Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Senior managers issue policy. That is one of the more important tasks they do. A misunderstanding of policy statements and their purpose has given them a bad name. A better understanding of policy statements aids everyone in an organization. Issuing policy is one of the more important tasks that managers can do. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There is a big difference between reasons for a decision and justifications created after a decision. Justifications, just a farce, succeed unless someone cares and is attentive. Someone announces a decision; then they announce the reasons behind the decision. Question: did they use those reasons in deciding or did they create those […]

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by Dwayne Phillips While the PC dies, home computing continues to thrive. The PC just died in my in-laws home. Not really, it still works, but my in-laws are moving on and participating in the “death of the PC.” Their Windows XP PC still runs along just fine. They, however, don’t want to have it […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I’ve heard people in meetings tell me stuff that was just pure bologna. Then I had to ask myself why I created an environment where people told me bologna instead of the truth. I once managed a project where an engineer stood in a meeting and explained that a hardware part had […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Somehow, at some recent point in time, someone tried to change the definition of a technology company. Blame it on old age, but I am fed up with what the media, in particular the technology media, calls a “Tech Company.” Headlines tell me that our President (Obama) is meeting with CEOs of […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There is an old diagram that helps explain what a system does. Sometimes, these old diagrams are lost and need to be found again. Apologies to Google and the Chromecast, but it is a good example to mention. Me, i.e., old engineer: What is that? Young Engineer: It is a Google Chromecast. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I ache for the people who say “herding cats.” I really ache for the people who work with the people who say “heading cats.” Almost every week, I hear someone say: Managing fill-in-the-blank is like herding cats. Deep sigh and groan. I ache. How can a person refer to their colleagues as […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I point back to a classic but little-known work on instructing people how to do something. Way back in time in the mid-1980s (yes, I am that old), I stumbled onto a book written by Edmond H. Weiss titled How to Write a Usable User Manual. I thought it was a basic […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I build my own little LibraryBox2. I stumbled across this project recently and, since I am fascinated by libraries and distributing content, decided to try to build one. I am not good at this sort of thing, but why not try it? It worked! I have my own LibraryBox2 (see photo). LibraryBox […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A description portrays what is now; a prediction estimate what may come. Sometimes we confuse the two at our peril. Some words are predictions. We use to them to portray our estimate of the future. Few of us are satisfactory as predictors of the future even though most of us think we […]

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