My Bookshelf

Since I stopped doing value adding work (writing code) and started being an administrative expense (management & process stuff), I have read many work related books. I try to balance between reading fiction and other lighter material and then management books. Originally I was rather strict that reading books that benefit the company should happen during the company time, but I've a bit softened my view on this. It sounds like a cliché, but reading and learning new things is really an investment. So, since I also like reading that stuff, I've given myself permission to read interesting books also during my leisure time. :)

Now I'm dropping the bomb: every management or process book ever written isn't a pearl! That's right. Actually, many really, really aren't worth a read. That's why I'd like to save everyone's time and just list the ones that have somehow made an impression on me.

I start from the one that has maybe made the biggest impact on my thinking: Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins. I read this when I had just started as the Chief Scrum Master. I'm still on the voyage, but this book actually started the journey. Well written and worth reading if you want to help teams as an Agile coach.

The second one in the series of really good books that offer something new and neat is Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It doesn't go into the category of coaching, but has given me a lot of nice ideas regarding product development. I think it should be a must read for any Product Owner and could be really thought provoking for any Agile Developer. Some great catches from the book: Minimum Viable Product, experimenting, pivoting and actionable metrics. Just read it! <3

Third one in the series I actually read when again starting in a new role. This one is for Agile managers and is called Management 3.0. It's written by Jurgen Appelo and belongs to the same Mike Cohn signature series as Coaching Agile Teams. (This is not a paid commercial, but I just say that that series has a lot of good books.)

I'm not sure if the ideas are really original, one might even say that they are copied and just put under one cover, but it doesn't matter. Like Scrum combines many useful practices under one easy name and is easy to get a buy-in for, Management 3.0 groups a set of management practices. It's easy and fun to read and I think quite many managers (people who are responsible for the well being of others) should read this book. In most cases people are working in a company voluntarily. They are free to vote with their feet. Especially skillful, talented people. As a manager you should realize this and create an environment where these people enjoy working.

For the rest of the books I won't give such a lengthy description. These are a couple of easy to read books about change management:

• Who Moved My Cheese?
• Our Iceberg is Melting

Then these didn't make it into the top three, but I'm still a big fan of Henrik Kniberg's work:

• Lean from the Trenches: Managing Large-Scale Projects with Kanban
  
• Kanban and Scrum - making the most of both
  
• Scrum and XP from the Trenches
• Lean Mindset: Ask the Right Questions (co-authoring with the Poppendiecks)

This book by Daniel Pink is an excellent introduction to intrinsic motivation:

• Drive

All of the above a books that I could recommend people to read. Of course you should consider what fits your personal needs. 

Finally, a couple of books that I've read, but maybe wouldn't promote that much. If you are the author of these books, I'm sorry. But maybe you can take this as an improvement opportunity. ;)

• Lessons in IT Transformation
• Virtual Team Success: A Practical Guide for Working and Leading from a Distance
• Agile Software Development with Scrum (sorry Ken..)
• Agile Project Management with Scrum (..and once more)

And truthfully, many of these books aren't really in my personal library. But we have them at work and some I've borrowed from the local library. In addition to books you can find plenty of interesting (and free) material online. Blogs and videos are also good ways to stay up to date.

Edit (12/2015): Since the original time I wrote this post I've read a couple of really interesting books. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steven Krug. Both are excellent if you want to understand human behavior better.

Failure, It's Not a Bad Thing

I stumbled today into a new concept. It is called Day for Failure and I think it is very interesting and should be recognized more publicly. The web is full of those 'motivational' pictures about epic fails. Those are amusing. But on the other hand, I think failure is seen many times in too negative way.

Failure is a blessing! It tells you that you did something that you shouldn't try again. It's offering you valuable insight about how life works and something even more important. Failure opens a door for learning.

Mr. Edison might be the most known people to fail. Or as he puts it, found ways that don't work. But I think the main message is this: you only fail if you give up. If you make a mistake and learn, you haven't failed in this negative sense that so many people use. Or we can call that failure, but it's still a good thing.

Lean Startup along with the concept of Validated Learning has been one of my favorite books. Probably due to it saying the same thing. Experiment. My mistakes. Fail fast. And then try again. The faster we fail, the faster we gain more knowledge. And the safer and less costly we make failing, the more we can utilize its awesome power.

So next week, on October 13th and after that, start building a new culture at your workplace! Share and celebrate failures. They offer you and your colleagues information and learning you could never achieve by always staying on the safe side. And by sharing the experiences, you don't have to repeat the same failures but can try new ones.

Creating value through Agile Coaching

I just spent one week at the summer cottage relaxing and going through my thoughts. One thing that I pondered was that do I practice what I preach? I do agile coaching and I'm interested in lean startups. Am I really adding value to my readers with this blog or am I just making waste?

I truly hope that the unique combination of different disciplines that I bring to the table offer some value for the readers. I have been recently interested in Scrum, agile frameworks in general, lean startups and lean thinking, testing, Deep Leadership, software craftsmanship and from my previous career working with legacy software. I'm pretty sure there are many others that have similar backgrounds, but hopefully no-one else with exactly the same. But if you do, please tell me how I should continue. ;)

My tips for today are simple:

• Empower the team
• Try to make them realize limiting work in progress brings results
• Trust and collaboration is the key
• If possible, test your ideas with real customers
• Don't be afraid to pivot if you need to
• Seize the day and enjoy what you do (each day)