Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Is faster or slower better or worse? Or is it simply different timing and rhythm? And are there advantages to changing the timing and rhythm? This past week I was in an office in a different city. Frustration, angst, and generally a lousy week of poor productivity. Just before the week ended, […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Adding to something can be difficult. The result is often less beautiful, less structurally pure, less this and that. Behold, however, the beauty of the “add on.” You see them in houses. At least we used to see them. We still do in some rural areas where construction isn’t regulated too much. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips When will the curve bend? When should I change? Will I be willing to change? There are curves we can draw that show cost, performance, and lots of things. Take note of them. Take note of the bend in the curve… when USB thumb drive air gap is faster than a network […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We do this time and time again—hold a retreat, find great ideas, and then have a disaster. When will we learn? A bunch of us spent the weekend away discussing this and that. We came up with some great ideas that the rest of you will love! Disaster ensues. This happens time […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Past sins? Past poor performance? That is good news. It means we correct mistakes and do better. We have hope for our future. Good News: When we fixed things, we broke things When we changed things, we had unintended, bad consequences. We wasted money. We wasted time. We treated on another badly. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips No new materials. A simple pressing. Structure appears. Value from almost nothing. This is a primary task of a manager (and the rest of us). Fold something. Press the fold. It becomes a crease. And now there is a structure that has strength and increased utility. And how did that happen? A […]

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by Dwayne Phillips It can be disappointing to admit, but if we want significant change, we must bring it about slowly. Significant change—the kind that brings big benefit over a big period of time—occurs slowly. Those two adjectives concerning change—significant and slow—appear inseparable. I don’t like that. When I have a great idea for a […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Change can be a nuisance—even change that leads to “better” things. Stuck in traffic. Hate it. And I have to stay further behind some annoying vehicles for fear of having a rock crack my windshield. Dump trucks. Everywhere I drove this week there were dump trucks. Up and down the roads. They […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Want to improve the world? Want to make life a little better for a few persons near you? Let’s keep this simple. Simply try to add a few… caring people drops of water breezes of cool air breezes of warm air kind words soft notes smiles Just a few positive notes usually […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The Sticky Note exemplifies the temporary idea. Nothing is a useful and, at the same time, as benign as a temporary idea. I guess you aren’t supposed to write about Sticky Notes. They are temporary by nature. Hmm, temporary. Temporary things seem to ease the fears of many even though these many […]

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