Re-Read Saturday – A Few Book Recommendations!

Books

We are taking a week off from our current re-read (Daniel S. Vacanti’s Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability). In the US the Christmas shopping holiday began in earnest on Friday, November 24th (Black Friday). To get into the swing of things I would like to suggest a few books I have recently reviewed or interviewed the authors on the Software Process and Measurement Cast. We will be back to Mr. Vacanti’s book next week. I have included an affiliate link to each book which, if you order the book through the link, will support the author and support the podcast and blog. I have also included a link to the podcast or blog entry they appeared in .

Paul Gibbons
Buy a copy of the book: The Science of Successful Organizational Change: How Leaders Set Strategy, Change Behavior, and Create an Agile Culture

Re-read the previous Re-read Saturday Book

 

Next Book For Re-read Saturday

Peabody Library – So many books, so little time.

We live and work in a dynamic era. In the software development field we are experiencing changes across the board in computing power, management styles, frameworks and techniques. Movements such as Agile and lean are just the tip of the iceberg. In order to build a base of knowledge and grow, IT practitioners need to read, listen, collaborate and experiment. While blogs, podcasts and conferences are great tools to explore the cutting edge, books are an important tool for building or expanding a base of personal knowledge.

I introduced the Re-Read Saturday feature on the Software Process and Measurement blog to help expose both my readers and myself to at least a few of the most important books. We have now re-read Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and we finished Kotter’s Leading Change last week. I choose the first two books, and it is your turn to choose the next book. Over the last twelve weeks I asked you to send me the two books that you felt were most influential to your career. A few observations:

1. The list has 30 entries.
2. There was NO runaway leader on the list.
3. The first five on the list each got two mentions.

Since there was no clear winner, I have created a poll. The poll will allow each person to vote for three books. Pick the top three books that have had major impact on your career, OR perhaps the books you always wanted to read. The book that is on the top of the list on February 14 will be the next to be featured on Re-Read Saturday.

 

Daily Process Thoughts: Books, April 14, 2013

I love books. In a recent interview on the Harvard Business Review podcast discussing, “Talk, Inc.: How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power Their Organizations” the authors discussed the four I’s of communication. The first I was intimacy. Intimacy suggests that “personal conversation flourishes to the degree that the participants stay close to each other, figuratively as well as literally.”  Talking at someone does not build intimacy.

In order to build intimacy and real trust, communication has to flow in both directions and built on a shared reality. Books and other one way communications can help shape a shared reality but until we experience it in the real world it can only be ethereal. Personal conversations and interaction are experiences to shift shared realities into the real world.  Books are monologues, intimacy can only occur if you don’t just relay on monologues.

 

Book Review: Subliminal Persuasion

Book Review: Subliminal Persuasion

Dave Lakhani

John Wiley and Sons, 2008

Bottom line:Unless you are dead you will be able to use this book!

I believe we all sell our ideas to others therefore persuasion is a topic of interest.Dave Lakhani’s book titled “Subliminal Persuasion” provides the reader with a pallet of tools for persuasion.The eleven chapters of the book clearly layout a set of tools and tactics to be a persuasion machine then adds a clear way for you to put what you have learned into action.In the first chapter Dave said “my publisher wouldn’t publish the book I wanted this to be because it was too edgy, too dangerous” well whether edgy or dangerous you should not be scared away.This book is clearly valuable and should be added to your library . . . maybe get two, one for the library and one to uses as a well thumbed reference.