Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Every now and then we need a new scapegoat, i.e., something that receives the blame for all the faults and mistakes of society. We have one. Ah, the datacenter. It is big, noisy, ugly, and raises my electric and water bills. I hate it. It is the cause of all ills in […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There is time later for thinking deep thoughts. Now, however, is the time to accomplish the work, now. “We could do this better”—said me, many times. I know, I know, boy, do I know. We could do this better. “Let’s do better,” is a phrase I often use at the end of […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Let’s consider what it means to be responsible. Responsible Responsable response able able to respond Are you responsible for something? No, that’s not my responsibility! Oh, you are completely unable to respond to that?Well, no, but er uh how did I get into this conversation?

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by Dwayne Phillips Information created with funds provided by the public is owned by the public. Hence, it is in the public domain. Public domain is an interesting and fundamental concept. The writings of Jane Austen, one example, are in the public domain. The copyright protection she earned by writing in her lifetime has expired. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A part of or a separate activity is the punishment assessment. What is the result of not following the rules? Years ago, I supervised a person who always asked the question, “And what happens to me if I don’t do this?” He wasn’t avoiding work; he was assessing rules and regulations to […]

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by Dwayne Phillips When spending someone else’s money, there are essential things and nice to have things. Focus on the essential. I am not naive. This topic is in the news and involves politics. That can take it from general management consulting to all sorts of hyperbole and worse. Let’s try to consider something. As […]

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by Dwayne Phillips This is a simple, two-word question. It is fundamental if someone is paying for my time. What is all the fuss about? In the news recently, I find that a new advisor to a new executive asked all the employees to answer the basic question that is the title of this post. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Want more efficient and more productive government? The solution is simple, but probably won’t be used. Once every now and then, someone comes along and tries to make government more efficient and more productive. Note: this means more efficient and more productive than it is now. This does not mean truly efficient […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The first rule of consulting involves how much improvement a consultant can suggest at a time. Recent news highlights this rule and the peril caused by ignoring it. There is an unwritten rule among smart consultants that you only suggest things that improve a situation by about 10%—no more. If you suggest […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes some person has a significant achievement, but the resources weren’t approved, so it was all quite embarrassing. This is a true story that occurred in the last century. A person at work had a neighbor who worked at a different government agency. The other agency had a colossal failure with some […]

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