Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

When confronted with non-sensical information, first ask to know what the other person knows.

This first happened to me over 20 years ago. I was sitting in a medical office at a government agency. A doctor was reading my file and talking to me about my health. He made a few comments that didn’t make any sense to me. Then he looked at me, looked at my file, looked at me again, and said, “You’ve lost a lot of weight recently.”

Something clicked in my mind out of no where and I asked, “Whose file are you reading?”

The doctor’s response led us to discover that he was reading the file of another Dwayne Phillips – not me.

Fast forward a dozen years; I am sitting in an internal job interview. A person on the interview panel tells me, “We are a bit concerned about your stability. You changed jobs three times in one year.”

Flashbacks to the doctor’s office led me to ask to see what the person was seeing. Sure enough, my official file showed that I had changed jobs three times in one year. I explained that I had not changed jobs, but that the organization had changed its name three times in one year.

These are silly misunderstandings, right? They don’t happen often, right?

I answer “wrong” to both questions. Misunderstandings happen often. Whether we label them as “silly” or “serious” is a matter of opinion. It is silly when it hurts you, but serious when it hurts me.

If you are sitting in the same room with a person who is judging you, you are fortunate. Take advantage of your good fortune and ask to know what the other person knows. Often, they are holding incorrect information in their hands.

by Dwayne Phillips

Children are easy to read as they haven’t yet perfected how to “act.” Adults are different, and I work with adults, so I have to ask them questions.

Children don’t walk normally unless they are thinking about something else. They tend to scamper or duck their head and half run. They think that their parents won’t notice them running through a public place where they shouldn’t be running.

Adults, on the other hand, have learned how to “act.” I guess we have learned how to behave, but I think the word “act” better describes us. We mask what we are thinking behind a facade of proper behavior.

If I want to know what my 4-year-old grandson is thinking, I just look at him.

I don’t, however, work with my 4-year-old grandson. He hasn’t yet mastered calculus and computer programming. I work with adults. The only way I know of understanding what an adult is thinking is to ask them and ask them and ask them and…well, you get the idea.

by Dwayne Phillips

Programming languages are relevant but not critical to software engineers, but recruiters at job fairs love this question. For the record, I list my languages.

I have been going to job fairs recently trying to find a job. People claim they are looking for systems engineers, software engineers, and software systems engineers. The first question they ask, however, is:

What programming languages do you know?

I try to understand. They are recruiters. They are given a list of questions to ask. They really don’t understand the words they are using. I smile. I try not to lecture them on the field of endeavor. There are two little statements that summarize the field:

Software engineers analyze requirements and design software that will meet requirements.

Programmers write programs.

I guess I am stupid or something, because I don’t understand how recruiters don’t understand this.

But for the record, here are, to the best of my recollection, the languages I have used to write working software:

1. Z-80 assembly language (in hex a octal)
2. 8080 assembly language
3. 8086 assembly language
4. IBM 360 assembly language
5. IBM Job Control Language
6. PL/C
7. PL/I
8. Pascal
9. LISP
10. Prolog
11. C
12. C++
13. C#
14. Objective C
15. Java
16. Perl
17. TCL
18. MS Basic
19. Basic
20. FORTRAN – at least half a dozen versions
21. Python
22. JavaScript
23. Ada
24. DOS .bat files
25. Unix C-Shell
26. Bourne Shell
27. Bourne Again Shell
28. Algol
29. APL
30. AHPL
31. TeX
32. LaTeX
33. HTML
34. DocBook

I hope this list will convince recruiters that I understand programming and programming languages and that is there is a language that I need to understand, I will be able to understand it quickly.

by Dwayne Phillips

Google Glass is causing a panic in some circles as wearable computing is considered by some to be a threat. We all missed the boat as wearable computing has been here for years in the form of hearing aids.

Google Glass is going to be the end of civilization as we know it.

Well, maybe that is a bit exaggerated. Let’s try this one:

Google Glass is going to be the end of privacy as we know it.

There is more truth to that one.

People fear other people wearing computers. I find some validity to that fear. Computers can be used to sense or monitor or used in surveillance of other people. Hence, we are not at ease when someone is in our presence wearing a computer.

Well, I hate to burst the bubble of civilization or public privacy or whatever we call it, but some among us have been wearing computers for years.

They call them hearing aids.

The computing power and algorithms embedded in hearing aids is amazing. Some hearing aid users wear a pendant around their neck, usually hidden under their shirts, that packs more compute power than an iPhone. The hearing aids can easily be reprogrammed to record everything that happens in a room. But:

Hearing aids don’t have cameras.

That seems to be the big deal. People are afraid of having their image recorded. People don’t seem to be afraid of having their speech recorded. Perhaps ignorance is bliss; perhaps their is a difference between imagery and sound. Perhaps we just haven’t thought about this.

