Working Up

Working Up in Project Management, Systems Engineering, Technology, and Writing

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Rules We Cannot Enforce

October 14th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We make rules. Why? Sometimes it is petty and to serve our ego. Pause and think (two pretty good rules about rules). We make a rule for or over or against the persons we know or our work colleagues. We cannot enforce that rule over all the persons who are supposed to […]

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Tags: Adults · Purpose · Respect · Trust · Work

Our Reaction to…

May 20th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Once again, its not the event, its our reaction to the event. Here is an exercise in reading news headlines. Read the headlines (these are paraphrased from the Washington Post on one day): Virus tied to increased risk of neurological and psychiatric illness The pandemic has caused parents to slow down Expanding […]

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Tags: Adults · Alternatives · Choose · Management · Reaction · Reframe

The View from the Inside

May 17th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Candid comments from someone on the inside. It can be ugly in here. For a while, I worked on a project where I would teach persons how to use the software that was produced. We had good intentions. When the software worked as advertised and taught, it allowed the users to do […]

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Tags: Adults · General Systems Thinking · Humility · Mistakes

Internet Discussion Chaos and Semi-Public Groups

April 1st, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Where will we go for discourse on the Internet? Semi-public groups for forums work. I like Seth Godin’s recent short essay on trust and how folks use the Internet. Godin described the early (1970s) online interaction as, “Because each of these groups were high-trust communities, it was easy to conclude that the […]

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Tags: Adults · Conversation · Ideas · Internet · Respect · Talk · Trust · Vocabulary

Responsible Reactions

November 26th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We are responsible in that we are able to choose our response. This isn’t a new thought, but one that bears repeating. Around the first century in the world or Rome and Greece lived a man named Epictetus. He is the first persons recorded to have written the thoughts in this blog […]

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Tags: Adults · Choose · Reaction

The Overseers

October 29th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips If work is important enough to be performed, the product is important enough to be inspected. Someone is supposed to do something. Okay. Do it. Next. Right? This is a note to project managers and those who may think we don’t need or maybe need project managers: You get what you inspect, […]

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Tags: Adults · Expectations · Management · Work

Just In Time, Head Scratching, and Congruence

June 22nd, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips People differ in work styles. Failing to admit such is failure. Let’s discuss our difference and work. We turn in products on schedule, sometimes literally at the last hour. Well, what’s the problem? The products are on time. And many are fine with that. If you finish ahead of time, you show […]

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Tags: Adults · Communication · Competence · Resources · Respect · Work

The Logical Conclusion … Need Not Reach Its Conclusion

March 12th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We can think to the logical conclusion of a concept. We, however, can choose not to go to that conclusions. We rarely do. The logical conclusion of free enterprise is slavery. The logical conclusion of free speech is hate. The logical conclusion of survival of the fittest is murder. Many more examples […]

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Tags: Adults · Alternatives · Analysis · Choose · Decide · Differences · Ethics

Fake News is News. Are We Listening?

March 5th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Consider some rules of the English language. Afterwards, let’s start listening to what is said. Allow me to digress a few moments into English language and usage. Fake news is news. Notice the noun “news” is there in the phrase “fake news.” The word “fake” is merely an adjective attached to the […]

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Tags: Adults · Fairy Tales · Fun · Information · Listening · Meta

Misinformation, Disinformation, Entertainment, and Questions

March 2nd, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We seem to have confused ourselves once again. Perhaps simply asking a few questions would quell all the hyperventilating. Is it misinformation or disinformation? I confuse the two. Is either a real word or something a word inventor invented last week because he couldn’t find his dictionary and an appropriate word among […]

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Tags: Adults · Information · Questions · Thinking