Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Don’t like micro managers? Who does? Beware, however, the built-in excuses of the hands-off manager. “I give you a task. I expect it to be done.”—the charge of the hands-off manager. Who wouldn’t want to work for the person above? Freedom to use my own judgement and do what I think is […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Simple desires for the workplace. Years ago, a wise old man once told me, “The workplace should be pleasant and profitable.” He worked in a commercial business. No profits, no business, no jobs. Profits were necessary. Also necessary, in his experience, was that the workplace be pleasant. If it wasn’t pleasant, people […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The claim of greater “better-ness” and ensuing failure seem to associate frequently. There is an old story of programmer who coded for six hours. Then, instead of going home, the programmer coded two more hours and made enough mistakes in those two hours that it took the rest of the week to […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I review an old, and seemingly forgotten, technique for building systems in which we fully describe what a system will be and do. Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away… Maybe not that long ago, but still…there was a technique for building systems wherein we wrote the user manual […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Basing decisions on a person’s age is a bad practice and always has been. Individual persons are  just that—individual persons. Groups have tendencies. Oh the horror of that statement, but it has some truth behind it. One of the greater follies of this post (post(post)) modern era is that of the “digital […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The follies and pitfalls of a trade study. One of the more wasteful things governments, persons who work for governments, do is commission a trade study. Go forth, study something, and report back to us. Time passes. Persons run about asking questions and reading readings. The money flows. Keyboards clickety-clack, spots appear […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Here we are in the present. We can decide how we create the future. Things are the way they are because they got that way. Let’s try that again…The present is a natural result of all past circumstances. There are people, capabilities, technology, budget, outside forces, and a host of other things […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Excuses are great. As long as I have plenty of excuses, I don’t have to take responsibility for my life. I have plenty of excuses why my life isn’t the way it is supposed to be. I have plenty of excuses why my job isn’t what it is supposed to be. Please […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Excuses are great. One of the best is “I have so much to do” as it gives me choice as to what I will do today. I have ten jobs I do. If I don’t want to do #3 today, I have an excuse as I am really busy with the other […]

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by Dwayne Phillips One of the best gifts to give another is that they expect you to be consistent. This holds for managers on the job as well as grandparents at home. ‘Tis the season to give. Consider giving someone the ability to expect you to be consistent. Let’s start with Grandparents: When my (absolutely […]

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