Working Up

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

Working Up header image 4

Entries Tagged as 'Appearances'

Omission

January 2nd, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips No one lied, they just omitted some information. There are ways to find the omissions and those things are some of the more important pieces of information we need. No one lied, they just omitted a few bits and pieces of information. And, oh, if we had those bits and pieces of […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Appearances · Communication · Ethics · Fear · Honesty · Information · Questions · Talk

The View from Across the Way

December 5th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes it is better to see the Eiffel Tower from across town instead on being on the Eiffel Tower and seeing the slums. I’ve seen many photographs of the great pyramids in Egypt. I have only seen a few photographs of the city next to the great pyramids. Yikes. I prefer the […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Appearances · Reframe · Review · Systems · Visibility

The Real Work

November 24th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Busy at work? But are we doing the real work? Consider for a moment the “fast food industry” in America. I think we Americans invented this endeavor. What are the key words? I believe #1 is “industry” and #2 is “fast.” The concept of “food” is … well, not so important. This […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Appearances · Authentic · Employment · Practice · Work

Assuming It was Correct

November 14th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Take care when assuming that something was done correctly at some time in the past. “I’ll copy this, modify it, and move on,” said a brave and trusting person. Perhaps “this” was done correctly in the past. Copying and modifying is a good, time-saving tactic. What, however, if this was done incorrectly […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Appearances · Change · General Systems Thinking · Systems · Work

The WristCoach: Why not for the Rest of Us?

November 7th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Athletes are wearing encyclopedia’s on their wrists (some call them wristcoach). The device helps the memory at critical moments. Why can’t the rest of us wear them? We have all seen these on TV for the past several years. They are great big wrist bands that have all the plays or something […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Appearances · Expertise · Fatigue · Humility · Remember · Tools

We Were the Last Generation to…

September 22nd, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Each generation laments how no one recognizes how special they are. Well, sort of. Times change, ya’ know? I just saw another one of these things online. It was a black and white photo of kids on their bicycles in the street. We were the last generation to ride bikes in the […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Appearances · Calendar · General Systems Thinking · Review · Time

Putting a Face to a Name

August 25th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Perhaps this is the complaint of an old man, but all the Zoomer Teams meetings just aren’t getting it done. The title of this post is an old expression from an old time. We used to talk with people on the telephone. That worked to a point, but we couldn’t “picture” the […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Appearances · Clarity · Humility · Respect · Stories · Trust · Video · Work

Inconvenient Facts

July 18th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips These inconvenient facts seem to be everywhere. They are inconvenient, however, only when we have a story to tell that denies reality. There are some old sayings like, “opinions being mugged by facts,” and “don’t confuse my opinion with facts,” and “there is nothing like facts getting in the way of my […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Analysis · Appearances · Communication · Data Science · Knowledge · Observation

Measuring Small Things

July 7th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Measuring small things is much more difficult than measuring large things. We do it anyways and report the results with great confidence. Woe is us. It is more difficult to measure small things that it is to measure large things. Consider measuring the diameter of a sphere. We can use a device […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Appearances · Data Science · Error · Estimation · Measure · Science

The Buddy

May 30th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips It helps to have someone standing next to you. This is a simple, old, and often overlooked aid to working better. A buddy is someone standing next to you whom you assume knows what they are doing. Often, a few moments later, you both realize that you both assumed the other is […]

[Read more →]

Tags: Appearances · Competence · Expertise · Group · Improvement · Observation · Other · People