Working Up

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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by Dwayne Phillips Once again I attempt to make a million dollars be creating a three-letter acronym – DIN. Some 30 years ago (yes, I am that old), I was pouring myself a cup of coffee at work. On the bulletin board in front of me was an article cut from the newspaper (see ANOTHER […]

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by Dwayne Phillips If you use tools at work, and who doesn’t, have tool experts around. I am a big believer in having specialists working on a project – people who know one thing well. Yes, there is a place for other people, but most projects I have experienced have all generalists and no specialists. […]

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by Dwayne Phillips To work with other persons, establish trust. One technique is to go to their place and show a genuine interest in them as a person. Someone asked me recently about how I would influence other people in an inter-department project. My reply was: establish trust Of course, the next question was, “How?” […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes a fiasco provides an excellent learning opportunity as we can study the group dynamics that led smart people to a stupid place. Then again, the fiasco may just be yet another example of stupidity. “That’s fascinating!” That may be a nice way of saying, “How could a group of such smart […]

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by Dwayne Phillips My technique for accomplishing a lot of tasks in a day or any arbitrary period of time. It was more than 30 years ago, (yes, I am that old), I was someplace a long ways from here. I was standing at the entrance to a storeroom. Metal shelves lined the walls of […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I spend a productive day at a co-work location. A few weeks ago I spent a day at a c0-work location – WeSpace in Reston, Virginia. I had read about co-work locations for a few years and knew that one existed in my town.  Since I am currently unemployed, why not try […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I have met managers who acted as though electrons, concrete, steel, wood, and other things could hear them screaming, “Work Right!” I never quite understood that, but the idea seems popular. I have overseen and managed many projects in the last few decades. Back in the mid-1980s (yes, I am that old), […]

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