by Dwayne Phillips Does panic create focus? Perhaps. Perhaps some of us would just rather avoid panic. I saw something silly this morning on some society media site. It read: I don’t procrastinate. I simply wait until sheer panic improves my focus, It’s a highly refined strategy that I have been perfecting for years. I […]
Panic and Focus
February 16th, 2026 · No Comments
Tags: Adapting · Agility · Chaos · Commitment · Expectations · Leadership · Planning · Work
AI and the American Teenager
September 18th, 2025 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This current trend in AI fails miserably when confronting the nemesis of all logic—the American teenager. I recently read about a big fast food chain in America that installed one of these AI chattering bots on the drive through ordering system. Let AI take the orders. Save cost. Improve profit. This will […]
Tags: Adapting · Adults · Artificial Intelligence · Fun · Logic · Technology · Thinking
Don’t Be That Person
May 29th, 2025 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips AI tools are here. They don’t do everything, but they boost productivity. Use the tools. I am old enough to remember a time in the late 1980s when word processors appeared. There were many older managers who were accustomed to writing in cursive on yellow pads with pencils and handing those to […]
Tags: Adapting · Artificial Intelligence · Choose · Create · Learning · Tools · Work
Water Flows Downhill
October 7th, 2024 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips The aftermath of Hurricane Helene in the mountains of the east coast reminds us of a basic. Hurricane Helene hit the Gulf Coast of Florida recently. It hit the coast hard. The worst damage and the most deaths, however, occurred in the mountains up the east coast of the US. This is […]
Tags: Adapting · Economics · Management · People · Planning
Time to Write? Wrong Question
September 30th, 2024 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips When do you find time to write? Wrong question, at least the wrong question for me. This past week I was sharing something I was writing with another person. This person told me about how they have wanted for years to write something on a similar topic, but just couldn’t find the […]
Tags: Adapting · Energy · Research · Time · Writing
Brute Force and Ignorance
September 23rd, 2024 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes you just lower your head against a wall and push as hard as you can. Let’s begin this little blog post by noting that I attended LSU—not MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford or any of those places known for producing really smart people. At LSU, we may not be able to spell […]
Tags: Adapting · Alternatives · Commitment · Education · Expertise · Tools
About the Other Day: Feedback
August 5th, 2024 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Let’s review some basics on telling another person about something they do and did that affects me and us. The basis of this post comes from consultant and writer Esther Derby. Over the years, we’ve discussed this topic, and I have learned much. I hope to pass along some of Esther’s thoughts. […]
Tags: Adapting · Change · Communication · Management · People · Talk
In Praise of Embarrassment
July 25th, 2024 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I am happy to learn that embarrassment still exists. We still aspire. I recently read an article about how people are not asking Siri and the like questions in public by voice. They type the questions instead of saying them aloud. They are a bit embarrassed to let other people hear their […]
Tags: Adapting · Appearances · Improvement · Self · Simple · Talk · Thinking · Visibility
Over Organized
June 20th, 2024 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes I find projects that are over organized. There is a good long-term reason for such. It still is a pain for the rest of us. I recently started working on a project that was over organized. The computer files were arranged by this criteria and that criteria and the other criteria. […]
Tags: Adapting · Appearances · Clarity · General Systems Thinking · Management · Systems
Believe Reality
May 23rd, 2024 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips No matter what is in a document, believe what you observe in the here and now. Believe reality. While writing this, we are in the middle of having the carpet replaced at work. The big room where I work is filled with cubicles (one of the great torture chambers invented by man). […]
Tags: Adapting · Observation · Planning · Reality · Work