Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips
I spent 19-26 August in Louisiana visiting family. Here are some of the things I noticed.
Cars broken down on the side of the road - many of them.
The New Orleans Airport: (1) small and unused for a city that depends on tourism, and (2) as inefficient and slow as ever.
“Tropical” rain - that [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
Most government agencies are dysfunctional. There are simple reasons. One reason is that the path to promotion lies in spending money, not bringing value per cost.
Try to understand how people “get ahead” working inside a government agency. To make more money, you are promoted to a higher grade. I worked in a government [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
The Technology Imperative states that if a new technology exists, we need it. Logic and business school lessons don’t matter.
It happened again this week. I was visiting someone at their office in another building. The man I was visiting was slouched over in his chair with a face that asked, “Why did I [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
We do things that we know won’t work. I don’t understand why.
We do things that we know won’t work. Some examples:
The Polygraph: This machine (the lie-detector machine) doesn’t work. People have beat it for decades. That is why polygraph results are not admissible in court. Still, lots of government and business organizations use [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
The title of this post is a telephone number - the way we used to say telephone numbers. Much has changed in telephones, and much of the change is for the better. Still, we have lost a lot of our culture about telephones.
The title of this post is a phone number. When I [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
When faced with a situation on a system-building project, we can find an approach that will work. We can also find many other approaches. Do we choose the better approach or one we personally like?
Several years ago, a professional soccer player spent a few afternoons helping to coach one of my son’s soccer [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
To provide a system for users, we need to know the users. How can we know the users without being a user and forgetting about the providers?
I once worked a couple of years in an American Embassy in Africa. A constant concern at the U.S. Department of State was that its employees would [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
Traveling - living in and out of motels - is different from living in a home. This differences points to lessons that can improve home life.
I recently spent five weeks on the road. Motel after motel, night after night. In the past, I have had jobs where I traveled two and sometimes three [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
Projects to reduce work, production, or consumption should reduce costs. This corresponding reduction in costs, however, rarely occurs. Instead, an increase in cost often happens. Please be attentive to what you are doing and watch for this contrary behavior.
There are many things than many people want to reduce.
Consider body weight. The average American [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
The familiar is comfortable. The comfort, however, sometimes hides risk and impending doom. Take care.
I have been on the road for two weeks walking mostly through rural Alabama. This weekend I am in Tuscaloosa. This is a university town, so it differs from most of the places I have been. I was driving [...]

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