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Entries Tagged as 'Communication'

Hyperventilation, Hysteria, and Commitment

November 3rd, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Hyperventilation and hysteria are shows of emotion, not commitment. A recent post from Seth Godin reminded me of the above. I have been the victim of the “why aren’t you going berserk?” syndrome over the years. I was once reprimanded for concentrating on performing the work instead of yelling and screaming at […]

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Tags: Choose · Communication · Differences · General Systems Thinking · Reaction

Finish the “We Can’t” Statement

October 6th, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We often state that we can’t do something. We rarely finish that statement with a reason. The reason usually leads to a solution. Several years ago I was working on a project where we were building a small gadget. The user was to take the gadget outdoors (backyard) and attach it to […]

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Tags: Communication · Design · Problems

The Round Table of Librarians

September 22nd, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Librarians have always been able to point us to the right place to find the information we needed. Today, however, with all the knowledge of mankind on the Internet, one person can’t find everything. Librarians don’t know much, but they do know where to look. Someone told me something like that a […]

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Tags: Adapting · Communication · Knowledge · Library

The Washington D.C. NFL Team

September 1st, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The locals are resisting the cries for a nickname change. Is anyone surprised with the resistance? Consider the situation: You are born in a place. You grow up there. You cheer for the home team. Nothing surprising in how the first two items lead to the third. One day, some outsiders shout: […]

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Tags: Adapting · Change · Communication

Resistance as a Resource

August 18th, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips When people resist me, they are telling me something. Am I listening? Dale Emery is an acquaintance of mine. I owe the topic of this blog post to him. See here and here. When people resist me, they are telling me something. That something is valuable information. I can ignore the information […]

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Tags: Communication

Cloud Computing Thoughts

July 28th, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips After several recent experiences, I know a little about cloud computing. I have been experimenting in several ways recently with cloud computing. The basic sales pitch from a cloud computing provider is: We’ll buy and maintain the computers. You rent them from us. This takes us forward to the past to a […]

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Tags: Broadband · Communication · Computing · Technology

Nouns, Verbs, and Hashtags

May 22nd, 2014 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The more things change, well, you know, they don’t change. The world is now ruled by hashtags. There are no more standard categories for anything. Everyone makes their own category when they want. This was all described several years ago in Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger. Since nothing has a category, […]

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Tags: Communication · Web 2.0 · Writing

Policy

May 12th, 2014 · No Comments

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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Tags: Choose · Communication · Management

Reasons or Justifications

May 8th, 2014 · No Comments

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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Tags: Choose · Communication

The Death of the PC (In My Family)

May 5th, 2014 · No Comments

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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Tags: Communication · Computing · Family