Working Up

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
There are many processes available to solving problems and and working situations. Despite all our advances in methods and processes, still the best method in many cases is to focus on the problem, commit resources, and solve it.
Here’s the secret step to solving any problem:
Solve it
I was reminded of this insight today as [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
Be wary when someone asks for “actionable fill-in-the-blank.”
I few years ago, I was working in a prestigious organization (just ask anyone who worked there, they would happily tell you that it was a prestigious place). A division there had an expiring charter and needed to update it. Several senior managers asked that the [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
Project managers have various goals. Here is one to consider: the people who work on your project are willing to work on another one.
Working on a project can be tough. The requirements change, if there are any requirements. The schedule shrinks, if there is a schedule. Weekends - what are weekends? - are [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
I hate doing something twice. That leads to disliking short tasks. Short tasks are easy to do all over a second time, especially when someone else decides that they want you to do it again.
This may not sound right, but I would much rather have a long, time-consuming task that one that is [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
People make mistakes. Some mistakes lead to a complete collapse of groups of people. When large, well connected groups fail, others suffer. This happens in national and international economies. It also happens on projects involving only a few persons. There are things that project managers can do to contain the damage from local [...]

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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
We use process on projects. Aargh, process can be irritating and it can be precious.
We are still snowed in here in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. The main roads are clear now, but six to eight inches of snow remain in my yard. Most of us here are sick of the [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
Building systems, managing efforts, raising kids - these and many other worthwhile endeavors can be difficult. I see no good in attempting to make those things sounds easier than they are. The reframe discussed here changes the description of tasks to be attempted.
We will just…
I don’t know how many times I have heard [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips
There are problems and there are methods of solving them. Given these two items, there are four cases that can define projects. Let’s consider the cases and how to avoid the more painful ones.
In some of my books I have written about projects that went astray, i.e. they were disasters with money and [...]

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