by Dwayne Phillips A learning environment is one where people can learn. It may not be a teaching environment as that focuses on the teachers instead of the learner. Several years back, author and consultant Jerry Weinberg told me a story about learning. The story telling was years ago, so my memory will fail me […]
Entries from July 2012
Learning Environments
July 30th, 2012 · No Comments
Tags: Learning
A Lesson about using Apple Computers
July 26th, 2012 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I learn how NOT to backup an Apple computer. Apple has a piece of software called “Time Machine.” It automates backups. The software puts all the files on the computer disk into a “big ball of bytes” on a backup disk. You must have Time Machine to access the individual files in […]
Tags: Apple · Computing · Learning
Google to the Rescue
July 23rd, 2012 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips My iMac disk dies so I have to recover everything from backup. But wait, not everything as my Google world is still there. Short story about my Apple iMac computer. I was updating the operating system and the installer froze the machine. The guy at the Reston Apple Store was very helpful. […]
Tags: Apple · Computing · Google
Free Time
July 19th, 2012 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Giving employees free time may bring great new ideas and products. Not giving employees free time may cause them to “try things” while working on projects. The projects often suffer. I have met many engineers, programmers, administrators, and others who have great imagination. Ideas come to them (I used to be one […]
Tags: Learning · Management
Things Tugging at Me and Rules
July 16th, 2012 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips When you feel something tugging at you on the inside, you have hit a personal rule. Recently, I had three gentlemen riding around with me in my van. We were visiting other office buildings in our area. Our first stop was for lunch at an bagel place. We had sandwiches and soup, […]
Tags: Change · Choose · Culture
Manager Slang: Get Well
July 12th, 2012 · No Comments
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 […]
Tags: Change · Communication · Estimation · Management · Uncategorized
14 Lessons from a Troubled Project
July 9th, 2012 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Several years ago I was working with a troubled project. We had a few days to plan and learn. Here are 14 lessons I learned. Several years ago, I spent three full days with a group of people trying to plan their way on a project that was failing. They were doing […]
Tags: Learning · Management · Observation · People
Power and Listening
July 5th, 2012 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I learn how to raise someone else’s power by losing some of my own. I once received a call in my office from a gentleman named Brian. Brian worked for a company up the road half an hour away. There was something weighing heavy on Brian’s mind. He didn’t sound like himself […]
Tags: Communication · People
Self-Esteem and Buying a Car
July 2nd, 2012 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips An experience with high self-esteem, congruent communication, and buying a car. A few years ago, my wife and I bought a new van. Our old van was ten years old, and one of our sons was about to start college. We would need a third vehicle and decided to buy a new […]
Tags: Communication · Fear · Health