Working Up

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

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How Many People Can You Waste?

April 28th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We have lots of work to do. We have people here to do the work. How many of these people can we waste? I suppose we are still in “the great resignation.” Come back to the office building, now! (please) (pretty please) We have lots of work to do. We have some […]

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Tags: Management · People · Please · Remote Work · Work

The Conversations Before the Meeting

April 25th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips This discusses a technique that helps move “decision meetings” in a favorable direction. You spend time to save time. It works more often than not. I have been assigned the task of presenting an idea to a meeting of decision makers. Yes, many organizations still have groups of decision makers, and they […]

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Tags: Adapting · Communication · Conversation · Decide · Ideas · Management · Meetings · Process

It is Still About People

March 10th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Pandemic, hybrid, remote—it is still about people. “Nobody quits companies. They quit managers.”—Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft How do you manage distributed or remote teams? Same way you manage in any situation. (1) You don’t manage people. You manage work. You lead people. (2) You lead people who are remote the same way […]

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Tags: Communication · Leadership · Management · People · Remote Work · Work

The Great Embarrassment

February 24th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The Great Resignation? The Great what-do-we-call-it? How about the embarrassing realization that we have been grossly inefficient in much of what we have been doing the last 20 years? We are in the midst of the Great Resignation. Record numbers of us are quitting our jobs and moving on to something better. […]

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Tags: Jobs · Management · Mistakes · Resources · Stupid · Work

Slow and Slowing

February 14th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We don’t want to be slow. Stop all slow processes; be quick. There are, however, slowing processes—things that cause pause for thinking. And thinking is almost always a good thing. “This is slow. This is too slow. Let’s stop doing this,” said a frustrated person who has a good idea (or in […]

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Tags: Agreement · Management · Process · Thinking · Time

The Details are in the Details

February 7th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Managers want to hear the summary. The details are delegated. It is unfortunate that the summary rarely agrees with the details. “Summarize it for me. Give me three choices. I delegate.”—managers everywhere all the time. Simple statement from the managers. They have manager tasks to do. They delegate work to others. The […]

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Tags: Communication · Design · Management · Software · Technology

Why fill-in-the-blank Projects Fail

February 3rd, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Special projects fail because they aren’t that special. We pretend or wish them to be so we can forego proven techniques and hard-learned lessons. We know why fill-in-the-blank projects fail. Let’s fill in the blank: Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning big data data lake non-profit whatever Of course these projects are different from […]

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Tags: Adapting · Failure · Management · Process · Success

Do or Do not

January 24th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Regardless of position or circumstance, some people do things while others don’t. This appears to be one of those parts of human nature that have puzzled me for years. Given a situation, some persons will talk, think, talk, ignore, and employ just about every verb there is except for the forms of […]

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Tags: Competence · Energy · Management · People · Practice

In Plain English, Please

January 17th, 2022 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We usually understand one another better when we speak in simple, real-life terms—also know as plain English (for us English speakers). Please speak in plain English. Instead of: What are the Key Performance Indicators in your organization this reporting period? Try this: What keeps you awake at night? Instead of: Red, Green, […]

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Tags: Communication · Management · Work

There are Always Trade-Offs

November 11th, 2021 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Have a direction? What did we lose in choosing it? Sorry, we traded something for something else. We lost something. I am never supposed to write “never” and “always.” And there is always an exception to all rules. Hence, the title of this post. I have yet to find a perfect solution […]

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Tags: Alternatives · Choose · Decide · Management · Questions