Working Up

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

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Change and Improve (as long as…)

May 15th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We will change and improve the situation to improve our products and services to better satisfy our customers…as long as… Change for the good is good. Hey, it is great. Notice, I am writing about change that IS going to improve our situation and WILL help us better satisfy our customers. I […]

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Tags: Adapting · Adults · Change · Management

The Reframe or Perhaps We have this all Backwards

May 8th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips One of the more beneficial techniques I have learned is how to reframe a situation or turn it around backwards or upside down. Is it (1) the donors aren’t giving enough money or (2) the leaders aren’t inspiring the donors. I hate my boss, so I should (1) become my own boss […]

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Tags: Change · Communication · Consulting · Reframe

In the Mirror

March 20th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I have seen this in people often, especially when looking in the mirror. Not off to a good start, but let’s try to pull something useful from this. We all tend to do what we like and avoid what we don’t like. Not surprising. I like ice cream. I hate paper cuts. […]

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Tags: Adults · Change · Choose · Employment

The Final Nail in the Coffin for the Old Media

March 13th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Facebook was the end of the old media. Facebook didn’t start the downfall, but it ended it for good. Mark Zuckerburg recently released a new manifesto for Facebook. The mainstream media is dead. Facebook didn’t kill that big, bad, old mainstream media, it just finished it. Of all things, talk radio on […]

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Tags: Adapting · Blog · Change · Communication

How would I Act if I were a…?

January 9th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Want to be something? Ask a simple question and live the answer. Twenty something years ago, Robin Williams was in the movie “Mrs. Doubtfire.” He impersonates a woman and gets a job as a nanny to his former wife so he can be near his children. He is the best, most fun, […]

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Tags: Change · Choose · Questions

Knowledge Management in the 1980s

November 7th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I recount my first knowledge management effort in the early 1980s. Premise: knowledge cost resources, so save it. I was a newly graduated engineer in 1980. The US government sent me to the end of the earth to maintain electronic equipment. We had a lot of that stuff, and it failed fairly […]

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Tags: Change · Communication · Knowledge · Management

Something for Nothing, Nothing for Something

August 22nd, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips A new deal where we are offered something for nothing indicates that the provider has been delivering nothing for something. This isn’t just a rant at McDonald’s or Starbucks. It holds for any situation where we expend some resource from some product or service. Someone is “improving” their offering at the same […]

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Tags: Change · Communication · Customer · Expectations

The Default Choice

January 25th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Given a choice made for us or us making our own choice, we choose the default. A recent experiment showed that people will eat fruit instead of french fries if fruit is the default choice. This experiment was not done on sophisticated, health-conscious adults but on kids. Uh, well, there must be […]

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Tags: Change · Choose

If You Want People to Take You Seriously

November 19th, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Why aren’t people taking me seriously? Why aren’t people paying attention to me? If I want people to take and my group seriously, I should: do CMMI do PMP do ITIL sit at the keyboard and write everyday sit at the table and draw everyday take photos everyday play my instrument everyday […]

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Tags: Adults · Change · Excuses · Expectations · People

The Difference that Makes a Difference

November 16th, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This is the key to information—what separates just more data from something that enables a good choice. Of course we all want to find this. This is the stuff of basic science that most of us understand. Let’s walk through a silly example: I am gaining weight. Why? I eat 12 hot […]

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Tags: Change · Diet · Differences