Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips The iPad and its apps are the latest tech gadget that can help in the classroom (any kind of classroom in almost any setting). One issue is that once a student loves the iPad, they ignore the teacher – the person. Persons have feelings and sometimes persons have hurt feelings. Let’s employ [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips A blink-of-an-eye expert can walk into a situation and point to disastrous mistakes in the blink of an eye. My wife knows kitchens and what happens in kitchens. She can walk in a kitchen full of people cooking something, and if they are doing something wasteful, she can point to it immediately. [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips Take care when you have opposite types of people in the room for a meeting. Be sure to have someone in the room with the primary interest of ensuring communication among the groups. A few months ago, I sat in a meeting. On one side of the table were customers; on the [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips In government acquisition, the government employees make the decisions about projects. They often have to decide whether to continue or cancel a troubled project. The decision they often render is odd. I worked in government acquisition circles for over 25 years. One of the principle tenets of that field is: Contractor employees  [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips How to cross the barrier of the blank sheet of paper. I love a blank sheet of paper. I know a lot of people who don’t. I was in a meeting once where people were given blank sheets of paper and literally revolted. They wanted some type of template to focus their [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips I learned a problem-solving method when I was a sophomore in college (in the previous millenium). It still works. I have a problem today at work. I have no idea what to do. Let’s fall back in time to my second year of calculus in college. The professor told us something like: [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips People off tip off what they are about to do (pick up the remote control and you are about to watch television). There are other tip offs or indicators that are not so obvious. I was sitting in a meeting a few weeks back. I put on my $1 reading glasses and [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips One of my personal heuristics about projects is that on a good project, all the challenges come from technology and all the joys come from people. Bad project are the other way around. A year or so ago I found myself in a conversation with a woman who was starting a technology [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips Yet another example of someone not eating their own dog food. My wife and I went “out of town” for a day for our anniversary this weekend. We ate dinner in Front Royal, Virginia. We like that town. We ate at a local restaurant – locally owned and operated. It was a [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips I have met a few people who I describe as competent, straightforward, and candid. I like them. I also find that most people are off balance around them. I describe my current boss as competent straightforward candid I have worked for a few people in my life who had these same characteristics. [...]

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