Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips The person asking the questions drives the conversation. Take care when inviting such. “Any questions?” asked many confident, but somewhat ignorant persons. The person asking the questions drives the conversation. “What about the color of the coffee cups?,” asked someone. “Er, but I want to show you our new fill-in-the-blank,” replied the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Many of our problems already have solutions in waiting. And many of these are effective and inexpensive. Person A: My kid won’t stop chewing on fill-in-the-blank. Person B: Put a drop of fill-in-the-other-blank on it. It will taste bad, and the kid will stop chewing on it. Person A: Oh. … Person […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Some matters are certain in my mind. Others are a bit fuzzy behind a veil of doubt and cause me to argue with myself. There are times for both situations. Some things are fuzzy in my mind. I am not certain about them. I have to argue with myself. I start a […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Will the solution solve anything? Will the solution make the situation worse? “Let’s fix that!”—the cry of the optimistic solution-er. Will the solution improve our situation or only make it worse? A long-time colleague once described a situation he faced decades ago. Things at home were a mess. His wife and kids […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Questions often accompany learning. Not everyone, however, wants to provide me with opportunities to learn. I have two grandchildren. They are growing, changing, learning, and questioning everyday. It is a joy to observe and participate. They ask questions. My granddaughter, ever the good school student, even raises her hand sometimes when she […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I can’t seem to think of the right questions at the right time. There are a couple of questions that I can always ask to compensate. I sit with someone trying to learn something from them. I ask; they answer, and we repeat. Our time together ends. Fifteen minutes later, after we […]

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by Dwayne Phillips One way to stay out of trouble. Twin girls. You date one of them. Someone comes up to you and asks, “So, you tried to date the pretty one, but she said no and you have this one?” There is no good answer. Do you still beat your wife? No good answer. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips “Are you a people person?” is one of the most moronic questions ever asked. What is more important to me, people or projects? What is more important to me, people or products? People or things? These are silly questions. If a building is on fire, and I can only save a product […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Let’s reduce all this accountability business to a simple question. The Accountability Question: “What happens if I don’t do this? (thing you told me to do or some regulation or policy says I have to do)” If the answer is, “nothing.” Well then, we have no accountability. Or maybe this “thing” just […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A speaker can lead an accepting or friendly audience just about anywhere. Hostile audiences, however, can uncover holes in thought. I recommend the questioning group—especially when the stakes are high. It was a senior-level course in Electrical Engineering. The teacher, I can’t recall his name, but I do remember that he didn’t […]

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