Bookz

A short list of books that have influenced me a lot in my software engineering management journey
@morelcorpjeff July 20, 2022
Photo by Road Trip with Raj on Unsplash
Photo by Road Trip with Raj on Unsplash

The following books have helped shape my mind and provide me with tools, examples and great stories for managing teams. I’m keeping this list short with the books I have in mind right now and I’m sure you have an already too long reading backlog so I don’t want to add to the burden.

I’m not sure what it says about me️ but most of these are excellent as audiobooks and the other ones are picture books… 🤷‍♂

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These 2 books are fun to listen to as you follow a character who’s learning through the experience. It is easy to put ourselves (well… it was easy for me…) in their shoes and you actually learn something while you follow them along.

The Phoenix Project

This should probably be required reading for every software engineer and manager. It presents the simple concepts that are applicable in all organizations making software. I challenge you to go through it without matching characters in the book with present and past colleagues. I’ve for sure identified a few Brent’s… I love interactions between the main character and his Yoda-esque mentor.

If you like the book and its structure, you could delve into its parent book: The Goal. It was written 20 years earlier and focuses on factory work but it is still very actual (maybe except for the way the main character talks about his wife and one of the little scouts…).

If you want a more applied and detailed source of information on DevOps, the authors of the book wrote a companion book worth your time (although maybe not as an audiobook…): The DevOps Handbook.

As a last note on this one, you can(should) skip the “new” version called The Unicorn Project (I will not even provide a link). I feel they’ve tried too hard to be funny and appeal to the geek culture (which I’m usually a big target). Yes, it talks of more recent and specific technologies but this only mean it won’t age well.

The Ideal Team Player

If you are interested in any form of management for any industry you’d gain a lot by learning to know the work of Patrick Lencioni. This book is less well known than his classic Five Dysfunctions of a Team, I feel this book is more directly applicable at all level and for everyone. Lencioni’s work applies to any industries and is always presented as a fable where you follow an individual or team and learn at the same time they do.

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Reinventing Organization

I’ve linked here the illustrated version for I love it. The illustration style really help to make the concepts presented memorable. This is a book that could be society changing. It presents how organizations could evolve for the benefit of everyone (communities, the environment, societies… humans). The book uses a color coding for organization types from Red to Teal. It is not just all about theoretical ideal, it provides concrete ways to help you move the needle in your organization and details existing medium and large scale companies following the Teal ideals.

Managing for Happiness

Another superbly illustrated management book. This book presents everything you need to know about management 3.0 in easy to approach chapters focussing on a single topic. It covers all facets of management 3.0 from compensation to career ladders going through team identity, values, innovation… I’ve read the official Management 3.0 manual which is great, but this format makes it way easier to come back to a specific topic.

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While I wholeheartedly agree with everything presented in the previous books but not really so for the following ones. They all make for great listen and I love that they are read by the authors (they are all great speakers). You should approach those books as thinking aids more than guide. Dalio presents what works for him in his large hedge fund company. McCord, presents what worked at Netflix. Bock presents how Google worked in 2015.

You are probably not heading a hedge fund. Only a few select individuals would thrive in and maybe even enjoy the Netflix culture. And, (unless it is) your company is not Google. What is great about those books is following the thought processes of these people in establishing rules and principles. They also speak of everything in those companies which is a lot! If you go through all of those and reflect on each point if X or Y would work in your organization you’ll probably have reviewed everything that is your company. You’ll have a lot of ideas to try out, improve, review, stop, start or continue.

Principles: Life and Work

I agree with about half of what Ray Dalio presents in this book but I found everything I don’t agree with probably more useful. Each time I did not agree with what he said, I forced myself to ask why it bugs me and why I would not want those to be principles in organizations I work for.

Powerful

Netflix probably has one of the most demanding culture and it is not for everyone. It is a strong culture putting a lot of responsibilities on employees. Patty McCord who was head of people at the time had to move on from Netflix because it outgrew her. Again, the full portrait they present allow you to reflect on all aspects of your organization’s culture.

Work Rules

While Powerful spoke mostly of culture, in Work Rules, Laszlo Bock details all the processes and policies (the rules) at Google at the time of writing. The portion on hiring and how Google tries to keep bias out of the whole process is probably one section all organizations would probably benefit from.

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There are many other books I’d love to have shared here but I wanted to keep it short (and probably failed…) I hope this was useful to you and would love to have your thoughts and comments on those.

Thanks for reading, @morelcorpjeff

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