Working Up

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

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I Hope Nothing Comes Up in Today’s Meeting

February 27th, 2020 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There is something called the “hope nothing” meeting. In it, I hope nothing comes up that causes me pain, effort, and general angst. Hope nothing meetings are pleasant, but can be deadly. I sit in meetings. People tell me things. Sometimes they tell me things that cause me work. Sometimes they tell […]

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Tags: Communication · Information · Learning · Management · Meetings

Looking Like I am Working

September 12th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Appearances are often deceiving. As managers, we know this, but… A long, long time ago, I was sitting in a chair against the wall in a meeting. The important persons were huddled around the meeting table discussing what important persons discuss around meeting tables. To this day, I have no idea what […]

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Tags: Appearances · Employment · Expectations · Management · Meetings

Boring Meetings or Learning Opportunities

July 15th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Is this yet another boring meeting or a new opportunity to learn? Is this naive? I attend meetings. In my former employment, I attended several meetings each day. My current employment has reduced that to several a week. Most meetings are boring. They are inefficient. They are drudgery. Yuck. Some meetings are […]

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Tags: Choose · Learning · Meetings

I Just ____-ed My Brain

May 9th, 2019 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We (or at least I) need a word for those little things that give us (me) headaches. The waiter at the restaurant walked by. He had a band-aid on his thumb. “Yeah,” he acknowledged. “I just cut or burned for scraped or something my thumb and put a band-aid on it.” The […]

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Tags: Injury · Meetings · Visibility

An Interaction Exercise

November 2nd, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Here is a simple exercise you can use with your team to learn something about how well you work together. Step 1: Get a deck of playing cards. Step 2: Hand every person on your team some cards. Hand some person a couple of cards and hand some persons a dozen cards. […]

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Tags: Communication · Consulting · Group · Management · Meetings

The Pre-Meeting

May 18th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips The pre-meeting is one of the better techniques for holding a successful meeting. Want to have a “good” meeting, i.e., one where the outcome is to my liking? Hold a pre-meeting. Meet before the meeting. Plan what you and yours will do and say in the meeting. Plan what you and yours […]

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Tags: Communication · Meetings

The First Few Minutes

May 11th, 2017 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Be alert when first meeting someone. You first few minutes are often the most valuable. Consultant and author Jerry Weinberg once told me, “Pay attention, your customer will tell you their problem and its solution in the first few minutes.” I have found this to be true, many times. Recent examples of […]

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Tags: Consulting · Customer · Meetings · Observation

Silence is Agreement (not)

July 28th, 2016 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we operate our meetings and our groups with stupid, unspoken rules. Silence is agreement This is one of the things I was told as a much younger person on the job. If I didn’t object loudly in a meeting, I had agreed. Really? Says who? What was that about? I suppose […]

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Tags: Communication · Meetings

Not Deciding, Just Talking (Learning)

December 24th, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Some of the more productive things to do in a group of persons is to talk through scenarios. No decisions, just learning. I am a decider. I think the term from Myer-Briggs is “Judging.” Present the alternatives, decide, move on. That is what I do. There are times, however, when it is […]

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Tags: Communication · Meetings

The Most Important Five Minutes of My Day

December 3rd, 2015 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Five minutes of quiet thought. Each morning, at the end of Internet viewing and blogging and before I “go to work,” I sit for five quiet minutes and drink coffee. I stare into space. I am not wasting time. It is an investment, one of the sharpening-the-saw moments from a self-help best-selling […]

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Tags: Breathe · Clarity · Meetings · Process