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--- recommended_reading [2020/12/01 08:35] – Added lean machine to table, metrics, this is lean to table hans
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 List of books that I have found useful as I work with people and try to understand how to improve both my effectiveness and those I work with:
-====== Sustaining Change ======
-[[http://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-Communities-Practice-Managing-Knowledge-ebook/dp/B004OEIQ7W/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443731599&sr=1-2&keywords=communities+of+practice|"Cultivating Communities of Practice"]] - Etienne Wenger
-Once you have an Agile implementation at scale, you often have a new problem. Whereas before you had silos associated with the disciplines, now you have cross-functional teams, and it you are not careful you lose the ability to improve on discipline specific knowledge or worse, require that every team re-invents the discipline knowledge every time. One way to address this is to encourage the formation of Communities of Practice. This book will help you understand the background.
-====== People and Motivation ======
-[[http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates-ebook/dp/B004P1JDJO/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1442531160&sr=8-1|Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us]] - Dan Pink
-Your first step on a journey on how to really motivate people. Mastery, autonomy and purpose, not money (or at least not directly). For the "condensed version" see [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc|Drive: The Surprising Truth About Motivation]] plus [[http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation?language=en|Dan Pink's TED Talk]]
-[[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767907698?keywords=slack&qid=1455823504&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1|"Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency"]] - Tom DeMarco.
-An absolute classic book. This book is a discussion about the counterintuitive principle that explains why efficiency efforts can slow a company down. Fights against the concept that, for example, 100% utilization of people is the most efficient way to get something done and helps you understand why, and what to do about it.
-====== Organizational Change ======
-[[implementing_beyond_budgeting-_unlocking_the_performance_potential_by_bjarte_bogsnes_-_bjarne_bogsnes|Implementing Beyond Budgeting: Unlocking the Performance Potential - Bjarte Bogsnes]]
-Just a great book if you want to understand how to work better with finance and HR. There is a lot here, and some of it may not be immediately something to work, but the ideas can be applied to a wide variety of situations.
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 | [[https://pcssoft.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/MBI/pages/317030440|Value Stream Mapping]]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               | Karen Martin                      | SM, RTE, Manager      | Foundational    | This is one of the basic tools you’d use to understand how work actually gets done (from initial concept to release to the customer and on) to both visualize the effort and so you can focus on improvements.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
 | [[https://www.amazon.com/Team-Topologies-Organizing-Business-Technology-ebook/dp/B07NSF94PC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=W1C7YXGE6M1C&dchild=1&keywords=team+topologies&qid=1605209027&s=digital-text&sprefix=team+topo%2Caps%2C171&sr=1-1|Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow]]                                                                              | Matthew Skelton                   | Manager               | Intermediate    | As organizations change it is important to understand how to optimize the structure of Teams. This book provides the thinking process behind organizing for flow.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
-| [[https://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Lencioni-ebook/dp/B006960LQW/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1606837441&sr=8-3|The Five Dysfunctions of a Team]]                                                                                                                                                                                                  | Patrick Lencioni                  | SM, Manager           | Business Novel  | If you want to understand how to build high performance teams, this is a good start. Starts with understanding that high-performance teams are built on trust. Easy read; good lessons. See [["The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" - Patrick Lencioni]] for more.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
