Working Up

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

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Answer the Big Questions, Please

October 17th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This is what the people who steer the money want from AI or anything else. We don’t want AI to do the dishes and the laundry. Well, most of us want these things, but the people who steer the money, i.e., the CEO folks, want answers to their big questions. Big questions […]

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Data Science · Decide · Questions · Requirements · Systems

Learn Now or Later

September 26th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We often have the choice of learning now or later. Often we don’t have the time to learn now, so we put it off until it really hurts. Gosh, we are in a hurry so much of the time. We just can’t pause to think, reflect, and learn at this moment. Some […]

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Tags: Agility · Analysis · Decide · Learning

Let the Marketplace Decide

July 22nd, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Let’s stop hyperventilating about this and that AI thing. The marketplace will decide and with more wisdom than myself. I just read yet another article about yet another artificial super-duper large language model. How can a model of something be larger than the something? Isn’t a model a smaller representation of something? […]

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Tags: Choose · Decide · Design · Error · General Systems Thinking · Systems

Intentional: A Word Without Meaning

April 4th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips To be intentional is to do something that you intended to do. I guess that is better than doing something accidentally or unintentionally. Yet, it has no meaning. To be intentional is to do something that you intended to do. It is to do something on purpose. Eating is intentional. I eat […]

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Tags: Choose · Communication · Decide · Ideas · Purpose · Reframe

Do What Is Best (Or at Least Do What Is Better)

February 26th, 2024 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes, the better thing to do is let people do what they think is best or at least what they think is better on any given day. “We are a fill-in-the-blank organization. We use best fill-in-the-blank practices as described by fill-in-the-second-blank who described fill-in-the-blank in the seminal blog post on fill-in-the-blank,” said […]

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Tags: Decide · Management · Mistakes · People · Permission · Practice · Reaction

Juggling and Dropping Things

December 28th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips One key to learning how to juggle is to know how to drop something. The same is true for managing competing priorities and tasks. Just about every “Help Wanted” ad I see has something in it about managing competing priorities or managing multiple tasks. I guess they want someone who can decide […]

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Tags: Adapting · Agility · Chaos · Decide · Jobs · Management · Multitasking

Let’s Do Meetings Better

December 11th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We tend to have many meetings—”many” being subjective. Since we do this so often, let try to do it better. I worked for the Federal government for several decades. Government employees meet in groups several times every day. I have also worked for companies on government contracts. We met with the government […]

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Tags: Decide · Improvement · Management · Meetings · Purpose · Simple

Childhood Instructions Carried Into Adulthood

December 4th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Most of us received many instructions in childhood. Now that we are in adulthood, are we still tying ourselves to instructions meant for children? Here is something I was told as a child (and I have told many children): Look both ways before crossing the street. I still recommend this instruction for […]

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Tags: Adults · Change · Childhood · Decide · Nap · Self

The Data-Centric Organization (At the Grocery Store)

September 14th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we get a bit carried away with this idea of being a data-centric organization or data centricity or data driven or whatever. It seems that everyone wants a data-centric organization (and I don’t like that term because the computer marks it as a misspelled word). We need to have data centricity […]

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Tags: Data Science · Decide · History · Management

Wrong People, Wrong Forum

April 10th, 2023 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips In order to accomplish a desired goal, first gather the right people in the right forum. Otherwise, grievous vexation will result. I have something to accomplish. How will I accomplish it? Perhaps I need others to assist. Who? How? What forum? It is easy to have too many people in the room. […]

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Tags: Decide · Design · People · Questions · Thinking