by Dwayne Phillips A partial list of boo boos I have seen in published documents over the years. If anyone had read these things, surely they would have found these things. Right? I guess an editor or someone like that should have read this, but it appears that no one did. Here is a partial […]
Entries Tagged as 'Accountability'
Did Anyone Read This?
November 13th, 2023 · No Comments
Tags: Accountability · Appearances · Honesty · Reading · Reality · Writing
No Fun
October 16th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes, the better way to do something isn’t as much fun. A few years ago, I wrote a book on software project management. I began the book with the words, “I like to write software.” I did and still do like to write software. I am simulating a machine that does wonderful […]
Tags: Accountability · Adults · Employment · Fun · Integrity · Software
Apology
July 31st, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips An apology is just that—an apology. It is neither an explanation nor a justification. Rats! An apology is simple: I did this wrong. I am sorry for that. I ask your forgiveness. An apology does not contain an explanation: I was trying to do such-and-such and … An apology does not contain […]
Tags: Accountability · Adults · Authentic · Change · Communication · Conversation · Error · Ethics · Excuses · Honesty
Things Are the Way the Are
July 27th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Things are the way they are. But why? An old saying explains much of the reason. There is an old but little known saying, “Things are the way they are because they got that way.” Pause to consider. Yes, of course the saying is correct. We are here because everything and everyone […]
Tags: Accountability · General Systems Thinking · History · Learning · Systems
No More and No Less
July 20th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips When we build systems, build them to do and have no more and no less than we intend. A few pseudo definitions: The users says, “I want a system that does this and that is and like this and that.” The builders say among themselves, “We can do those things and a […]
Tags: Accountability · Design · Engineering · Requirements · Systems
Whose Words?
May 1st, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips It is important to remember whose words we are discussing. If you mentioned something, we are discussing your words. If I mentioned something, we are discussing my words. There are ways to back away from our words. I read the words from the PowerPoint. They were wrong. Simply wrong. 1 + 2 […]
Tags: Accountability · Communication · Humility · Learning · Meetings · Mistakes
Pause to Consider, Is This Working?
April 13th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips A basic questions that managers should ask above the noise and bustle of the day. Every group needs a person who asks a nagging question or two every day or week or month or two. Is this working? Of course this is working. What do you think? We are all busy; we […]
Tags: Accountability · Communication · Management · Questions
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? […]
Tags: Accountability · Appearances · Emergency · Planning
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 […]
Tags: Accountability · Choose · Excuses · Leadership · Learning · Mistakes · Reaction
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 […]
Tags: Accountability · Artificial Intelligence · Competence · Computing · Excuses · Technology