Working Up

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

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Self-Esteem and Buying a Car

July 2nd, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips An experience with high self-esteem, congruent communication, and buying a car. A few years ago, my wife and I bought a new van. Our old van was ten years old, and one of our sons was about to start college. We would need a third vehicle and decided to buy a new […]

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Tags: Communication · Fear · Health

Three Magic Words that Erase a Negative

May 7th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips When you say or hear a negative statement, add “up until now” to erase the negative. These magic words come from author and consultant Jerry Weinberg. They are great erasers. Here are some examples: I am not a good writer…up until now I stutter when I speak in front of people…up until […]

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Tags: Communication · Meetings

Who Does That?

April 30th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Taking from Seth Godin, what kills large organizations is that people don’t know what other people are doing. Managers at the top level are responsible for these problems. Seth Godin has a recent post on his blog that I love to hate or hate to love or something. He highlights a problem […]

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Tags: Communication · Management

The Boss and the Employees

April 19th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Once you refer to some person as “boss” and other persons as “employees,” all is lost. I saw this post a few days back about the boss’ greatest fear. They don’t want the employees to catch them on video. There might be something in the video that can harm them. Let’s back […]

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Tags: Communication · Management

Size Mutters

April 17th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The number of people on a project influences the management practices that will succeed. An easy-to-remember heuristic is the breakpoints at 3 to the n power. Yes, that is mutters with a “u.” As the size of a team on a project increases, so does the muttering. This implies that what works […]

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Tags: Communication · Management

Encouraging and Discouraging

April 2nd, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Some people in my life have been very discouraging. Some people in my life have been very encouraging. It is not difficult for me to choose which type of person I want to be. I can remember it like it happened yesterday. I was a graduate student working on my PhD. My […]

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Tags: Communication · Success · Writing

Pinterest and Interest

March 6th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Of all the things I have done recently, the one that is garnering the most interest online is Pinterst. Go figure. I don’t understand this, but people are paying attention to my “pins” (I think that is the right term) on Pinterest. (I just realized that Pinterest is a combination of “pin” […]

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Tags: Blog · Communication · Culture

When Writing, Replace – Don’t Fix

January 26th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips It is often better to replace a piece of troubled writing than to fix or revise it. Once again, I was talking to a person who had written a large item. The item wasn’t good. It had little focus, and most people walked away from it wondering, “what was that about?” The […]

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Tags: Communication · Writing

Weapons and Other Broadcast Nonsense

January 10th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Football players are not weapons. Please stop being so lazy as to call them such. The National Football League playoffs are in full stride. I like to watch, but I hate to listen to the ladies and gentlemen who talk during the games and on the sports shows during the week. One […]

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Tags: Communication

Information Flow: A Problem with TV News

January 5th, 2012 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I finally realize why I can’t watch the news on television: the information flow is relatively slow. I haven’t watched news on television in years. I stay abreast of the issues of the day via reading from the Internet. I scan probably a dozen major news sites as well as about a […]

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Tags: Communication · Culture