Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips When confronted with non-sensical information, first ask to know what the other person knows. This first happened to me over 20 years ago. I was sitting in a medical office at a government agency. A doctor was reading my file and talking to me about my health. He made a few comments […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Children are easy to read as they haven’t yet perfected how to “act.” Adults are different, and I work with adults, so I have to ask them questions. Children don’t walk normally unless they are thinking about something else. They tend to scamper or duck their head and half run. They think […]

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by Dwayne Phillips When starting an endeavor that seeks the educate and spread information, here is a meager goal – don’t make the people less interested in the topic. Consultant and author Jerry Weinberg taught this one to me. It is his goal when teaching a class or seminar. At the end, he wants to […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Basic advice to managers about correcting the course of an endeavor. Be quick and be easy on everyone. The title of this little management advisory is from author and consultant Jerry Weinberg. He wrote about it in one of his books. I also found mention of this in a blog post by […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I rant about the misuse of the word “transparent.” Pardon me while I smash my head in a doorway (painful). I am tired of transparency. I am tired of hearing, Our process is transparent We emphasize transparency in all we do Here is a definition of transparent: Allowing light to pass through […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The English language has generated to where any word can mean almost anything. I have to ask. We are going to emphasize X. My first reaction is, “what do you mean when you say X?” X can be just about anything: small large speed quality size Yes, short, one-syllable words have been […]

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by Dwayne Phillips “They are against us” can be prevented. They want to take away our right to… They are coming to get us. They are going to tax us. They are going to do all sorts of harm to us. Whatever the issue, whatever the time, whatever the place, we tend to find ourselves […]

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by Dwayne Phillips To work with other persons, establish trust. One technique is to go to their place and show a genuine interest in them as a person. Someone asked me recently about how I would influence other people in an inter-department project. My reply was: establish trust Of course, the next question was, “How?” […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A review of remedial communication: if you don’t have the explanation and data about something, don’t mention it. I am embarrassed to write about this, but I feel compelled as I see mature people tripping over this often. Way back in high school (it was the 1970s), us young, impressionable, and not-so-bright […]

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by Dwayne Phillips When writing management tips, I always try to apply the “Oh Yeah?” test. I sometimes write about management and how to manage better. One things I try to apply at the end of such writing is the “Oh Yeah?” test. In applying this test, I ask myself something like, Oh yeah? Really, […]

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