Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Designers design solutions. The most despised solution a designer can design is often the one that is free. Designers design solutions to problems. In today’s employment vocabulary, designers are called Solutions Architects. (I find that title an insult to architects and the English language, but that is just me. Anyways…) For this […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I encourage managers and other influence-rs to speak to their colleagues in the place where the colleagues are most comfortable. I encourage managers and other to speak with each of their colleagues. I find two points here: First, speak to your colleagues everyday. If nothing special is happening, talk about “the weather.” […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Tips from Marion Roach Smith. I recently finished reading The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Here are a few tips from the book. This is an x and the illustration is y. Much of the book uses this formula. For example, this is a piece of humor, […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Adding people to a late project only makes it later. We have known this for decades. I don’t usually write about current events in this blog, but the front page of the Washington Post was too much to resist. The Health Care dot Gov web site has been a fiasco, but the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Project managers often use major changes to “get well.” They use the confusion of a major change to cover over lots of problems. Projects change. That appears to be a fact of life. Every now and then, a major change occurs. Examples include, Two large organizations merge A large organization splits into […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Answer questions in the same forum at which they are asked. If possible, answer questions immediately. Failure to follow these usually leads to suspicion, and that is the death of organizations. Does anyone have any questions? Yes, speakers feel obligated to say this. I am not sure why, but there is something […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There are usually several ways to accomplish a given set of objectives. I find it good to consider a few of these ways before choosing one. This is an exercise to help decide what to do. I’ll write this as a conversation. Person: I am going to do X. Consultant: That’s interesting. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips 26 years ago today I married Karen. It was the smartest thing I ever did.

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by Dwayne Phillips The digital devices we have can dominate our lives. That still doesn’t change a simple fact – this is an analog world inhabited by analog people. We live in a digital world. Cell phones, Internet, digital cameras, digital video camcorders – all digital. At its heart, the digital world comprises only two […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Being a grandfather has taught me a few things about managing work. How can a baby teach an adult so much in so little time? I am a grandfather; I have been one for 6 1/2 wonderful months. I see my grandson on average every three to seven days (funny how I […]

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