Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Automation is replacing human jobs. Sorry. That is bad news for people who want to work, and there is no way around it. Such is the nature of today’s new technologies. In recent centuries, new technology arrives and displaces workers. Those unemployed eventually find jobs in new industries that build and maintain […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Focusing for a long period of time is contradictory, but it is possible. Graduate school in 1983 (yes, I am that old): I had to study a text on a new concept called object-oriented software. I don’t mean read the text, I mean read it, study it, master it. I faced a […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I read a classic management text. It is as true today as it was in 1969. When in college in the mid-1970s (yes, I am that old), an English professor spoke about the Peter Principle. This was a relatively new concept about how people rise to their level of incompetence. Work was […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I am a problem solver. Sometimes, however, solving a problem is the worst thing to do. This story made the rounds recently about how our military is experimenting with small jolts of electricity to keep sleep-deprived troops awake. The electricity might have fewer bad side affects than the current treatment — lots […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A sense of urgency is obvious as people think, work, and move faster than when there is no such sense. There is a source of urgency that managers can find to help instill the sense. 1980, (yes, I am that old) I visited several contractors who were working with us. People moved […]

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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 I have been using a new writing technique lately in which I set a timer for uninterrupted writing, followed by a five-minute break, followed by another timed writing period. There are countless writing techniques. My advice for these techniques: Try the technique. If if works for you, use it. Otherwise, forget it. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Another age-old motivation technique that should probably go away. It was 30 years ago (yes, I am that old). The big boss of the organization was excited. A competing organization was trying to build a new product just like we were trying to build. By the way, we were both government organizations […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Children are easy to read as they haven’t yet perfected how to “act.” Adults are different, and I work with adults, so I have to ask them questions. Children don’t walk normally unless they are thinking about something else. They tend to scamper or duck their head and half run. They think […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Before putting your work on a computer, do it by pencil and paper for a year. I developed this guideline about 20 years ago. I kept seeing people spending lots of money (million$) creating databases and such to help them do their work.  Most of the work was simple, like: We have […]

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