Working Up

Working Up in Project Management, Systems Engineering, Technology, and Writing

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Entries Tagged as 'Management'

Leading and Managing

April 27th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Someone is paid to lead the people and manage the work. They are paid to answer, “Yes, but how are they going to do that?” Work can be difficult to accomplish at times. And there are times when you say, “This isn’t good enough. It must be better.” A well-meaning person replies, […]

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Tags: Conversation · Leadership · Management · Work

Things I Don’t Want to Know

April 24th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There are things I don’t want to know. Knowing those things means I have to do some work that I just don’t want to do. Life is full of headaches. There are more than enough headaches for each day. I don’t need any more headaches. Then some well-meaning person walks in the […]

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Tags: Health · Learning · Management · Multitasking · Resources · Work

Pause to Consider, Is This Working?

April 13th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A basic questions that managers should ask above the noise and bustle of the day. Every group needs a person who asks a nagging question or two every day or week or month or two. Is this working? Of course this is working. What do you think? We are all busy; we […]

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Tags: Accountability · Communication · Management · Questions

Problems With (or Without) Solutions

March 20th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We were once told, “Don’t bring me a problem without a solution.” I hope most of us have ignored that. There was a time when I was repeatedly told at work, “Don’t bring me a problem without a solution.” The idea was that bosses had enough to do already and didn’t need […]

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Tags: Management · Problems · Solutions

What Work?

October 13th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A recent major survey shows that managers and the managed disagree on what work is and isn’t. Microsoft recently surveyed 20,000 persons across 11 countries about work. The result: 87% of the managed felt they worked as, or more, efficiently from home 80% of managers felt that at-home workers weren’t working Here […]

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Tags: Alternatives · Employment · Leadership · Management · Remote Work · Work

Scale or Interest?

August 15th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This solution didn’t scale, so we stopped using it when it hit its limit. Perhaps the actual explanation is that we lost interest in this solution, so we stopped using it when we became tire of it. There are many occasions when a new system works when it is new. Everyone is […]

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Tags: Expectations · Fatigue · Management · Problems · Scale · Solutions

The Clipboard and the Pencil…and Organizing the Work

July 21st, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Overwhelmed with many tasks and people? Grab a clipboard and a pencil. This one may require a clipboard with a bigger clip that has a bigger capacity than most, but the basic tools will suffice. There are too many tasks and too many people. Emails and text messages and notes from here […]

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Tags: Management · Portfolio · Resources · Simple · Technology · Tools · Work

How’sit Goin’?

July 14th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This is one of the fundamental questions that persons working projects need to answer. We know what we are attempting, but we don’t know the actual progress and how that compares to the expected progress. There are several fundamental questions that should be asked and answered by people working on projects. Among […]

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Tags: Communication · Management · Questions · Work

The Boy Who Cried Wolf and Other Tales of Adulthood in the 2020s

June 9th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Please, choose words wisely so that actions will match the words. Yesterday, I was hit with a couple of examples of the Aesop’s fable. The trouble was, these were real life, and a boy wasn’t crying—it was adults jabbering nonsense. I won’t repeat the examples. There is something about these crying-wolf examples […]

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Tags: Expectations · Fable · Honesty · Integrity · Management · Word

The Standard Configuration

May 23rd, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Start at the beginning and build from there. That sure is boring. That is the standard configuration. If, however, resources are scarce and the desire to accomplish new work is high, it is a good place to start. I recently restarted a new job. That is a long story for another day. […]

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Tags: Adapting · Baseline · Culture · Learning · Management · Process · Systems · Work