After all, Google is famous. Who makes hearing aids anyway? Certainly not Google or Apple or anyone we should fear. Right?

by Dwayne Phillips

No, I didn’t write the title backwards. I believe that dedication among employees requires good performance from managers. Some people demonstrate dedication in exceptional circumstances. As managers, we should recognize such dedication and ensure that we do not squander their efforts.

I don’t want to belittle the effort required of being a manager. Being a good manager requires dedication. I manage programs and supervise people. I work hard and long hours to be a good manager.

I want us, however, to consider another aspect of the relationship between managing and dedication. This aspect requires extra effort from a manager whenever an employee demonstrates dedication.

We recently had an emergency at work. Carol, a manager of our field users, came to me at midday with a major problem. An important opportunity had presented itself. Carol’s group had been hoping for this opportunity, but had not expected it now. Carol needed a system ready for the field tomorrow, and she didn’t know where or how to get one.

I knew where to find the components and how to prepare a system. Just to be safe, I called an employee named Lisa and asked her to meet me at our lab to help me build a system. Lisa agreed to drop what she was doing for the day and meet me at the lab.

What should have been easy (have you ever heard those words?) turned into a frustrating day. Inexplicable hardware problems caused Lisa and I to go around in circles all afternoon. We were still chasing problems when I had to leave at 4 o’clock for other appointments. Lisa told me that she would keep working, but she didn’t know how long she would be able to stay.

The next day I went to our lab at 6 AM to continue the work. I found notes describing failures scattered throughout the lab on various hardware components. In the middle of the room was a system ready to go to the field. Carol would be able to take advantage of the opportunity that we had all hoped for.

I then checked my e-mail and read a note from Lisa. She had worked until 9 the night before. She had used every bit of hardware in the lab to piece together a system that would work. Without any prior notice, without me asking, and without any promise of reward, Lisa had worked a 13-hour day so that other people could succeed half-a-world away. Lisa was dedicated to the success of our group.

I stood there alone in the lab at six in the morning considering what Lisa had done. One thought that came to me was that I had better not blow this opportunity. Lisa had worked too hard for me as a manager to botch this operation.

Things didn’t go as planned in the next few days. Carol didn’t grab the system and immediately send it to the field; Lisa really didn’t have to work until 9 PM to prepare a system. This was a big disappointment to me. We had to work through unforeseen logistical and political problems before we shipped the system. There were several chances for the entire situation to fall apart. I kept remembering Lisa’s dedication and I pushed myself to ensure that we wouldn’t waste her efforts. We overcame many problems and shipped the system the next week. The field operations people eventually succeeded.

When people show dedication and devote themselves beyond what anyone asks, we as managers better perform as well. If we let their dedication and hard work go to waste, they will never give that type of effort again. Our failure will kill any spark of imagination, creativity, and desire that exists in the people who work with us.

I recommend several things for managers like me who are privileged to work with people like Lisa. First, don’t expect dedication. Dedication to quality and to colleagues is an exception and not the norm to be expected.

Next, notice dedication. This requires noticing everyone and the work they do everyday. I know that my colleagues are paid salaries for their time, knowledge, and effort. Lisa, however, showed dedication far beyond her salary.

Once you notice dedication, appreciate it. This doesn’t have to be a monetary or merchandise award. It can be as simple yet heart felt as saying, “Lisa, I appreciated how you worked so long and hard to put together a system for us. Thank you.”

Most importantly, follow through as a manager when someone shows dedication. Work hard and smart so that their efforts come to fruition instead of being wasted.

by Dwayne Phillips

When starting an endeavor that seeks the educate and spread information, here is a meager goal – don’t make the people less interested in the topic.

Consultant and author Jerry Weinberg taught this one to me. It is his goal when teaching a class or seminar. At the end, he wants to ask, “Are the people less interested in the subject?” If the answer is, “no,” he has succeeded.

That is a meager goal. It stems from the old medical goal of, “do no harm” or “don’t make the patient any sicker.”

I find this meager goal to be applicable to many endeavors.

• A producer makes a movie and puts it in theaters. When people watch the movie do they walk away thinking, “I will never spend a nickel on another movie in my live! Movies are terrible!”
• A band gives a performance. Do the concert attenders walk away thinking, “I will never attend another concert again! They are terrible!”
• I write a book instructing people how to use fill-in-the-blank-with-a-management-technique. Will the readers toss the book in the trash and say, “I’ll never try that technique!” or “I’ll never read another management book!”

Of course, I have to ask the same question about this blog post. After reading it, will people say:

• I’ll never read another blog post again.
• I’ll never read anything that Dwayne writes again.
• I’ll never ask the meager question posed in this post.

