Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Everyone claims agreement. Great. Let’s just test that statement with a blank sheet of paper.

The beginning of this post is copied from a post a couple years back. Then we pick up with a different test.

“We all agree on what we are to do!” claimed a person full of hope and anxious to get to work.

“Wow, great,” said a second person who likes to hear good news, but is skeptical when hearing that, “Everyone is in agreement.”

“Let’s confirm that,” suggests the second person.

The first person, pauses and stops breathing. “Well,” says the first person, “everyone is nodding, so that confirms it.”

“Maybe,” says the second person, “and since you are so confident, let’s take just a couple of minutes to confirm.”

All the persons who were nodding stop nodding and also stop breathing.

“Please,” says the second person, “No one say anything while we confirm this and no one look at what your neighbor will be writing.”

The second person gives all the agree-ers a blank sheet of paper. Each person has a pen or pencil.

“Okay,” says the second person, “everyone write the agreement on their sheet of paper. Please, no talking and no peaking at anyone else’s piece of paper. Just jot the agreement, a few lines or sentences will be fine. And don’t write your name on your paper.”

Everyone writes, and the second person collects the pieces of paper without looking at any of them. The second person shuffles the pieces of paper.

The second person randomly pulls one piece of paper, sets it face down on the table, and folds the rest of the papers.

“Okay,” says the second person holding the randomly selected piece of paper. “We will implement what is on this piece of paper word for word without further ado.”

“But wait,” interrupted the first person who was full of hope and anxious to get to work. “Let’s read it first and discuss it and make sure that it is correct and…”

“Huh?” asked the second person. “You said everyone agreed. Hence, what anyone wrote would be what everyone agreed. Let’s get to work.”

Of course the group insisted on reading what was on the piece of paper and changing every word. Of course the group had not agreed on what they wanted to do. Perhaps the little exercise helped them to understand that. Perhaps. Let’s do better.

Two minutes later, the second person collects all the pieces of paper.

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes some persons excel to the point where they need to be fired.

You have outgrown what we do here. You are much more capable than we need. You are fired.

Those words don’t make sense. If someone has improved and improved, we want them to stay with us, right? Perhaps not. Consider a person who does the lighting and sound for a small theater group. They are creative. They learn the current technologies. They imagine the next technologies. They can do much more than they are doing now, but they need more and better equipment to express their bountiful creativity.

We don’t have more and better stuff for them. They need to go to Las Vegas or Hollywood or someplace where the resources are available to match their ability.

You’re good. You’re too good for us. Move on and move up. You’re fired. Now go and grow.

Doesn’t make sense at first, but it makes sense later.

by Dwayne Phillips

Let’s pay attention to some basic math. We don’t like that, but we are adults, so let’s behave accordingly.

In some respects, asking, “What is 50% of 50%?” is silly.

Ask a mathematician that question. I did recently and the response was a laugh. The answer is 2,500%%.

Huh? Everyone knows that 50% is a half and a half of a half is a quarter. Well, not really. 50% is 100% times a half. This confuses me until I write it down and work through it piece by piece.

But everyone knows that 50% is a half and a half of a half is a quarter.

Sometimes it is good to step back and consider the definitions of things and work our way through the logic. Sometimes it is better to go along, because everyone knows that 50% is a half and a half of a half is a quarter.

by Dwayne Phillips

These new chattering bots like ChatGPT are great word multipliers. Do we need word multipliers? That is the question.

Try this at home:

• “Tell ChatGPT” to give me 500 words on topic X.
• Ask ChatGPT to give me the top five points of those 500 words.
• For each of the five points, tell ChatGPT to give me 500 words.

I am now up to 2,500 words in ten minutes. In another ten minutes I will have 5,000 words. In an hour I will have 50,000 words. 50,000 words is a book. There, done it. I wrote a book using a software tool in an hour.

If I push this idea, I can produce an encyclopedia in a day or two.

But wait, I already have an encyclopedia. Why do I want to make another one? ChatGPT mimics the world’s encyclopedias. Did we do anything there or just mimic a mimic and end where we started?

I’m starting to confuse myself.

These chattering things are great at multiplying words. Start with a sentence and have a book in an hour. Wow! I guess that is an accomplishment. Or is it? Is that book worth having? These are too many questions for a rainy Saturday morning.

by Dwayne Phillips

Learning is good as it leads to better performance and other beneficial things. There are tools available that accelerate learning. Let’s use those.

I try to learn. Sometimes I forget to learn. Yes, fatigue clobbers my mind and I simply forget to notice things, store them, and use them.

There are tools that help me to learn. These tools accelerate learning. Some examples:

Keep 3×5 cards and a pencil in my shirt pocket at all times. See something; note it.

Wear a charm bracelet. Each charm on the bracelet is a reminder of something that I might otherwise forget.

Keep cheat sheets in a notebook that is always with me. What was that four-key shortcut to do something important? It’s on the cheat sheet. What was that question that I should ask at the end of a meeting? It’s on the cheat sheet.

Wear a great big set of notes on a sleeve. Hey, pro athletes who are paid $20 million a year wear them. Why can’t I?

A shirt that has all the important reminders printed on it upside down. When I glance down at me odd shirt, I can read the reminders.

