Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Management actions and lingo are nice. They are not, however, as effective as simple friendship. In a recent job, we had a traditional organization arrangement where the engineers built systems and the operators used the systems. Managers divided this arrangement into smaller parts or “branches” of six to ten people by the […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips The digital devices we have can dominate our lives. That still doesn’t change a simple fact – this is an analog world inhabited by analog people. We live in a digital world. Cell phones, Internet, digital cameras, digital video camcorders – all digital. At its heart, the digital world comprises only two […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips The current administration is running into all sorts of obstacles that it didn’t have during its campaign. There are countless “stupid rules” inside government. These rules were created because at some time in the past someone cheated. Cheaters are the origin of rules and regulations. The Obama administration has been criticized for […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Being a grandfather has taught me a few things about managing work. How can a baby teach an adult so much in so little time? I am a grandfather; I have been one for 6 1/2 wonderful months. I see my grandson on average every three to seven days (funny how I […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips There are many forces in our culture that helps create workaholic people. Twitter joins the group. Twitter is cute, funny, silly, a waste of time, and many other things depending on who is telling you this or what you are doing at the time. Consider this one: Twitter is yet another means […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips As a manager, I once believed that life could not occur without my presence. I killed myself to be at everything. I learned that was false. This was a blow to my ego that I was around people who were competent enough to work without me. The biggest college basketball game of […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Small tasks should need small effort. Large tasks should need large effort. Those nuggets of management wisdom are often wrong. I find that task effort relates to task difficulty, and task difficulty relates to the experience of the people on hand. I recently helped some people remodel a person’s house. We did […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips Bringing about change in a group of people is perhaps the most difficult task anyone can undertake. An old fable sheds light on one technique for encouraging change. I wish I knew the origin of this little fable. I hope that I relay it well enough. Anyways, here goes: Once upon a […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips I believe in employing specialists – people who really know what they are doing. I had an experience with experts this past month. Several of my friends have been working on another friend’s home for several weekends. I am not a carpenter, a plumber, nor an electrician. Regardless, I showed up and […]

[Read more →]

by Dwayne Phillips In part 1 of this post, I covered the mathematics and truth table of implication. Implication shows that If I accept something that I know is FALSE, I can prove anything else that I know is FALSE For example, if I accept that “1=2”, I can prove that “2=3”. I know that […]

[Read more →]