Working Up

Working Up in Project Management, Systems Engineering, Technology, and Writing

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Entries from January 2015

Tell Them it is Normal

January 29th, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Life is full of challenges and frustrations. Some of these are normal. When encountering normal with a person who has not encountered it before, explain to them that it is normal. I once tutored a young man through a frustrating process at work. In the middle of the pull-out-your-hair and smash-your-head-through-the-wall day, […]

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Tags: Communication · Consulting · Education · Expectations · Learning

Don’t Try so Hard

January 26th, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I try hard at everything. Sometimes I try hard too much. <start advice> Slow down. Back away. Breathe. Drink a cup of coffee. Relax. Take a nap. Find your own little zen thing that helps you to not try so hard. <end advice>

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Tags: Breathe · Choose · Coffee · Health · Problems · Process · Thinking · Time

The Resource Manager

January 22nd, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips What else would a person manage other than resources? I continue to be unemployed. Hence, I look at a large quantity of help wanted ads. Some of the job titles are absurd. One that sticks with me is: Resource Manager What else would a person manage. Managers manage resources—the end. Resources include: […]

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Tags: Communication · Employment · Management · People

The Parchment vs the Portfolio

January 19th, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Online education may one day make it, but for now, we have excellent online learning. You must, however, prove you learned something. Enter the portfolio. A parchment is another name for a diploma. We get a diploma from some education organization that says we spent time and money at that organization. Everyone […]

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Tags: Competence · Education · Learning · Portfolio

They Can Read It at Home

January 15th, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips One thing teachers today have to realize is that the learners can read it all at home at their leisure. The title of this post will haunt educators of all types. It has haunted college professors for decades. They can read it at home So why “lecture?” I remember the TV show […]

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Tags: Communication · Education · Knowledge · Learning

Emotions in the Coffee Shop

January 12th, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I go to a coffee shop every morning. Why? I guess there is a community there. I go to a coffee shop every morning at seven o’clock. My hashtag is #coffeeandwifi. I do the 21st century equivalent of reading the morning paper and I put notes and links on a blog. I […]

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Tags: Coffee · Communication · People

Adjectives, Nouns, and Persons

January 8th, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips When we turn an adjective that describes a person into a noun, well, we make a big mistake. We describe persons with adjectives: tall man short woman active boy new employee Sometimes, we use the adjective-person pair so often that we transform the adjective-person pair into a noun. One silly example is: […]

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Tags: Communication · Culture · People

iPad—part 0.12—Microsoft Writing

January 5th, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The iPad gets even better with a no-cost version of MS Word. This iPad device, wow, I have to give Apple credit for constantly improving it. Now it comes with MS Word (and Excel and other MS stuff). What a great addition Apple has made. Well, maybe Apple didn’t make this no-cost […]

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Tags: iPad

One Benefit of Personality Surveys

January 1st, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The one benefit of personality surveys that I have always seen is that people gather and talk. I have been part of organizations, yes, several of them, that initiated big projects wherein everyone answers personality questions. MBTI is one such set of questions; strength finders is another. I have yet to be […]

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Tags: Communication · Culture · People