phrase, and we add a comment here, and you massage sometimes just a sentence, and sud- denly, it's just there. It's just brilliant. And it's because, at IPC, we get to use our collective brain. Humans were not made to be in a single brain. We were made to be a collective brain, and to me at IPC, that's the best time that we can use it. Goldman: IPC encourages and fosters the cooperation and the consensus on all docu- ments and in meetings; that's the hallmark of IPC: the neutral ground where everybody can meet and discuss. McConnell: At IPC, I witnessed this early on and it was what really cemented that I wanted to be part of this group early in my career. I sat in a meeting, one of those that I knew noth- ing about—we're talking last century, and we still were not the kinder, gentler workforce we are now. Across the room, these two peo- ple were having this violent argument. Papers were being thrown; the table was being hit. is was before we all had computers on our table. "You're wrong!" "No, you're wrong!" the tempers were rising, and the volume was going up. Goldman: Was it about solder joints? (Laughs) McConnell: Probably. At lunch, I went over to one of the gentlemen who said, "Come sit with us, and we'll try and explain it." We sat there in a calm lunch, and they start joking. I was amazed. At IPC, you can very much disagree in the meetings, but when we leave the room, we're all together, we're IPC. And that argu- ment or disagreement is not carried outside the rooms. e men who were arguing went back in the meeting and resolved the problem. is taught me a couple of lessons. But that's what I find from IPC: you can have a violent discussion with somebody during a meeting—people are passionate about elec- tronics! And then you go out for an ice cream cone or for dinner that evening, or a bar, and you're all friends. ere were mostly men in the meetings in the last century. I've seen the women grow in this industry. It's been really great. We really don't need a women's reception anymore because we're integrated into IPC; IPC was one of the first places where I really felt that. IPC did a really good job of encouraging inclusion and diversity. If you were working as a woman in the less kind, general world of the '90s, IPC was refreshing, because in the '90s. I was used to people car- rying the arguments down the hallways at work, and I'll say the language was a lot dif- ferent back then. I'll word it that way... Goldman: Your companies have always sup- ported you at IPC.