Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips People often enter business relationships without first answering one question: If I fire you, will that affect our personal relationship? Business relationships are about business. They involve contracts and agreements: You will do this and I will do that. This is pretty simple when you consider these terms. This is pretty complicated [...]

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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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by Dwayne Phillips Advice is welcome and often heeded in one circumstance: when it is requested. Freely giving advice to the non-requesting tends only to waste energy, time, and emotions. Consultant, author, and friend Jerry Weinberg has written (something like) Most people interpret attempts help as attempts to interfere. This is true for 98.6% of [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips An identity rule is something that I must have or must do or must be to maintain my identity.  If you violate an identity rules, you lose your identity. People have rules, I know I have my own rules. Have you ever tied the shoe laces of another adult? That would be [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips I have learned that I am not capable of being prepared for everything. Hence, I have learned to be prepared for being unprepared. I often speak in front of people, lead discussions, teach classes, and generally attend meetings where people ask me questions. I am often unprepared for what people ask. I [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips Contrary to the Lake Wobegon Effect, the average fill-in-the-blank-noun-for-a-person is average. Something I recently realized: The average fill-in-the-blank-noun-for-a-person is average. Here are some examples: The average doctor is average The average teacher is average The average writer is average The average engineer is average and so on. This all contradicts the Lake [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips Compliant meets the minimum requirements while compelling puts some excitement into a product. Still, I would be satisfied with compliance when it comes to dishwasher delivery and installation. I ran into the phrase that inspired the title of this post one day last week. We were writing a proposal for a contract. [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips The Federal government is spending billions of dollars on rural broadband. I haven’t seen any results in my rural area of interest. Something is about to happen, but we won’t know if it is practical or affordable until after it happens. I am spending two weeks in Louisiana during the holidays. I [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips Time and again I have seen people make a terrible mess, work hard to fix their mess, and be proclaimed a hero. I still don’t understand why anyone would reward such a person. In the mid-1980s I started managing projects. I looked about to see what my peers – other project managers [...]

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by Dwayne Phillips Well meaning managers often start new activities. The activities are not sustainable, and the well meaning manager gains a reputation as a liar. I am a grandparent. I have one grandson who is now 23 months old (I have to put up a new photo of him sometime . Grandparents engage in [...]

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