Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips As crazy as it sounds, high-level, recognized expert, professionals still read their PowerPoint to the audience. I watch a lot of presentations. Not just a weekly briefing by someone who has relatively little experience on the job and making presentations. I watch presentations of research work. The presenters are experts, have years […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Common thoughts foretell a general consensus. Someone tells me something. Wait, I said that last week when talking to yet another person. Wait, two independent conversations with different audiences, and the same idea is stated. There is a trend here. A consensus is forming. Perhaps great minds think alike (wouldn’t it be […]

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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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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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by Dwayne Phillips We often say things simply because we have heard others say those things. We are an odd lot. People say that because… they heard other people say that. And the other people said it with great confidence and bravado. Hence, it must be true, right? “Half of marriages end in divorce.” That […]

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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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by Dwayne Phillips Some persons know what they want, but they don’t have the resources to tell me. Perhaps they don’t know what they want. Perhaps they have many other reasons for passing me to another person. Perhaps I should just stay away. Do you want to know what I want? Talk to Mr. ABC. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Most “Emergency Operations Centers” function to show that the emergency operations center has electricity. Does that describe yours? A recent serious weather event caused me to interact with an Emergency Operations Center or EOC. The website for that place proclaimed quite proudly how it was built to withstand such serious weather events. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I guess we will never stop putting individuals into a group and attributing the actions of some individuals to an entire group. Hence, we discuss “the government.” I have been a citizen of the United States since birth. I was an employee of the United States Federal government for 28 years. The […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Many persons want many other persons to become vaccinated. Their methods, however, are achieving the opposite. “Become vaccinated,” is an oft-heard cry. (Actually, I read “get vaccinated” which brings cringes of pain to those of us who know the meaning of words.) And there are many who do not get the vaccine […]

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