Message from the Editor: The Greatest Engineering Skill

Heat Treat Today publishes twelve print magazines a year and included in each is a letter from the editor. This letter is from the July 2026 Annual Super Brands Issue print edition. In today’s letter, Bethany Leone, managing editor at Heat Treat Today, shares her insights on why interpreting client needs, not technical know-how, is often the real challenge engineers face — and how deliberately practicing creative thinking, the willingness to ask “what if…?”, is the skill that builds resilience in the face of change.

---

I had the pleasure of attending an award ceremony for a local metallurgy chapter filled with academia and industry players in metals processing. As we chatted around the table exchanging first-hand stories about aerospace engineering industry feats and reflecting on materials capabilities, the conversation took a turn. What was their biggest challenge of their careers? The unanimous, almost immediate consensus came down to interpreting client needs.

One gentleman with a full career and retirement worth of experience commented first. A lot of confusion came from the misuse of or difference in terms. For example, use of the term “sheet” versus the desired “foil” outcome in rolling operations. This reminded me of a maxim my colleague and managing editor predecessor likes to quote: “The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.” Until you understand what the terms of the discussion are, neither you nor your listener can make much of it.

Another expert chimed in and shared that clients often brought their own expectations of what made for a sufficient thermal processing outcome. But with testing, though the specs were met, the part failed. Finding the words to bridge the gap between the expectations of clients and the world of testing that he lived in was a regular feat of strength. Or perhaps a feat of the mind through creative thinking.

In both cases, technical expertise was not the limiting factor. The challenge was finding a new way to understand and communicate a problem.

Exercising Creativity

Today’s world of advanced technology does not necessarily undervalue creative thinking, but it is a metric that is often misidentified. What is often thought of as creative thinking is often another skill: problem solving, logical reasoning, savvy use of tools.

These are all excellent abilities to have. But I fear for myself and especially for the engineers navigating the new manufacturing world that we are not flexing the creative thinking muscle purposefully. There are increasing defaults in our lives that minimize effort while maintaining quality outcomes (note the key word: maintain). With technology’s rapid advances, practicing creative thought increasingly requires a deliberate choice to break through what is normal or assumed to be “right” answers in search of new solutions.

This skill is built by repeated efforts to challenge accepted norms — think, perhaps, heat treat process recipes — and invites “what if…?” to solve new problems. This is not a necessary tool to apply to every instance of challenge, but the effort to break mental rules is a scientific superpower that makes us and our operations resilient in the face of change.
Research suggests that mentally stimulating activities like crosswords and sudoku may support cognitive health and delay cognitive decline. And while logical thinking and memory skills play a foundational role in problem solving, the magic moments often come with a forced “what if…?” Whether in a scribbled newspaper game or on the plant floor, this daring thought comes after you have done your due diligence, executed the research, laid the logical framework, and tested for solutions systematically.

What If…?

Decide to practice and not offload this ability. You are among many who finesse every tuning, manage every hot zone refabrication, or confront each production issue. Therefore, the greatest engineering skill will be to let curiosity prevail and slowly, painstakingly find the words to ask the right questions.

---