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Entries Tagged as 'Management'

Mistakes: Allowable and Not

April 2nd, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We all make mistakes. Some are allowable and some not. There is the mistake budget. We all make mistakes. The sooner we acknowledge and live that the better we will be (IMHO). Some mistakes, like typographical errors in blog posts, are embarrassing but that’s about the cost. Other mistakes, those that cost […]

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Tags: Accountability · Agreement · Government · Leadership · Learning · Management · Mistakes · Money

The Bottleneck

March 16th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips These new tools, ahem all that AI, are boosting productivity in our work. And then we hit the bottleneck and come to an emergency inducing crisis. Yesterday and today I have been using one of these new tools (some folks them AI, I don’t). I have accomplished in an hour what would […]

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Chaos · Emergency · Failure · Management · Tools · Work

AI, Productivity, and Choice

March 9th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Some AI tools increase productivity in some areas. Okay, I’m done with this task. Now what? That choice can be vexing. I used an AI tool (won’t mention which one). I completed a two-day task in an hour. Now what? Hey boss, tell me what to do now. One answer: go to […]

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Tags: Analysis · Artificial Intelligence · Choose · Management · Time · Tools

The Middle Manager and the Entry-Level Employee

March 2nd, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The middle manager has been replaced by the entry-level employee. What? Ah, the bane of 20th century civilization—the middleman. The middleman was the person in the middle who did nothing but pass a product along from the producer to the consumer. The middleman did nothing of value, but took a good 10% […]

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Computing · Jobs · Management

Working Now

February 19th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There is time later for thinking deep thoughts. Now, however, is the time to accomplish the work, now. “We could do this better”—said me, many times. I know, I know, boy, do I know. We could do this better. “Let’s do better,” is a phrase I often use at the end of […]

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Tags: Accountability · Improvement · Judgment · Learning · Management · Process · Work

I Just Thought of Something

February 9th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I like to plan my work and work my plan. Sometimes, however, thoughts hit me and that plan gets all jumbled up. Plan for, “I just thought of something.” I like to plan and work the plan. I like process. I like procedure. Let’s do this before that. Why? The past has […]

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Tags: Change · Chaos · Management · Planning · Process · Thinking

Risk and Research

February 2nd, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips It seems there is a fundamental misunderstanding about the product of research. There seems to be a misunderstanding about the product of research. I saw this article about risk in research. The idea is that researchers are often risky. Huh? Risk management asks, “What could possibly go wrong?” That is something we […]

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Tags: Knowledge · Learning · Management · Research · Risk

Hurry

January 29th, 2026 · No Comments

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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Tags: Breathe · Competence · Management · Mistakes · Multitasking · Thinking · Time

Machine-Aided Decisions

January 15th, 2026 · No Comments

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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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Decide · Humility · Humor · Machine Learning · Management · Technology

Eating Asparagus

December 4th, 2025 · No Comments

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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Tags: Communication · Consulting · Expectations · Leadership · Learning · Management