Working Up

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

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The Explainers

September 19th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We need more explainers. These are persons who answer the question, “Whatcha’ doin’?” Whatcha’ doin’? Hows’it work? How ya’ doin’? These are simple questions. These are the basic questions we ask others all the time. Often, we repeat the question six or seven times in different forms and still don’t receive an […]

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Tags: Brevity · Clarity · Communication · Expectations · Questions

Speaking English or Some Other Private Language

September 1st, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips If someone asks a question in English, please answer in English. Please avoid some other private language. In recent conversations, I asked, “Your research, how far ahead in time are you working? Your work may become reality in 1, 5, 10 years?” The answer was, “TRL 4.” (see this for a translation) […]

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Tags: Clarity · Communication · Conversation · Language · Respect · Vocabulary

Putting a Face to a Name

August 25th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Perhaps this is the complaint of an old man, but all the Zoomer Teams meetings just aren’t getting it done. The title of this post is an old expression from an old time. We used to talk with people on the telephone. That worked to a point, but we couldn’t “picture” the […]

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Tags: Appearances · Clarity · Humility · Respect · Stories · Trust · Video · Work

Defining Jargon in Terms of Jargon

April 11th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We invent new ways of being lazy in communicating. It sort of sets us apart from the ignorant masses. I did a Google search on “Kubernetes.” The result: Kubernetes, also known as K8s, is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Oh, containerized applications. Of course. Jargon […]

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Tags: Accountability · Clarity · Communication · General Systems Thinking · Talk · Teaching

Salary

March 7th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Hiring managers and job applicants are often poor with words. We all seem to be pretty good with numbers—especially the numbers that have a dollar sign in front of them. The week I wrote this post I applied for a bunch of jobs and talked to an equal number of hiring managers. […]

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Tags: Clarity · Jobs · Money · Salary · Work

Abbreviations, Grouping Persons, and Removing Accountability

February 28th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This bothers me—this bothers me often and deeply. We abbreviate or shorten descriptions of individual persons. We “lump them together” so as not to name individuals or describe them. Such removes accountability. This bothers me. Here is a news story about the Congress of the United States. There are hundreds of such […]

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Tags: Accountability · Clarity · Communication · Respect · Writing

Organizing the Material

January 27th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Almost anyone can gather the material. Organizing it or creating a story from it, however, appears to be a rare yet valuable skill. We have lots of information. Go to Wikipedia. Download PDFs of the pages. Concatenate the pages. There it is. Go to a search engine. Find a dozen hits. Copy […]

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Tags: Clarity · Communication · Context · Design · Information · Purpose · Reframe · Stories · Teaching · Thinking · Wikipedia

I could Talk for Hours about This

December 30th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The ability to immediately talk at length about a topic often shows a lack of forethought. “I could talk for hours about this.” I have heard that many times. I have said it a few times. What I later learned after saying it myself was that I had failed to think about […]

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Tags: Brevity · Clarity · Communication · Thinking

Okay, Write Those Words

December 20th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips For some reason, we often run away from the words that we want most to convey. I work with persons who are trying to write. They show me their draft, we talk, we walk through the words, and I ask questions. The questions usually lead to grimaces and twisted expressions, struggled breathing, […]

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Tags: Adults · Brevity · Clarity · Communication · Word · Writing

Do You Want to Communicate?

November 22nd, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Of course we want to communicate. That is a basic. Nevertheless, here is a small test to measure the actual desire to communicate. Here is a quick test to measure a person’s desire to communicate to others. Here is a blank piece of paper. Here is a pencil. Write three things (plus […]

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Tags: Authentic · Choose · Clarity · Communication · Growth · Testing · Writing