Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips The most important moment in a project is not when you hold your breath during the final system test. Rather, it is a moment of interaction between persons. Quick and to the point: The most important moment in a project is when a person tells the project manager some “bad” news, and […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Further evidence that people tend to do only what they want to do while at work. Years ago, one of the guys in our office went missing. He was safe and sound, but we didn’t know it at the time. He was told to attend a meeting at a motel in another […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A veto is where one person can say NO, and that over rules a multitude of YESs. Look around and notice the prevalence of the veto. I was in a fast food restaurant early on a recent Saturday morning (old people like me tend to do those things). Three teens were sitting […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Government agencies often build systems with considering other government agencies, not taxpayers, as the customer. I hate to keep writing about healthcare.gov, but the lessons are so obvious. I have to wonder who is in charge and what they are thinking. It was the early 1990s, and the management fad of the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Some people seem to get in the way. Perhaps I am not seeing them well. You know the type. You have met many of these people. They always seem to get in the way. I know what is right. I know which way the organization should go. There is, however, one person […]

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by Dwayne Phillips In addition to the planner’s basics, talk directly to the right people in a frank manner. Years ago, I worked with a company VP who had success on the vast majority of his projects. His “secret” was: Plan your work (in detail) Work your plan (track progress in detail) Okay, big deal. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Every organization and endeavor is unique to a degree, but not absolutely unique. Learn the prior experience of each person and find a way to benefit from it. Like  many of my (hi)stories, this one is from yet another experience with morons in government. I had 20 years experience in the larger […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Stay connected to the people who work with you. It is that simple. There is a phrase that was kicked around a lot a few years back in the software field. The phrase was about going dark. That phrase meant that a programmer would stop talking to everyone else. You didn’t know […]

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by Dwayne Phillips That one person won’t be attending today. Everyone sighs in relief. What does that tell us? I’ve attended more meetings than most people. I have 28 years of government work to thank for that. There was almost always one or a few people scheduled to attend the meeting that I was happier […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There are practices that time has proven to be worthwhile. Someone in school drilled them into us. We vowed to avoid them as soon as school was out, but life eventually catches us. I have lost track of the number of times I have seen this on the job. We have a […]

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