Put a picture of someone I respect on the wall of the conference room. That person is watching me while I’m in meetings. That person would tell me, “Dwayne, don’t forget to …”

The list can continue. The list is different for every person. Accelerate learning. We can do this.

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes, the better way to do something isn’t as much fun.

A few years ago, I wrote a book on software project management. I began the book with the words, “I like to write software.” I did and still do like to write software. I am simulating a machine that does wonderful things for people to improve their lives. Great stuff.

I went on in the book to note that, well, sometimes someone was paying me to accomplish something that they wanted. They were paying the bill and they expected some efficiency and the like.

But, efficiency and the like (do it right the first time) was sometimes just plain “no fun.”

Take time and care and do it right the first time. That is if someone else is paying you to do it that way. If I am independently wealthy, I can do it the fun way all the time. It is generally helpful to understand the difference between the two situations and act accordingly.

by Dwayne Phillips

Once a meeting ends, the after meeting begins and the real work is done. Can we do this better?

I’ve seen it a thousand times—literally a thousand times. I’ve attended that many meetings. The meeting has its agenda and participants. The meeting is conducted. We are finished.

People stay in the room or the hallway just outside the room or (my least favorite) in the bathroom down the hall. “Ya’ know,” begins the after-meeting conversation, “I was thinking while we were talking in the meeting, and …”

What ensues is the best exchange of ideas all day. The after meeting brings much better information to a limited audience than the meeting did.

Several thoughts:

• Maybe the limited audience of the after meeting was a smaller, better size.
• Maybe the limited audience of the after meeting had just the right people and no one else.
• Maybe the actual meeting should have had scheduled quiet times where people could think before the next topic was raised.
• Maybe the agenda of the actual meeting was wrong.
• Maybe the actual meeting was designed to limit thought and ideas.
• Maybe we are doing the actual meetings all wrong.

Perhaps the last bullet summarizes all of this: we are doing the meetings all wrong. The free form of the after meeting is a much better format for thought and ideas.

Let’s do better. Here is one suggestion; at some point in the actual meeting (on the agenda) someone stands and says, “We aren’t having any after meetings. This is it, folks. Let’s take a five-minute break (actually timed) with no talking during the break. After the break, we will chat like we usually do in after meetings. Let’s officially capture all those usually-said-in-the-after-meetings thoughts. And, there will be a 24-hour period where anyone can add to the meeting notes with an email or something.”

Let’s do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

We have tools that multiply our productivity. Every age seems to have such tools. Will we have the sense of urgency to use these tools this time around?

From what I can find, the screwdriver was invented in the late 1400s. It was created to, of course, turn screws. The screws were a new type of fastener. People adopted them to hold pieces of metal together. The primary use was building suits of armor, i.e., weapons of war. These fasteners and the tools to fasten them were adopted by people who wanted to do a better job faster. They had a sense of urgency, i.e., win wars.

Today we have new tools. One set of tools creates what is called a DevSecOps pipeline. This helps software developers produce more faster. Another new set of tools is ChatGPT and all these other chatbots. They help people write hundreds of words in less than a minute.

Wow! A leap in productivity much like the screw and the screwdriver.

But… this time around, most people aren’t using these new tools. And some folks who claim to use them are just piddling around and boasting about something they really don’t do. A sense of urgency is missing.

In some respects, we are in a full-employment economy. There are plenty of unemployed people, but more unfilled jobs than unemployed people. The unemployed have little sense of urgency to take an open job.

So, here we are—little urgency to take an open job and little urgency to be more productive when in a job. We are an odd lot. If history predicts the future, there will come a time when a group of persons has a sense of urgency and leaps ahead. The rest will sort of follow in their own time at their own pace.

by Dwayne Phillips

It is often best to leave the conversations of another profession to those other professionals.

I am an engineer. There, got that out of the way. And I have a Doctor of Philosophy or PhD in engineering. I have not idea why they call the degree by that name. Oh well, got that out of the way as well.

Recently, engineers have discussed some of the software they engineered. We use words like “hallucinate,” “bias,” and such. Sounds like philosophic terms, but we apply these to the machines we have built.

As an engineer, ever hear two philosophers talk about engineering? Oh my gosh! What a joke.

Ever hear two philosophers discuss the conversation of two engineers when the topic is philosophy? Oh no, us engineers understand philosophy just fine, right? We couldn’t possibly sound as silly as …

Yes, we can; yes, we do. Stick to engineering or philosophy or whatever is my field. Let the other folks discuss their field. Don’t borrow adjectives from their field and misapply it to my field. We can do better.

by Dwayne Phillips

One basic way to think through to the end is to ask the next question.

“And then what happens,” a four-year-old child’s question that is asked repeatedly.

Yes, some four-year-old children have endless curiosity. That is wonderful. That is learning. Let it flourish.

Adults? Sometimes we just want the meeting to end so we can go piddle with something else. We have questions, but, hey, if no one else is asking the question, everyone else must know everything else, and let’s go.

Sorry. If the question is in my mind, I cannot assume it is in anyone else’s. I should ask. Then I should ask the next question, and the next, and the next until we reach the end. At that point, we have thought it through to the end.

Why? Because is we can think of a way to reach the end, perhaps we can reach the end. There are times when we just cannot think all the way through. That is life, but let’s try. Thinking and talking in a room full of people is expensive. Projects that fail a year later are much more expensive.

Think. Ask the next question. Learn.