Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes we find a small shiny object that we R E A L L Y want. Then we go about finding problems that it will solve. Yikes.

Here is the traditional or accepted way to solve a problem:

1. State the problem
2. State several solutions to the problem
3. Pick the “best” solution
4. Go back to step 1. and think some more

That is called “problem solving.” We have a problem; we seek a solution.

Then there is “solution probleming.” I was surprised to find that I have not written about this topic before. The phrase comes from the good old book “Are Your Lights On?: How to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is” by Donald C. Gause and Gerald M. Weinberg.

In solution probleming, we begin with something that we like. We R E A L L Y like it. It may be expensive, but no matter, we R E A L L Y like it. Now we need to justify this thing we R E A L L Y like. We follow a procedure that is something like:

1. See some thing that we R E A L L Y like
2. Find a problem that this thing solves
3. Repeat step 2. a bunch of times

There. We found a solution. Then we found problems. We were “solution probleming.”

The major problem with this method is that sometimes it works. Once in a great while it works and it is spectacular. WOW! We tend to recall that once in a great while event and give it enough weight that we justify this method for just about everything just about everyday.

Sorry. The method doesn’t work often. That means it doesn’t work with the small shiny object I saw this morning and I know it will solve a bunch of problems in my life and give me enough time to list all those problems and build a justification for this and all will be great no matter what the cost and…

Sorry. It doesn’t work.

by Dwayne Phillips

Information at the bottom of an organization usually doesn’t move up to the top.

In the past, I have written about the information thermocline and the authority thermocline. Organizations have levels. Even “flat” organizations—regardless of claims to the contrary—have levels. Information and authority don’t flow down into the lower levels. About half of everything stops at each level.

Today I write of the reverse situation:

Information does not flow up in organizations.

About half of the information at the bottom of an organization stops at each level as it tries to rise to the top. Believe it or not, persons at the top need to know what is happening at the “working level.” Sometimes, persons at the top want to know what is happening at the “working level.”

The CEO of Wendy’s needs to know what is happening with those folks who are pressing hamburger patties to the grill and putting the lettuce and tomato on the buns. The backwards information thermocline, however, is stopping that information flow.

I mention something near and dear to my heart: Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). I first learned of this in 1983. I loved the idea. I wrote in OOP in grad school. I learned much of the concept of OOP. It had great promise.

Sorry, but OOP flOOPped or flopped or something. CEOs heard of OOP. C++ was OOP. Buy Microsoft Visual C++ and do OOP. Buy the Java IDEs and do OOP.

Persons at the bottom recognized that these tools from the major vendors that were bought by the CEOs were not OOP. They were nice tools that enabled some productivity gains, but they were not OOP. Some programmers protested. The information did not rise to the CEOs. The bad tools kept rolling in, and here we are two generations later with, well, pretty much nothing.

Are you “up” in the ladder? Go down a few rungs and have conversations with persons whose information is halved a few times before it reaches you.

You may not like what you hear, until you like that you are hearing it.

by Dwayne Phillips

The skill we should be teaching and learning and using more than any other today is question asking.

We live in a world where all the questions have answers. We just have to find the answers. We have the facts, the data, the everything online in front of us. It is there. We have provided the answers.

“We just have to…” ooops, that phrase is wrong. It should be “We will have great difficulty when we attempt to…” as in:

We will have great difficulty when we attempt to ask the right question that leads us to the answer we desire.

Example: How much did it rain in Tickfaw, Louisiana yesterday? Simple question. Simple-to-find answer. The question, however, doesn’t tell me what I really want to know. I really want to know the trend of rainfall in the region north of Lake Pontchartrain. No, I really want to know that trend since the building of the Atchafalaya Spillway. No, I really want to know how that spillway and the diverting of the Mississippi River has affected the environment in that region in the last 500 years. Well, maybe that last one is the question I want to answer.

The question asking is the difficult part. Sure, finding the right database and reading the right numbers in the right order has its challenges, but those are things we have done before and will do again.

What we haven’t done before is ask this question at this time for this reason.

That is where the difficulty lies. That is our challenge. That is where we should focus education and learning.

by Dwayne Phillips

There are many good reasons for starting small. One is that it allows room for growth, and growth brings with it optimism, hope, and other good tidings.

Start small.

There are good reasons to start small. If I do it all wrong, I have only invested small resources like time, money, equipment, emotion, etc. Small things can bring quick benefits like a few inquiries or even one paying customer (or two). Starting small teaches me if there is something “there” that I want. (Maybe that chinchilla farm wasn’t for me after all.) I could go on.

One of the benefits of starting small is that there is room for growth. I am doing more and better today than yesterday. Hmmm, I like the sound of that. I like the feel of that. I like that.

Growth shows that I can still grow. It can still learn. Learning, for me, brings hope and optimism. Those things push me forward.

I guess this is a variation of the old adage about having small expectations so I won’t be disappointed. It is better than that, though. Learning is invigorating. I can do this. I am moving. I am not retired in place.

There is a lot of “rah rah rah” pep rally stuff in this post. Sometimes that is a good thing. I hope this post was a little cheering to you as well.

by Dwayne Phillips

The words we use most often provide some indication of our selves. Try some experiments. Learn. Adjust.

Try this: right now, write ten words on whatever is in front of you. Napkin. Table cloth. Back of your hand. How many of those ten are nouns? How many are verbs?

This one is a little more difficult: listen to yourself talk for the next few minutes. Do you say more nouns or more verbs?

Verbs are action words: use, provide, try, learn, adjust, write, talk, say (from above).

Nouns are person, place, thing: words, we, indication, selves, experiments, words, whatever, you, napkin, cloth, hand, nouns, verbs, one, yourself, talk, minutes (from above).

