Working Up

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

Working Up header image 4

Entries from March 2023

Culture and Size

March 30th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A simple equation provides some insight into how culture must change with the number of people in the group. Years ago, the late author and consultant Jerry Weinberg told me of a little equation he used to note the shifts in culture in groups of people. The equation is 3N. If that […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Adults · Culture · Meetings · Work

Portable and Permanent Possessions

March 27th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips In which I consider one of the more quotable aspects of knowledge. My dad used to tell me that knowledge was the one thing no one could take away from you. A search of the world’s knowledge, a.k.a., Google it for yourself, shows that many famous people are the origin of this […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Education · Family · General Systems Thinking · Knowledge · Learning

Emergency Flashers

March 23rd, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Despite what I have noticed the past couple of years, declaring an emergency does not allow us to do whatever we want. I’ve noticed something about folks and those emergency flashers on automobiles. If you turn on your emergency flashers, you can do anything you want. Great things these emergency flashers, huh? […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Accountability · Appearances · Emergency · Planning

Problems With (or Without) Solutions

March 20th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We were once told, “Don’t bring me a problem without a solution.” I hope most of us have ignored that. There was a time when I was repeatedly told at work, “Don’t bring me a problem without a solution.” The idea was that bosses had enough to do already and didn’t need […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Management · Problems · Solutions

Understanding by Walking Around

March 16th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips It is rare that we can understand something from one and only one perspective. We need to walk around the other sides to gain other perspectives. There is a method of describing something called the DoD Architecture Framework or DoDAF. Sometimes DoDAF is quite useful, but sometimes persons misuse it and … […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Communication · Design · Scale · Systems · Thinking · Visibility

Too Simple

March 13th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We tend to want complex things. Too simple shows that we didn’t work hard, right? No, that is usually wrong. It happened again at work this week… Someone wanted a couple of sentences that summarized a project. The project had been running for ten years and is a success. Lots of people […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Brevity · Clarity · Communication · Simple · Writing

Meta Mistakes

March 9th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Some of the worst mistakes I make are my mistakes about my mistakes and the corrections of my mistakes. Confused? Most of us are. We all make mistakes. Sorry to write that, but it is true. Then we make meta mistakes. These are mistakes about our mistakes and the corrections of our […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Accountability · Choose · Excuses · Leadership · Learning · Mistakes · Reaction

Do and Claim, in That Order

March 6th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There are many endeavors in which it is important to do something before talking about doing it. Have an idea for a book? Great. Don’t pitch the idea to publishers. They will expect you to come back with 90% of the book in hand. Then they will talk to you about you […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Concepts · Ideas · Intellectual Property · Resources · Stories · Tools · Work

The Computer is Down

March 2nd, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We seem to be far more tolerant of technical failures. When I was a kid (we played baseball in the streets and things like that), I often heard the excuse, “The computer is down.” That excuse brought all sorts of grievous vexation that excuses usually bring. It was recognized as an excuse […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Accountability · Artificial Intelligence · Competence · Computing · Excuses · Technology