by Dwayne Phillips Forget the old cliche about stupid questions. There ARE stupid questions, and hiring managers have asked me a bunch of them. I’ve been interviewed for jobs a dozen times There are stupid questions, and hiring managers ask them all the time. First, don’t ask the person to solve your problems. This is […]
There ARE Stupid Questions
May 23rd, 2016 · No Comments
Tags: Adapting · Adults · Questions · Reaction · Work
Our Bad Customer
May 19th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes we are stuck with a bad customer. We still choose how we live and work. Alright, our customer is bad. They gripe all the time, show no appreciation for our efforts. They are, however, our customer and they pay our bills. So now what? We will: work everyday work smart have […]
My Customer and Me, and Our Difficult Problems
April 28th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips When confronted with a difficult situation with a difficult customer, it is often better to step back and ask a few fundamental questions. The setting: I am a developer. I am building a system for a customer. The work is going poorly. We seem to make progress on some days, but most […]
Tags: Problems · Reframe · Work
Neighborly
April 25th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I encourage managers and other influence-rs to speak to their colleagues in the place where the colleagues are most comfortable. I encourage managers and other to speak with each of their colleagues. I find two points here: First, speak to your colleagues everyday. If nothing special is happening, talk about “the weather.” […]
Tags: Authentic · Consulting · People · Trust · Uncategorized · Work
The Price is Right (until it was wronged)
March 31st, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Often it is better to let people watch a game show at work while they eat lunch. Here is a sad but true story. In the early 1990s I worked in a big computing laboratory. At one end of the multi-thousand-square-foot facility we had a “conference” room. This room had a sink, […]
Tags: Management · Work
It is (not) Just a Table
March 21st, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes the arrangement of furniture in an office is far more important than a first glance indicates. Once upon a time, I worked in an organization that moved into some office spaces that were previously occupied by another organization. We inherited their office furniture and their arrangement of office furniture. In the […]
Tags: Communication · Management · Work
Software Engineers and Software Engineering
March 17th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Being a computer programmer does not make me a software engineer. Deep sigh before I begin. This is yet another post borne of frustration in talking with recruiters and hiring managers. Now that the sigh is out of the way. A computer programmer is not a software engineer. There. Wrote that bit. […]
Tags: Computing · Engineering · Programming · Work
Neighborly
March 7th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips I encourage managers and other influence-rs to speak to their colleagues in the place where the colleagues are most comfortable. I encourage managers and other to speak with each of their colleagues. I find two points here: First, speak to your colleagues everyday. If nothing special is happening, talk about “the weather.” […]
Tags: Communication · Work
Losing Their Way
February 29th, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes projects “lose their way.” Of course that is impossible as what really happens is that people come and go and change their minds. In government, we had a phrase about projects that seemed to go forever and consume every penny in sight and produce nothing: They lost their way Some of […]
Tags: Adults · Management · Work
Talk to Everyone, Everyday
February 22nd, 2016 · No Comments
by Dwayne Phillips This is fundamental project manager advice. Avoid at your peril. I’ve managed a lot of technical projects. These projects employed engineers, programmers, scientists, administrators, and so on. One thing I’ve learned is: People tend to keep their work to themselves. Hmm. So how is the working progressing? These people won’t come to […]
Tags: Communication · Management · People · Work