Hmmm, I used more nouns than verbs so far in this post. Am I focusing on things more than on actions? What might that mean?

Actions are do this, do that, do the next thing. If I use more verbs, I am focusing on doing and doing and doing. Is that what I want?

Things are things. If I use more nouns, I am focusing on things and things and things. Is that what I want?

Maybe things or actions means something significant. Maybe they don’t.

Experiment. Learn. Adjust. Try it.

by Dwayne Phillips

The prolonged year of the virus is slowly moving towards an end. It will never end, but I hope we have learned a few things that we can all do.

The pandemic is declining. It is like a math function that tends to but never reaches zero. The limit as time approaches infinity is zero, but time never reaches infinity, so the pandemic never reaches zero. Enough math.

Lessons I hope we learn. There are two general categories: (1) our own health and (2) the health of others.

Our Own Health

We learned that being unhealthy greatly increased the chances of severe illness or death. Let us move from the unhealthy end of the spectrum to the health end.

Obesity: Lose weight. You don’t have to be 300 pounds to lose weight. Most men can lose 40 or 50 pounds and be significantly healthier. If you are a weight lifter, this doesn’t apply as you have muscle mass. The vast majority of us are not weight lifters. Losing weight will make us healthier. That leads to many other benefits.

Immunity: Get off prescription drugs that weaken our immune systems. This is not easy for many of us. Get healthier (see obesity) and the need for prescription drugs lessens. Don’t take prescription drugs that weaken the immune system. We have seen that oooops here comes something that requires a good immune system.

Diabetes: Do what you can to avoid this. Again, get healthier while you can.

The Health of Others

Many of us wore masks and were vaccinated because we didn’t want to spread the virus to others. We were concerned about others. Good! Let’s keep that up.

Driving: Be nice on the road. Consider other drivers.

Alcohol and Driving: They don’t mix. Stop it. Just because you are below some “legal limit,” don’t drive with alcohol ANY ALCOHOL in your system.

Protest and Property: When we break a window, we break people. Property is not life, but it is life threatening. Medical practitioners take great care when people return to see their homes after a natural disaster. People have strokes and heart attacks when they see their damaged homes. If you protest, do so peacefully with great regard towards the property of others.

General Regard: Let’s be nicer to everyone else. It doesn’t cost anything and it goes a long way.

Pollyanna

Okay, a lot of this is naive pollyanna stuff. So be it. We paid the cost of the pandemic. Let’s accept the education.

by Dwayne Phillips

Data is money. Information is money. Here is a precise, concrete, and specific example.

Data is money. Information is money. Yeah, we hear that all the time. Really? What are you trying to sell me?

A few years ago (dates and names withheld to protect the guilty) I worked in a job where we shared information about what our company did. One engineer wrote a one page of words describing how we did something (again, specifics withheld for proprietary information). I put that one page of words into a larger document that brought our company more business.

Consider that one page of words. It costs the company $1,000 to produce. It was worth a hundred times its costs in new business.

That one page of words was worth $100,000. That is data; that is information, and that is money.

In vain, I pleaded with those managing the company to save that one page of words in a place where we could use it again and again. Would we buy set of computers, use them one day, and throw them away? Of course not. We were, however, doing the same with this one page of words. We needed to put it into a system where it was easy to find and reuse.

The answer? “Mr. Smith knows where we keep everything.” We were going back to “warmware.” Need an answer? Find a warm body. What happens if Mr. Smith isn’t here? No answer.

Data and information are money sitting on the table. We can use the money or let it evaporate. One page of words is data and information. We can use the money or let it evaporate. We choose.

If you can, put the one page of words somewhere you can search, find, and use.

by Dwayne Phillips

Working from home? Ship. End of questions about working from home.

Fourteen months into the pandemic, many of us are still working from home. We are about to go back to the office building. I think. I am not sure.

There are still questions about this telecommuting, telework, work from home, and all the things we call it. Is it really working? Are those people at home really working?

How can anyone tell? Shipping.

I worked from home yesterday. Was I working? Look at the place on the network where we put finished products. There was nothing there Monday at 9 a.m. There are products there Tuesday at 9 a.m. Hmmm. Someone put them there. Oh, it was me. I shipped product on Monday.

I ship product on Tuesday and the next day and the next and the next.

Telecommuting? Ship. Shipping is more important than ever.

“But shipping product is not my job!”

That is a legitimate claim for some persons in some jobs. You can still ship. Create a list of, “I worked with so-and-so on their product. So-and-so shipped. Hence, I am part of many shipped products everyday.”

I think all this “if you work from home you have to prove yourself more than those who are ‘working’ in the office” is bologna. It is not fair. It is not right. It is reality.

If you are telecommuting, you should be shipping.

by Dwayne Phillips

Pulling information involves asking questions. It means you receive information other than what the holder of information volunteers. Ask with care.

Pulling information makes an information meeting much longer than the presenter planned. The audience asks questions to learn information that wasn’t presented. But what about this? Why say what you said? How is it that … and so on.

When you pull information over and over, presenters start to show up for the meeting with the information in hand.

When they have the information in hand, success tends to follow.

Ask the questions, daily, respectfully.

by Dwayne Phillips

Angst and polarization during the pandemic could have been greatly reduced with the use of a few magic words.

Magic words: Please and Thank you.

Some of us were taught these magic words at a young age. Somehow, we forgot them through the years. Their absence increased the angst and polarization of the pandemic.

Consider:

Please, as in, “Please wear a mask. I have this condition that makes me likely to become ill or I have a child who would become ill if I carried a virus home or…”

Thank you, as in, “I realize your situation is different from mine. You are not likely to become ill or your family members are not likely to become ill. Thank you for wearing a mask and standing back from me.”

This seems much simpler and more effective than what we did. Perhaps next time we will use the magic words.