Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes we simply try too hard when applying what we already know in small doses suffices.

It happened again the other day at work…

I needed to know something that I didn’t know. I rushed about frantically screaming to the moon, which is hard to do in the middle of a sunny day, for information. All I had to do was wait for someone to finish a task, wait a whole 15 minutes, and ask them. Instead, I racked my brains for an answer and shot my blood pressure up through the ceiling. I was trying really hard.

I see this all the time in others. I suspect I do it much too often as why would I be special. And on top of the average stuff, I know better. So what?

We want to do well. We try, we try, we try. We go the extra mile. Note that phrase and the word “extra.” Extra isn’t needed. Giving 110% isn’t needed. Those things are ego boosters. I pump out my puny chest and shout to the world, “Look how special I am! I work harder than the rest of you! Give me a blue ribbon!”

Stop. Breathe. Think. Do the simple things. Don’t try too hard. In my experience, life and work are better that way. The persons around me are happier, too.

by Dwayne Phillips

Why disdain fake news and social media? Let’s embrace it for what it gives us—a new excuse.

I recently learned that fake news on social media controls the world. All money flows in a direction it flows because it is directed by fake news. All elections are won by fake news purveyors. Even the wiggly waggly direction taken by hurricanes are the result of the winds of fake news. Perhaps I exaggerate a little.

Fake news thrives on social media because social media is no-cost to use and the social media providers welcome new users because that raises the prices they charge for ads. And then the social media celebrity billionaires complain that they allow fake news to thrive and, well, wait a minute, that sounds a bit hypocritical, so maybe that is fake news, or not. Anyways, I digress.

Disclaimer: Yes, some persons go on social media and write horrible things. I am as disgusted as the next person.

Be that as it may, let’s embrace fake news on social media as the premiere excuse it brings us all.

• My favored candidate is not elected?
• Polls show that the majority doesn’t like my position on an issue?
• The price of my stock goes the wrong direction?
• Employers want skills I lack and don’t want skills I have?

Fake news on social media did it. That must be the reason for all these things.

But I can’t point to a disinformation campaign and the specific fake news on social media. No worries. I can go on social media and write about it anyways. Now the other guy can point at me and complain about my fake news on social media.

So come on folks. Let’s stop our stopping of fake news on social media. If we ban it, we’ll have to find another excuse. But maybe that isn’t bad news. I’ve always been able to find yet another excuse when I don’t like whatever.

Readership on my blog drops? No problem. Fake news on social media is the excuse, uh, er, I mean reason.

by Dwayne Phillips

The most important decision about a project may be when we say, “It is over.”

Watching college (semi- or mostly-professional) football this weekend. Several times today I see a 19 to 21-year old score a touchdown and in great glee make enough of the wrong motions to be flagged for excessive celebration or taunting or just plain getting on the referee’s nerves. This brings a major penalty “on the ensuing kickoff” as the referee explains in his personal microphone. Then I see a similar thing the next day with fully professional football players celebrating excessively and being penalized.

Perhaps coaches should teach players something different about a touchdown play. The play isn’t over when you enter the end zone and the whistle blows. The play isn’t over until you gently hand the ball to the referee and, without any untoward motions, you run full speed to me and I discharge you to sit on the bench. Then, and only then, is the play over.

Let’s move from plays to projects. A development project over when…

• the system passes final testing
• the system passes user acceptance testing
• the system is installed at the user’s facility
• we hand the user the admin password
• all our people return from their at-long-last vacation
• the user signs the contract for the next project
• all our people start working on the next project
• I retire and live out my days in a rocking chair on the porch
• never

How we declare “It is over” makes a great difference in what we do, when we do it, and how we do it. It is best to explain this ending to everyone at the beginning.

by Dwayne Phillips

The arrival and departure of persons has a major influence on who we are and what we do.

Every person who walks in the door changes the organization. The same is true for every person who walks out the door—they change the organization. Every entering and departing person changes who we are and what we do.

That’s just the way it works folks. The new person is not the old person. The new person is a different person. That is change; sorry if it upsets you.

And, by the way, the size of the organization does not matter. If we change one person in a 10-person or 10,000-person group, the result is the same—the group changes.

But I want the newcomer to literally replace the other person. And this is a contract situation. The contractor is supposed to have interchangeable parts, uh, er, persons.

Sorry, persons are not interchangeable. We are all different, and we know that.

by Dwayne Phillips

Advice on preparing to bring a concept to others.

