Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Take care when choosing an example for teaching. Often what seem to be great examples are terrible in that people concentrate on the unintended. I have taken a lot of courses related to project management. I have taught a few. I have read a lot of books on project management, and, as […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sick people are harder to heal than healthy people. That sure makes everything more difficult, but that seems to be reality. Have you ever noticed that sick people are harder to heal than people who are well? Sick people have many problems. Those problems interact with one another in complex and often […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes the best thing to do is put your seat in a chair, your hands on the keyboard, and type in all the data manually instead of writing software to do it. I experienced it at least half-a-dozen times in my 28 years in government: We need to track our inventory. Due […]

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by Dwayne Phillips An incident in the cafeteria illustrates blaming and placating – incongruent stances created by a misconception of the self and the other. First, a story: A lady – a customer –  is walking through the cafeteria at work. She falls to the floor. A second lady – the cafeteria manager – runs […]

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by Dwayne Phillips It seems odd that to purchase alcohol a person must show they have a license to operate a motor vehicle. There are things in society that seem odd to me. One is the relationship we have established between obtaining alcohol and having a license to operate a motor vehicle. If you want […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I have observed people change their mind from one extreme to another. Is there a name for this behavior? I have observed something about people and I am searching for a name for this behavior. I have observed this across decades, organizations, and areas of endeavor. Here is how it goes: Consultant: […]

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by Dwayne Phillips More often I find myself needing help from a person who is good at figuring out stuff. A PeGAFOS. I have simple needs at work. I need a person good at figuring out stuff. Someone who can consider a puzzling situation and figure out how to work our way out of the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The Rule of Three Solutions: one solution is a trap, two solutions is a dilemma, and three solutions helps point to more solutions. A recent post by a friend – Johanna Rothman – reminded me of this rule. It is part of a general idea of finding at least three thoughts in […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A reminder about models. Please take care when using them to predict the future. George Box is credited with: all models are wrong, but some are useful It is a model, an approximation that helps describe real life. It is not real life. Some of these descriptions are useful to help us […]

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by Dwayne Phillips One reason for blogging is to clear ideas from the mind. Put them in the blog and they no longer rattle around up there. That makes room for the next ideas. Why blog? There are many reasons. Here is one: To clear the mind. This is one thing that writing, any type […]

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