by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we find a small shiny object that we R E A L L Y want. Then we go about finding problems that it will solve. Yikes. Here is the traditional or accepted way to solve a problem: State the problem State several solutions to the problem Pick the “best” solution Go […]
Entries from June 2021
Solution Probleming
June 28th, 2021 · No Comments
Tags: Design · Problems · Process · Requirements
The Backwards Information Thermocline
June 24th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Information at the bottom of an organization usually doesn’t move up to the top. In the past, I have written about the information thermocline and the authority thermocline. Organizations have levels. Even “flat” organizations—regardless of claims to the contrary—have levels. Information and authority don’t flow down into the lower levels. About half […]
Tags: Communication · Failure · Information
Question Asking
June 21st, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The skill we should be teaching and learning and using more than any other today is question asking. We live in a world where all the questions have answers. We just have to find the answers. We have the facts, the data, the everything online in front of us. It is there. […]
Tags: Analysis · Data Science · Experiment · Learning · Questions
Start Small and then…
June 17th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips There are many good reasons for starting small. One is that it allows room for growth, and growth brings with it optimism, hope, and other good tidings. Start small. There are good reasons to start small. If I do it all wrong, I have only invested small resources like time, money, equipment, […]
Tags: Alternatives · Hope · Learning
Nouns or Verbs, Things or Actions
June 14th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The words we use most often provide some indication of our selves. Try some experiments. Learn. Adjust. Try this: right now, write ten words on whatever is in front of you. Napkin. Table cloth. Back of your hand. How many of those ten are nouns? How many are verbs? This one is […]
Tags: Communication · Experiment · Ideas · Language · Patterns · Play · Self
What I Hope We Learn from the Pandemic
June 10th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The prolonged year of the virus is slowly moving towards an end. It will never end, but I hope we have learned a few things that we can all do. The pandemic is declining. It is like a math function that tends to but never reaches zero. The limit as time approaches […]
Tags: Education · Health · Learning · Virus
Data, Information, Money—a Simple Example
June 7th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Data is money. Information is money. Here is a precise, concrete, and specific example. Data is money. Information is money. Yeah, we hear that all the time. Really? What are you trying to sell me? A few years ago (dates and names withheld to protect the guilty) I worked in a job […]
Tags: Data Science · Information · Management · Money
Telecommuting and Shipping
June 3rd, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Working from home? Ship. End of questions about working from home. Fourteen months into the pandemic, many of us are still working from home. We are about to go back to the office building. I think. I am not sure. There are still questions about this telecommuting, telework, work from home, and […]
Tags: Culture · Employment · Expectations · Goals · Myth · Remote Work · Time · Work