Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The humble light bulb reminds us that we want good things, but “good” changes depending on the person and the purpose.

The light bulb is going to save the planet. Perhaps destroy it. I confuse the two sometimes.

The incandescent bulb is inefficient. It is if we are considering the amount of light it produces per the amount of power it consumes. Then again, some of us use the incandescent bulb for heat as well as light. Now it is quite efficient while LED and other sources of light and heat are inefficient.

A sheet with one hole cut in it is efficient for covering the upper torso of the human body. It beats everything else. Why would anyone buy a shirt or blouse with colors and cuts and buttons and zippers and all those other things that cost money and add no value?

Well, those designer coverings of the upper torso are efficient at something other than covering. Somehow some persons assign a measure of attractiveness to coverings of the upper torso.

It appears that “efficient” depends on what you are trying to do or have or something or the sort. Passing a law that eliminates an inefficient product means that the law passers choose what the rest of us are trying to do or have or something of the sort.

Are the law passers that much smarter than the rest of us? Is there more to efficiency than we first consider?

by Dwayne Phillips

It is often necessary but seldom practiced that a high-ranking person takes the time to tell everyone else what is happening and why. Let’s call this “micro communicating.”

Consider what I shall call “micro communicating.”

I found this practice, not the term but the practice, many years ago. An executive-level person was managing a billion-dollar project. He visited as many persons as he could who were working on the project. He didn’t care how little they did on the project, but if they did anything—including mopping floors in assembly rooms—he tried to talk to them face-to-face to ensure they knew how important the project was and how important it was for them to do their best.

By the way, these projects succeeded. I find the co-occurrence of his communication efforts and the success of the projects to be more than chance.

That is one form of micro communicating: the highest executive speaks face-to-face with anyone doing anything on the project.

Another form of micro communicating is for the highest executive to understand the details behinds communications sent upwards. This requires questions or as some call it, “pull.” Please explain to me what you mean when you say fill-in-the-blank-with-your-favorite-generalization.

It is unfortunate, but much of the communication upwards tends to gloss over details. “All is well. Just trust us.” And then a 737 falls out of the sky and subsequent micro communicating reveals … well, uh, er, lots of problems.

Yes, there is a place for a staff of persons who work the details. And yes, there is a place for an executive or someone up in the clouds to ask a detailed question that deserves a detailed answer.

Communicate the details. Communicate with everyone involved. Talk in plain language in person. It is amazing what can happen.

by Dwayne Phillips

It is a New Year (as we count time). New is something that has never been here before. New is everywhere, everyday.

A few years ago I was on a guided tour of some place unusual. I asked the tour guide what we would be seeing in the next section of the tour. His answer was, “Something you’ve never seen before.” Circumstances prevented a discussion, but…

In front of each of us at each turn of a corner or beat of a heart or blink of an eye is something we’ve never seen before. I have never experienced 9:17 AM on December 14, 2019 (the moment in the future while I type these words). Something new is coming. I predict poorly, so I await the surprise, the opportunity to learn.

Naive? Maybe. Fun? For me, yes.

If you manage work and lead persons, try to remember that they are always in new-ness. Allow them to learn; allow them to marvel.

by Dwayne Phillips

Yet another reason that writing in a weblog or a paper log is helpful.

I find many benefits to writing in a log whether that be in a paper book or in an Internet thing like this one. One benefit is that whatever thought I write is now out of my head. One cliche is, “I got that off my chest.” That is a good explanation of why I have done this blog for over a decade and written in journals for longer than that.

And now that I’ve said or written it, I can move on. The weight is gone, and all the other cliches.

Simple. True. Powerful. I can write it in a private book that only I see. I can write it here on the Internetworks where maybe a few will see it. No matter. It is out, and I move onwards.

Try it. Vent frustrations. Sing joys. Whatever. Now that I’ve said it…

by Dwayne Phillips

Why are we arguing? You, or was it me, started it. And how do we have necessary discussions without starting an argument?

We often perform better when united than when divided. (Often, not always.) We seem to divide when we argue. Who started the argument? You did. You raised the subject of whatever it is that divides us. Then we were divided.

Or did I raise the subject? Someone raised the divisive subject. And it needed to be raised, i.e., we needed to discuss it.

At this time, the reader expects me, the writer, to suggest a solution. Okay, here is a simple but painful solution that we probably won’t use because while it is simple, it is painful.

Divisive subjects can be raised when persons in the room are practically division proof. Division-proof groups have spent time with one another and have built a sense of trust, i.e., we know the others have our best interest at heart.

The painful part is T I M E. That brings with it P A T I E N C E.

Ouch. Those words hurt. They are painful. Let’s get on with it, okay? Enough is enough. We are strong enough and tough enough and sensible enough not to have hurt feelings and walk away, i.e., divide. Right? Wrong. None of us are that tough. Let’s get over this macho stuff and spend the required time. It is worth it.