+| [[https://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Lencioni-ebook/dp/B006960LQW/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1606837441&sr=8-3|The Five Dysfunctions of a Team]]                                                                                                                                                                                                  | Patrick Lencioni                  | SM, Manager           | Business Novel  | Equal parts leadership fable and business handbook, this definitive source on teamwork by Patrick Lencioni reveals the five behavioral tendencies that go to the heart of why even the best teams struggle. He offers a powerful model and step-by-step guide for overcoming those dysfunctions and getting every one rowing in the same direction. If you want to understand how to build high performance teams, this is a good start. Starts with understanding that high-performance teams are built on trust. Easy read; good lessons. See [["The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" - Patrick Lencioni]] for more.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
 | [[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787973718?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages00|Squirrel Inc: A Fable of Leadership]]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    | Stephen Denning                   | All                   | Business Novel  | Useful in helping you craft the message (in story form) so that you can engage people's emotions and not just really on dry facts. I found that when "selling" ideas you get more success from well crafted stories than just about any other approach.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |
 | [[https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Agile-Understanding-Scrum-Kanban-ebook/dp/B00PJ8YKRM/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1606838050&sr=8-3|Learning Agile: Understanding Scrum, XP, Lean, and Kanban]]                                                                                                                                                                         | Andrew Stellman, Jennifer Greene  | Foundational          | SM, Manager     | Excellent book if you are just starting out down the path of agile. Provides an excellent overview of not only base practices of Scrum, XP, Lean and Kanban, but also offers up the values and principles [[principles_and_values|Values and Principles]] behind the approaches, and how you can use these tools to address your specific issues. See [[learning_agile-_understanding_scrum_xp_lean_and_kanban_-_andrew_stellman_jennifer_greene|"Learning Agile: Understanding Scrum, XP, Lean, and Kanban" - Andrew Stellman, Jennifer Greene]] for more.  |
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 |[[http://www.amazon.com/Lean-Machine-Harley-Davidson-Profitability-Revolutionary-ebook/dp/B0038YY1EQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1440185789&sr=1-1&keywords=the+lean+machine|The Lean Machine: How Harley-Davidson Drove Top-Line Growth and Profitability with Revolutionary Lean Product Development]]|Dantar P. Oosterwal|Manager|Intermediate|Brilliant book, just brilliant, if you are trying to understand how to implement "lean" type thinking approach to the problem of new product development. Its an easy read but that does not make it simplistic. There is a lot here that is practical, but more importantly it will help you understand the thinking approach you might want to consider.|
 |[[https://leanpub.com/actionableagilemetrics|Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability]]|Daniel S. Vacant|SM, Manager|Intermediate|There are two uses of this book: 1) To understand a small set of metrics which, if tracked correctly, will help you improve your process and 2) To understand how to interpret scatterplots, cumulative flow diagrams and so on, what to look for and how to address. This book is a little "anti-Scrum" (or rather anti point based estimating / velocity calculations) but still a valuable addition to understanding your delivery system.|
-|[[https://www.amazon.com/This-Lean-Resolving-Efficiency-Paradox-ebook/dp/B00JZZS7Q0/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=this+is+lean&qid=1606840481&s=digital-text&sr=1-1|This is Lean: Resolving the Efficency Paradox]]|Niklas Modig|Manager|Foundational|I thought this was a great book, a fabulous introduction to help you understand what lean is all about and, just as importantly, what it is not. It helps in understanding of Little's Law, Theory of Constraints, and why Flow Efficiency (and therefore “lean”) is changing how we think about things. The base premise is that lean is about “flow efficiency” as opposed to resources efficiency in how work gets done. Flow efficiency focuses on the amount of time it takes from identifying a need to satisfying that need, whereas resource efficiency focuses on efficiently using the resources that add value within an organization. Why is this important? For more than two hundred years, industrial development has been built around increasing the utilization of resources. Efficient use of resources has long been the most common way of looking at efficiency. It continues to dominate the way in which organizations in different industries and sectors are organized, controlled, and managed. From an economic perspective, it makes sense to strive for the most efficient possible use of resources. The reason for this is the opportunity cost. For more see [[this_is_lean_-_resolving_the_efficiency_paradox_-_niklas_modig|This is Lean: Resolving the Efficency Paradox]]
