Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips We are in a hurry. We still need to do this well. Basketball coach John Wooden, his UCLA teams won 10 national championships, had many sayings. One was, “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” Hurry means to move or act with great haste. There is some implication in there about moving or acting […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We have come a long way with AI aiding in decisions. The machine is powerful and new. Or is it? AI is helping us decide what to do. It performs analysis in seconds that would have taken weeks or months. Wow! Look at us now—machine-aided decisions. Great new stuff. Or is it? […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Influencing behavior via modeling instead of coating with chocolate syrup. I recently read an article written by a mother describing how she had her children eat vegetables. The answer applies to all behaviors that are distasteful to some persons. There is an old joke about a farmer who fed his dogs spinach. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A simple question can start a meaningful conversation that prevents bad things from happening. As I write this post, our elected representatives ended a partial shutdown of our Federal government a couple of days ago. Such shutdown set some type of record and brought lots of grief to thousands of people. I […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes I can do more than my job. I can exceed and excel. I recommend caution. I read an editorial recently about newspapers. Perhaps that editorial was agreeable or not as it delved into the politics of the English language (thoughtful and fraught with peril). The topic was journalism, journalists, and journal-ing. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes you concede or yield to another person’s experience in a situation. Folks seem to hate that. “You have more experience with this type of thing or this type of situation. I yield to your judgement here.” Seems like that is pretty reasonable and wise. Folks seem to hate it. What is […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Revisiting an old post in a new era. The idea is pretty good now more than ever. Way back in 2009, I wrote a little post about the magic words, “Up until now.” These words imply that, while I have always lacked something or other, I can change my future and not […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Managing work and leading people isn’t easy. It is, however, the job of managers. I have recently seen several articles about the struggle to bring people back into the office two, three, or even five days a week. And there are requirements to prove that a person actually came to the office, […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We do everything according to our documented documents—except when we don’t. Mr. Zuckerburg at Meta has created a superintelligence group to do something wonderful in AI. He is using the tried-and-true documented management practice of the skunk works. The skunk works is a special place where you put some really smart folks […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Two fundamental tasks most of us should attempt everyday. Perhaps you manage work in your profession. Much of what I write is pointed towards us managers of work. I also point towards us leaders of people. Manage and lead. Fundamentals. Two basic tasks of managers and leaders are observing and noticing. Two […]

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