And we can always “start it” with,

“My intentions are better than my words. I want to discuss something. Please be patient with me.”

by Dwayne Phillips

Signs of wealth are all around us. Do we notice and act accordingly?

I sit here on a Saturday morning in a coffee shop as usual “writing Pulitzer-winning essays” (what I tell passers by). And, as usual, someone is setting up the Bloody Mary bar. They put a few classes of ingredients into little metal buckets of ice.

Do we realize how much wealth it takes to make a metal bucket? The ore that is mined, the smelting (is that the right verb?), the refining, the processing, the transportation, and everything that happens before a cute little metal bucket sits on a counter.

And then there is the ice. A machine lowers the temperature of potable water (another sign of wealth) until it become solid ice. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I worked for months on end in places where we had no ice. The first day we had ice cubes is frozen in my mind. It changed my outlook on the day-to-day work of the work.

Signs of wealth surround us. Signs of miracles surround us. Yes, this can all be pretty naive. Still, it is in front of us. And then we argue about the size of the glass or whether we have too much or too little ice.

by Dwayne Phillips

Many of our problems already have solutions in waiting. And many of these are effective and inexpensive.

Person A: My kid won’t stop chewing on fill-in-the-blank.

Person B: Put a drop of fill-in-the-other-blank on it. It will taste bad, and the kid will stop chewing on it.

Person A: Oh.

…

Person A: So-and-so is ineffective. We need to move him out, but we can’t seem to fire him.

Person B: Give So-and-so duties they dislike. They will quit.

Person A: Oh.

…

These are but two of many unsolvable problems that have plenty of effective and inexpensive solutions. These solutions exist. They are kept in the Book of Effective and Inexpensive Solutions. That book is difficult to find and is expensive. It usually comes from The School of Hard Knocks. Thanks to the Internet, however, we can Google the questions and find the answers.

There are answers to most of life’s perplexing problems. We just have to stop being arrogant and become humble enough to ask for them.

by Dwayne Phillips

In bad times, the storyteller will always have a job. Someone famous said this, I don’t remember who.

Look at Hollywood in the great depression. Look at polarized, fussy America today. It began in 2016 during the (un)presidential campaign and continues. The Hallmark Channel makes predictable romantic movies. Their ratings are up through the roof.

They are telling stories—pleasing, entertaining, hopeful stories.

It is the hope. There are many occupations that could learn from this. There are many persons who could learn from this.

by Dwayne Phillips

Once again, the price of tools has fallen dramatically. This has shifted the place of work, and we are struggling to adapt.

A few weeks ago, I went to a seminar where I connected a $100 gadget from Nvidia to a four-year-old $1,000 portable computer from Apple, used a bunch of $0 software, and ran machine learning experiments from a motel ballroom. Then I went home and did more machine learning experiments from my kitchen table.

I can’t bring this into the office for show and tell because of various IT and other policies.

The more powerful and interesting “work” things are at my kitchen table.

Thirty years ago, I used a couple of supercomputers via high-power workstations to do interesting “work” things. These tools were at “the office” (we called it “the lab”). The price of the tools was far beyond my means.

Many of the engineers and scientists spent many extra hours in “the lab,” because that is where the tools were. That is where the toys were. Interesting things were in “the office and the lab.”

Now the interesting things are on the kitchen table or anywhere that has WiFi (McDonald’s, Starbucks, local coffee houses, and bars). Yes, geeks and nerds perform science and engineering experiments perched on bar stools feeling sophisticated while still looking like geeks and nerds.

We in the professions haven’t adapted. We want top talent to come work with us. They don’t because those various IT and other policies prohibit the more interesting work in our offices and labs. Working from startups and former startups allows interesting work with interesting persons in offices, labs, McDonald’s, and from bar stools.

Give us stodgy old characters a while longer. We will either adapt or retire to “if they would have only listened to me” while sipping coffee in the old-man section of McDonald’s.

by Dwayne Phillips

When we say, “Let’s not tell them (this yet)…” We have learned exactly what we should tell “them” first.

There are the hushed tones. “In this meeting, we want to get across these things, but let’s all keep in mind that we don’t want to tell them about…”

This is one variation of, “Let’s not tell them…this…at this time…at this meeting…and so on…”

When we hear ourselves say this, we now know exactly what we should say to “them.”

1 We are afraid of a few things.

2 One fear is that we will communicate poorly and cause you to do something we don’t want you to do.

3 So, given our fears of our failures, here goes…

4 Please tell us what you heard us say.

5 Please tell us what you are considering doing because of what we said.

6 Please understand. We want what is best for all of us.

7 Please understand. We don’t want our failings to ruin this for all of us.

Whew. Got it out.

Now, what were we afraid of? And…what is it we are not doing that brings all this fear?