And so on…

Hmm, maybe this isn’t so much of a meager goal after all. Maybe it is a high standard that I’ll struggle to achieve.

by Dwayne Phillips

Before putting your work on a computer, do it by pencil and paper for a year.

I developed this guideline about 20 years ago. I kept seeing people spending lots of money (million$) creating databases and such to help them do their work.  Most of the work was simple, like:

We have several thousand items in this room. People check out items. We need to know where any item is at any time.

• A Solution: put a person at the door with a clipboard, piece of paper, and a pencil. If needed, put a mean dog next to the person.
• Another Solution: spend a million dollars buying a big computer, a database system, and hiring a couple of database programmers.

People chose Another Solution. Go$h.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, they were spending taxpayers’ dollars.

Aside from wasting money, the result was a system that didn’t help people accomplish their work. They tried the computerized system – for a little while. They stopped using it after a couple of weeks because it didn’t do what they wanted.

They didn’t understand their work. They had not done it long enough to understand it.

So, here is the part where I dispense the sage advice:

• Do your work with a pencil and paper for a year (see Note)
• Tear up the results
• Try it again
• Be frustrated
• Smash your head against the wall
• Now you are ready to speak with a systems analyst who may be able to help you with a computer system that improves your work

Note: Don’t take “a year” literally. Maybe six months, maybe two years, whatever is appropriate.

by Dwayne Phillips

Another embarrassing blog post: please put the date on your blog posts and articles.

I am really embarrassed to be writing this one, but I do so because I continue to read posts and articles that are not dated. Was the piece written five minutes or five years ago? I don’t know because there is no date.

Okay, so here we go.

When you write something:

• 0.1 Write your name
• 0.2 Write the date
• 1.0 Write everything else

If nothing else, you have now copyrighted your thoughts. Beyond that, you provide a context for your thoughts and, per the old saying…

A text without a context is a pretext.

by Dwayne Phillips

Basic advice to managers about correcting the course of an endeavor. Be quick and be easy on everyone.

The title of this little management advisory is from author and consultant Jerry Weinberg. He wrote about it in one of his books. I also found mention of this in a blog post by Fadi Stephan.

Stated simply in a negative form:

Don’t overcompensate

One of the first things about being a manager is that,

the manager is the person who looks ahead.

Everyone else on a project is working today on today’s task. Today’s task must be finished before we work on tomorrow’s task. The manager isn’t working on any tasks – that isn’t the manager’s job.

The manager looks ahead and asks questions like:

• What is happening today?
• How will that affect us tomorrow?
• What is coming tomorrow?
• Is what we are doing well today going to be a disaster tomorrow?
• How can I change things today to better prepare us for tomorrow?

The wise manager is acting ahead of tomorrow.

the wise manager is acting early

Now we go back to that overcompensating thing. Poor-performing managers, as a former government employee I saw many of these, make big changes. The organization lurches. People spend half the day drinking coffee and complaining about what is happening. And then some people say,

Oh yeah? The smart SOB, or DOB, wants us to do it that way? I’ll really do it that way!

The next week, the SOB or DOB changes greatly in the other direction to over compensate for last week’s over compensation. The wild fluctuations continue.

Advice? (Of course I have advice.)

1. Look ahead
2. Think
3. Make small changes

How do you do #3?

One person at a time

1. Speak to one person in calm, thoughtful, and positive terms.
2. Repeat step 1.

by Dwayne Phillips

Once again I attempt to make a million dollars be creating a three-letter acronym – DIN.

Some 30 years ago (yes, I am that old), I was pouring myself a cup of coffee at work. On the bulletin board in front of me was an article cut from the newspaper (see ANOTHER NOTE below). The article was about GTD (getting things done for the acronym-challenged folks reading this). The secret, as proposed by this newspaper clipping, to GTD was:

Do It Now

• Don’t think about it
• Don’t write a reminder for yourself
• Just do it – right now

Being young (way back then) and impressionable (still am), I tried this idea. It worked. It worked so well that I kept doing it and am still doing it today.

Yes, there are some tasks that I can’t do now (I won’t go into a list here, maybe later ;-). Still, the majority of tasks can be done now.

So here, goes, my three-letter acronym that I have yet to see anywhere else:

DIN

Put that one next to DIY, GTD, and so on. Give me credit. Send me royalty checks. Call me for the motion picture rights.

NOTE: While researching this little blog post that might make me a million dollars, I found this excellent post from Steve Pavlina in which he advocates the Do It Now idea. He, however, doesn’t seem to use the DIN acronym.

ANOTHER NOTE: People used to do that kind of thing. We had these objects called bulletin boards that were attached to the walls. People would cut items out of the paper newspaper and paper magazines and attach those paper items to the bulletin board with a small pointy object called a thumbtack or a push pin. See Pinterest for something that resembles these push pins. See any wiki for something that resembles a bulletin board.