by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we meet someone who lacks the ability to do something. How do we react? As I write this post, I am having one of those weeks when I have the inability to do something simple. For some reason, I woke one day this week with a sore left knee. The next […]
Inability
January 1st, 2024 · No Comments
Tags: Competence · Help · Humility · Injury · Judgment · Patience · Thank you
Mean What We Say and Say What We Mean
December 21st, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Let us mean what we say and say what we mean. Sometimes that requires too much effort. The effort is worth it if we want others to take us seriously. You know what I mean, huh? You get my drift, right? Just go along with me on this one. And then one […]
Tags: Brevity · Clarity · Communication · Competence · Culture · Thinking
Accelerate the Learning
October 19th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Learning is good as it leads to better performance and other beneficial things. There are tools available that accelerate learning. Let’s use those. I try to learn. Sometimes I forget to learn. Yes, fatigue clobbers my mind and I simply forget to notice things, store them, and use them. There are tools […]
Tags: Competence · Energy · Fatigue · Growth · Humility · Improvement · Learning · Thinking · Tools
The Stupid Hunters (still hunting down stupid everywhere)
May 8th, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Aha! I was sort of right. Now companies have teams of folks hunting down stupid in their systems to keep the world safe from stupid. Way back in 2015, I wrote a blog post about being a stupid hunter. This is not a hunter who is stupid, but a hunter whose job […]
Tags: Analysis · Artificial Intelligence · Competence · Stupid · Systems · Technology · Testing · Visibility · Work
The Computer is Down
March 2nd, 2023 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips We seem to be far more tolerant of technical failures. When I was a kid (we played baseball in the streets and things like that), I often heard the excuse, “The computer is down.” That excuse brought all sorts of grievous vexation that excuses usually bring. It was recognized as an excuse […]
Tags: Accountability · Artificial Intelligence · Competence · Computing · Excuses · Technology
The Editor
December 19th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This post is about the person who edits. Most organizations no longer employ an Editor, and that practice is fraught with imminent peril. Consider The Editor: An Editor is a professional who is the voice of a company, ensuring that all written materials are accurate and of high quality. They work with […]
Tags: Communication · Competence · Education · Ethics · Writing
The Buddy
May 30th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips It helps to have someone standing next to you. This is a simple, old, and often overlooked aid to working better. A buddy is someone standing next to you whom you assume knows what they are doing. Often, a few moments later, you both realize that you both assumed the other is […]
Tags: Appearances · Competence · Expertise · Group · Improvement · Observation · Other · People
Those Wrist Bands
May 19th, 2022 · No Comments
By Dwayne Phillips We all have a less-than-perfect memory. Let us admit that and use little gadgets that help us remember to do what we know we should do. I keep noticing professional and other high-level athletes wearing giant wrist bands. I guess ”wrist band” is incorrect as these things cover the entire forearm of […]
Tags: Competence · Help · Humility · Information · Meetings · Notebook · Remember · Simple
How to Write as Fast as You Can Type
April 7th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips A writer can write 2,400 words in an hour and thereby finish a novel in 14 days (three weeks). Why don’t we? The average typing speed is 40 words per minute. That is 2,400 words per hour. If you write three hours a day and rest your hands the remainder of the […]
Tags: Competence · Expertise · Play · Practice · Writing
Do or Do not
January 24th, 2022 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Regardless of position or circumstance, some people do things while others don’t. This appears to be one of those parts of human nature that have puzzled me for years. Given a situation, some persons will talk, think, talk, ignore, and employ just about every verb there is except for the forms of […]
Tags: Competence · Energy · Management · People · Practice