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 I forget the fundamental requirement of knowledge management. Maybe that was it. I recently met a person who declared that she took great joy in formatting Microsoft Word documents. She loved they way she could align everything on the page and mis-align a few things in just the right places. This person […]

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by Dwayne Phillips No new materials. A simple pressing. Structure appears. Value from almost nothing. This is a primary task of a manager (and the rest of us). Fold something. Press the fold. It becomes a crease. And now there is a structure that has strength and increased utility. And how did that happen? A […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Of course no one agrees with me when we read, hear, see, etc. the same thing. We are in different places in different times while in the same place at the same time. As a kid, the most enjoyable episodes of my favorite programs were the ones where they played one scene […]

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by Dwayne Phillips It can be disappointing to admit, but if we want significant change, we must bring it about slowly. Significant change—the kind that brings big benefit over a big period of time—occurs slowly. Those two adjectives concerning change—significant and slow—appear inseparable. I don’t like that. When I have a great idea for a […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Please hire some editors in your business. They are need in many more ways than most persons expect. This is a post about editors—the human variety who read and change what others write. First, we have editors who collect writings from a variety of persons and combine them into one writing. Their […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The message to a person should be the same as the message about a person. What I say to a person is the same as what I say about a person. At least it should be. In other words, I say the same thing when the person is in the room as […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes digging down into the hidden history of a project helps the project crawl out of a hole. And, of course, sometimes not. I used to do this frequently. I was given a project that had “lost its way” or “fallen out of favor” or simply been left to rot in the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Instead of trying the magnificent, perhaps we should try something we can accomplish. Many problems confront us everyday. These are all opportunities to excel. Really, not just for those silly posters, but these are actually opportunities for us to accomplish something and do some good for us and someone else. It seems […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes you are best served and serving if you ignore a request or two. Me: The thing the boss just asked for, what is it? How do you do it? Older Co-worker: What? Oh never mind. Me: But the boss wants it, real quick, it is important. Right? Older Co-worker: Forget about […]

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