+|[[https://www.amazon.com/This-Lean-Resolving-Efficiency-Paradox-ebook/dp/B00JZZS7Q0/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=this+is+lean&qid=1606840481&s=digital-text&sr=1-1|This is Lean: Resolving the Efficency Paradox]]|Niklas Modig|Manager|Foundational|I thought this was a great book, a fabulous introduction to help you understand what lean is all about and, just as importantly, what it is not. It helps in understanding of Little's Law, Theory of Constraints, and why Flow Efficiency (and therefore “lean”) is changing how we think about things. The base premise is that lean is about “flow efficiency” as opposed to resources efficiency in how work gets done. Flow efficiency focuses on the amount of time it takes from identifying a need to satisfying that need, whereas resource efficiency focuses on efficiently using the resources that add value within an organization. Why is this important? For more than two hundred years, industrial development has been built around increasing the utilization of resources. Efficient use of resources has long been the most common way of looking at efficiency. It continues to dominate the way in which organizations in different industries and sectors are organized, controlled, and managed. From an economic perspective, it makes sense to strive for the most efficient possible use of resources. The reason for this is the opportunity cost. For more see [[this_is_lean_-_resolving_the_efficiency_paradox_-_niklas_modig|This is Lean: Resolving the Efficency Paradox]]|
+|[[http://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-Communities-Practice-Managing-Knowledge-ebook/dp/B004OEIQ7W/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443731599&sr=1-2&keywords=communities+of+practice|Cultivating Communities of Practice]]|Etienne Wenger|Manager|Intermediate|Once you have an Agile implementation at scale, you often have a new problem. Whereas before you had silos associated with the disciplines, now you have cross-functional teams, and it you are not careful you lose the ability to improve on discipline specific knowledge or worse, require that every team re-invents the discipline knowledge every time. One way to address this is to encourage the formation of Communities of Practice. This book will help you understand the background.|
+|[[http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates-ebook/dp/B004P1JDJO/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1442531160&sr=8-1|Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us]]|Dan Pink|Manager|Foundational|Your first step on a journey on how to really motivate people. Mastery, autonomy and purpose, not money (or at least not directly). For the "condensed version" see [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc|Drive: The Surprising Truth About Motivation]] plus [[http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation?language=en|Dan Pink's TED Talk]]|
+|[[https://www.amazon.com/Implementing-Beyond-Budgeting-Unlocking-Performance-ebook/dp/B01HXJIY80/ref=sr_1_1?crid=31TGEME8CFY4L&dchild=1&keywords=implementing+beyond+budgeting&qid=1606840793&s=digital-text&sprefix=implementing+be%2Cdigital-text%2C165&sr=1-1|Implementing Beyond Budgeting: Unlocking the Performance Potential]]|Bjarte Bogsnes|Manager|Advanced|Just a great book if you want to understand how to work better with finance and HR. There is a lot here, and some of it may not be immediately something to work, but the ideas can be applied to a wide variety of situations. For more, see [[implementing_beyond_budgeting-_unlocking_the_performance_potential_by_bjarte_bogsnes_-_bjarne_bogsnes|Implementing Beyond Budgeting: Unlocking the Performance Potential]]|
+| [[https://a.co/d/1WApHK4 |Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion]]| Robert Cialdini|All|Intermediate|Explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these insights ethically in business and everyday settings resulting is the Principles of Influence.|
+| [[https://a.co/d/clO1EY1|Influence Without Authority]]|Allan Cohen|Arch, RTE, PM|Intermediate|Classic guide to getting what you need from people you don't control. Getting things done requires collaboration, and convincing others to contribute requires political skill; this book introduces the Exchange Model, in which you get what you need by offering something of value in return. The key lies in knowing what the other person values—that's their "currency," and it's your immediate tool for coaxing their cooperation. Personally I found this approach a bit transactional but it is still a useful way to frame think about how to influence.|
+|[[https://a.co/d/5ttjq0Q|The Speed of Trust]]|Stephen Covey|Arch, PM, Leads|Foundational|Shows how trust - and the speed at which it is established with clients, employees, and all stakeholders - is the single most critical component of a successful leader and organization. Shows what to do to increase someone’s view that you might be trustworthy. Foundational to working with people (e.g. the first disfunction of a team, and you cannot influence people without some level of trust in the relationship).|
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