by Dwayne Phillips We tend to have many meetings—”many” being subjective. Since we do this so often, let try to do it better. I worked for the Federal government for several decades. Government employees meet in groups several times every day. I have also worked for companies on government contracts. We met with the government […]
Entries Tagged as 'Simple'
Let’s Do Meetings Better
December 11th, 2023 · No Comments
Tags: Decide · Improvement · Management · Meetings · Purpose · Simple
Too Simple
March 13th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips We tend to want complex things. Too simple shows that we didn’t work hard, right? No, that is usually wrong. It happened again at work this week… Someone wanted a couple of sentences that summarized a project. The project had been running for ten years and is a success. Lots of people […]
Tags: Brevity · Clarity · Communication · Simple · Writing
We Don’t Need to Do That (yes, we do)
December 1st, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips We aren’t as smart as we assume. Sometimes we need to do the simple things first before we move forward. “Can we introduce ourselves before we start?” I asked at a meeting. “No, we know each other here,” said the person presiding. We introduced ourselves first. The person presiding was thrilled to […]
Tags: Jobs · Meetings · Simple · Tools
A Simple and Functional Database
September 26th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Stop worrying about the next technology. Do something simple that has all the functions you need. The database. Sigh. Gosh, what is next? What is the next database technology that will solve all my problems? Requirements: Enter information. Find entered information. Read entered information. Change entered information. Solution: The ASCII text file. […]
Tags: Analysis · Computing · Data Science · History · Record · Simple · Technology · Writing
The Compliance Matrix
August 1st, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I take the time to describe an old tool that helps us do what is asked. There is room for doing more, but we should at least do what is asked. There is an old tool called a compliance matrix. For mathematicians, I apologize for the word “matrix” as this is a […]
Tags: Baseline · Requirements · Simple · Systems · Tools
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 […]
Tags: Management · Portfolio · Resources · Simple · Technology · Tools · Work
Those Wrist Bands
May 19th, 2022 · No Comments
By Dwayne Phillips We all have a less-than-perfect memory. Let us admit that and use little gadgets that help us remember to do what we know we should do. I keep noticing professional and other high-level athletes wearing giant wrist bands. I guess ”wrist band” is incorrect as these things cover the entire forearm of […]
Tags: Competence · Help · Humility · Information · Meetings · Notebook · Remember · Simple
The Clipboard and the Pencil…and the Hurricane
November 1st, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Unfortunate events provide yet another great reason to use a clipboard and a pencil. My records indicate that this is the fourth blog post I have written about the clipboard and the pencil. The gist is that these old, simple tools are still quite valuable. Hence, we might reconsider a few other […]
Tags: Adapting · Emergency · Internet · Learning · Notebook · Simple · Technology · Tools
Do that Tomorrow, Too
October 7th, 2021 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips A phrase to add to every assignment or action item or anything that goes on a “to do” list. Years ago, author and consultant Jerry Weinberg gave an assignment to attendees of his writing seminar. It was something like: Think of what you should write today. Write that. Do that tomorrow, too. […]
Tags: Change · Decide · Experiment · Growth · Planning · Self · Simple
What is Complicated, the Thing or the Description of the Thing?
November 30th, 2020 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips It sure is hard to understand fill-in-the-blank. Or is it hard to understand what someone wrote about it? I recently experimented with Jekyll. Good grief! That’s complicated! I also experimented with Git and GitHub. Good grief! Those things are complicated! And then I read several textbooks on machine learning and convolutional neural […]