Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips There are times when I ask if my situation was caused by one of two shortcomings. Neither answer is pleasing. Then I move on to ask why I am in such an unsatisfactory situation. A couple decades ago, I heard a statement about explaining a bad situation. One paraphrase of the statement […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Do you want to reduce the anger that people feel coming from you. Don’t stop shaking your fist; stop pointing your finger. Each culture seems to have its own form of an angry gesture. The one that comes to mind in my own culture is the fist. Shake a fist at someone […]

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by Dwayne Phillips It seems that the most difficult thing for a decision maker to say is “no.” Here are a few stories of efforts that were wasted because when given the opportunity, people could not bring themselves to say “no.” There is something difficult about saying “no.” I don’t quite understand it. Perhaps my […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We do the things we do because we choose to do them from among all the other choices we have. These choices can be light hearted and they can be rather dark and scary. I learned a few things about myself in the past couple of weeks. For one, I like writing […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The Federal government is spending billions of dollars on rural broadband. I haven’t seen any results in my rural area of interest. Something is about to happen, but we won’t know if it is practical or affordable until after it happens. I am spending two weeks in Louisiana during the holidays. I […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Some people are undependable. Most of the time, I can choose to work with them or not. My choice can tell me much about myself. I know people who fit the title of this post. If they tell me they will be someplace at nine o’clock, I am almost certain they will […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There is a difference between deciding well and documenting a decision process well. The human condition means that we are mistaken a good portion of the time. Processes and documents can help, but they don’t erase that. I once worked in a government organization that prided itself on its excellent decisions. They […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Fatigue is natural. Thinking that I can beat fatigue is wishful. Find a test that indicates your level of performance. Adjust your activities to meet your level. Fatigue beats wishes, but rest beats fatigue. I wish that fatigue didn’t always win. I wish I conquered fatigue all the time. I that no […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I perform better when I feel better. I can decide to feel better thereby improve my performance. Have you ever had the opportunity to (safely) crash someone else’s car? To spin the tires? To do a 180-degree spin? I had the good fortune to do that about 30 years ago. It was […]

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by Dwayne Phillips We do things that we know won’t work. I don’t understand why. We do things that we know won’t work. Some examples: The Polygraph: This machine (the lie-detector machine) doesn’t work. People have beat it for decades. That is why polygraph results are not admissible in court. Still, lots of government and […]

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