I have a great idea! I have a informed observation! I have something that others should hear or read! It’s obviously worthwhile. What should I do first?

Say it aloud (in a safe place).

There is something about saying the words aloud that helps me understand how others might react to my insight of brilliance. Try it.

And, say it aloud in a safe place, i.e., one where anyone who hears me understands what I am doing, gives me the benefit of doubt, and knows that I might drop the whole thing.

by Dwayne Phillips

We review A fundamental of project planning, execution, and incurring risk.

Risk is the answer to the question, “What could possibly go wrong?”

The answer is, “Many things could go wrong.”

Some of the possible wrong, however, is avoidable. We can prepare better and ensure we do better. The key word in that statement is “we.” What, however, do we do when we aren’t involved?

In those cases, we incur risk.

Sometimes a project depends on the performance of an outsider—someone we neither control nor influence. If that person or group doesn’t perform, we lose. They may lose nothing while we lose everything. That could go wrong, that is risk.

How do we avoid that risk? Simple. We do everything ourselves, except when we can’t. Then we depend on outsiders. Maybe we can arrange a reward/punishment with the outsiders. That is influence. When we have no influence, well, that is risk, and that is bad.

by Dwayne Phillips

Once again, we march into the future doing the same thing we did in the past. And it isn’t a bad thing to repeat.

There was a time when a President and Vice President of America were doing a photo opportunity “wiring” a school. They were pulling Ethernet cables through conduit so every classroom would have one computer connected to that new-fangled Internet thingy. How ancient.

We are wiring America again. This time we are pulling smaller wires. At the end of the wires are USB ports. We have USB ports in theater seats, in couches in malls (remember malls?), at tables in restaurants, at bars in bars, at…well just about everywhere. Why? Because USB, which should be called Universal Mobile Power as that is what it has become, is the power outlet of the early part of this century. USB recharges our mobiles, and we all have mobiles, right?

So we are rewiring America again, this time with power. Sometimes even real 110V power outlets, but mostly with little USB wires.

Wasn’t electrification a big national program once?

by Dwayne Phillips

What do you do with a person who isn’t doing their job, but seems to do other things?

Fire him. He admits he doesn’t know how to do all the things you want him to do. He admits that he just doesn’t learn fast and will take along time to do the things you want him to do. It is simple, fire him.

But he has been on the team for ten years … so…

There is some value in a person’s ability to make everyone else feel good. There is some detriment in a person causing other persons to work harder all the time. This isn’t easy, is it?

The weak link is weakest at some thing.

There are always other things.

Gee. The textbooks said this project management gig wasn’t that difficult.

by Dwayne Phillips

Most of us have been through our formative years. How about doing it again?

The formative years are…

• we walk in new
• we soak in things
• we are growing without realizing it

This may be high school, may be college, may be our first job, may be our first professional job. We look back on it and wonder how we make it through to some level of competence.

And now here we are. Can we enter Reformative Years again or re-enter those formative years?

Do we have the energy? Do we have the desire? Can we stand the possibility that we aren’t yet fully formed, fully competent, or fully full of life?

Let’s jump in.

by Dwayne Phillips

Someone on the team needs to be a little farther away from the problem than the rest of us.

Once upon a time…a team of engineers and such had a major design review in Florida. The team didn’t live in Florida. The head of the team, thoroughly enmeshed in the details of the system being built by the team, decided to hold the review at the earliest possible moment.

The persons who scheduled that were close, very close to the problems of the project. We couldn’t delay that meeting a single moment, we had to do it as soon as possible to gain every day of schedule possible. Push. Push. Push.

The week chosen was spring break for local schools. Lots of people were going to the Orlando tourist attractions. The flights to Florida were booked. Members of the team were flying through Denver to reach Orlando with two stops in between. Rental cars were all gone. It was all a nightmare.

The team needed a team member who was not so close to the problem. The team needed a person who could sit back, look at the calendar, and say, “Yes, but…” And that team member needed to have a strong-enough voice to have the rest of the team listen.

I write this blog post from the comfortable table of a coffee shop a million miles away from the slings and arrows of project work. What do I know? Well, I was on that team of engineers who were told to make plane, hotel, and rent a car reservations in Florida during spring break. I raised my hand and pointed to the calendar. My warnings were ignored as I was the type of person to sit at a coffee shop table a million miles away from the slings and arrows of project work and mention local school calendars and tourist travel and such.

Please, assign a person to your team who sits a distance away at coffee shop tables and ponders the tedium of life.