Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Longevity almost always wins over positions of authority. A conversation: Person A: You must do what I say because I am a VP or deputy under assistant director of something or other. Person B: Really? Person A: Yes. Person B: Let’s see, I have 15 years to retirement and the average above […]

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by Dwayne Phillips One measure of project stress is the means to which you go to hide from people so that they cannot bring you bad news. I used to hide in the men’s room. Actually, I had to go into a stall, close the door, and sit on the toilet in the men’s room. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Taking from Seth Godin, what kills large organizations is that people don’t know what other people are doing. Managers at the top level are responsible for these problems. Seth Godin has a recent post on his blog that I love to hate or hate to love or something. He highlights a problem […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There is a trend lately for young male programmers to act like fraternity pledges. This is just the last in a long line of dysfunction in computer science. The percentage of female computer science graduates and professional programmers is declining. It has been in decline for several decades. There is much speculation […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Once you refer to some person as “boss” and other persons as “employees,” all is lost. I saw this post a few days back about the boss’ greatest fear. They don’t want the employees to catch them on video. There might be something in the video that can harm them. Let’s back […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The number of people on a project influences the management practices that will succeed. An easy-to-remember heuristic is the breakpoints at 3 to the n power. Yes, that is mutters with a “u.” As the size of a team on a project increases, so does the muttering. This implies that what works […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Micro-Management has been given a bad name. What is bad is nit-picking management. Used properly, micro-management is a good practice. Micro-management is a good management practice. There, now fight the urge to stop reading while I explain. Here is what micro-management is about: A senior manager bores down through several levels of […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There are times when a customer calls for a technical solution to one of their problems. They may, however, have a management problem instead. I work for a technology company. When our customers call, we deliver technical solutions to their problems. Sometimes, however, the customer comes with a fuzzy problem. We investigate […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Same old story – it is not what you know, but who you know that counts. People can’t measure performance. Let me restate that one – people don’t want to measure performance. That is too much work. Instead, people go to their feelings. They ask, “When I consider Dwayne’s performance, do I […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Contemplative writing is a valuable practice. It is far more valuable and far less used than shallow meetings. In my 28 years working for the government, I attended countless meetings where much of nothing was discussed. I avoided far more if these meetings than I attended. Meetings are a characteristic of government […]

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