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

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Entries Tagged as 'Respect'

Specifics Usually Mean the Opposite

July 29th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips When someone is quite specific in what they convey, they often mean the opposite. “I will inject some humor here,” often means that nothing funny will be said. “I don’t care about the money,” often means that I really do care about the money coming my way. “We are transparent here,” often […]

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Tags: Authentic · Communication · Expectations · Respect · Trust

Communications Channels and Checks

July 8th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Let not check a communications channel using that same communications channel. It is pretty silly to do so. Since the great pandemic of the early 2020s, I have been part of countless ZoomerTeams meetings. Almost every one starts with, “Can everyone hear me?” Let’s pause and think. If a participant cannot hear […]

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Tags: Appearances · Clarity · Communication · Conversation · Respect · Thinking

I Don’t Understand What You Are Saying

June 10th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we just don’t understand when someone else doesn’t understand. I was recently attending a meeting online. This was one of those ZoomerTeams things where the PowerPoint was on the screen and the presenter was talking in a room with one of those microphones on the conference table. I couldn’t understand what […]

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Tags: Clarity · Communication · Expectations · Honesty · Humility · Listening · Respect

Sharing Risk: What Do You Have to Lose?

January 25th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips In our personal lives, we often take all the risk without asking others to share it. The basic, but rarely asked, question is, “What does each person have to lose?” I am sitting here sipping coffee pondering what to do. Someone is asking me to wait, and wait, and wait. Perhaps they […]

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Tags: Accountability · Alternatives · Conversation · Differences · Economics · Respect · Risk

Speaking English or Some Other Private Language

September 1st, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips If someone asks a question in English, please answer in English. Please avoid some other private language. In recent conversations, I asked, “Your research, how far ahead in time are you working? Your work may become reality in 1, 5, 10 years?” The answer was, “TRL 4.” (see this for a translation) […]

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Tags: Clarity · Communication · Conversation · Language · Respect · Vocabulary

Putting a Face to a Name

August 25th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Perhaps this is the complaint of an old man, but all the Zoomer Teams meetings just aren’t getting it done. The title of this post is an old expression from an old time. We used to talk with people on the telephone. That worked to a point, but we couldn’t “picture” the […]

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Tags: Appearances · Clarity · Humility · Respect · Stories · Trust · Video · Work

Free for More Meaningful Work

May 2nd, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Automation and artificial intelligence promise to take away the bane of some work and make us free for more meaningful work. Do we want that? Automation frees us from that old work that is just the same old same old. We will have time on our hands and be free for more […]

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · People · Respect · Technology · Tools · Vocabulary · Work

Abbreviations, Grouping Persons, and Removing Accountability

February 28th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This bothers me—this bothers me often and deeply. We abbreviate or shorten descriptions of individual persons. We “lump them together” so as not to name individuals or describe them. Such removes accountability. This bothers me. Here is a news story about the Congress of the United States. There are hundreds of such […]

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Tags: Accountability · Clarity · Communication · Respect · Writing

It Works When We Want It To

November 8th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Most systems “work” as we intend when enough people want them to. Those people cooperate with the system and one another. Democracy works because people want it to. There is much freedom in democratic systems. That freedom works because people want it to. People realize the value of the freedom and don’t […]

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Tags: Accountability · Agreement · General Systems Thinking · Respect · Trust

Rules We Cannot Enforce

October 14th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We make rules. Why? Sometimes it is petty and to serve our ego. Pause and think (two pretty good rules about rules). We make a rule for or over or against the persons we know or our work colleagues. We cannot enforce that rule over all the persons who are supposed to […]

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Tags: Adults · Purpose · Respect · Trust · Work