this was a fun and yeah, that’s true but… oh, is that what is it called? … oh, hmm lemme think about that.. kind of book.
much of what Scott Berkun has described, i have seen and experienced through my 20+ years in software development and it made for wonderful realizations – things i think i did great and things i could have done better. and it put a phrase into some of the things that i know worked (especially with my current role) but it just so difficult to articulate.
A few lines I took time to take note of are:
“The culture valued results more than process: people were happy to lend expertise they hard or teach others what they knew.”
“Once you have two or three like-minded people, a culture forms that attracts more people with similar values and repels those that don’t.”
“Being a good lead is all about switching hats: knowing which level of abstraction to work at to solve a problem. It’s rarely a question of intelligence; instead, it’s picking the right perspective to use on a particular challenge.”
“He wanted a data-influenced culture, not a data-driven one.”
“The bottleneck is never code or creativity; it’s lack of clarity.”
“Laughter leads to running jokes and running jokes lead to a shared history, and a shared history is culture.”
“Yet it made us laugh, which always helps, and we got to work.
our organization has been doing remote work albeit on a minor scale for almost 6 years now and there are still some challenges with productivity, i must say. one thing though that the book hammers in is that it is still the (company) culture that dictates how successful an organization can be – no matter the working arrangements. and that trust goes both ways. 🙂
it is a book that you can read, again and again. going back to certain quotes that gives that aha! or yes, so true or nah… not really moment. it forces you to think and evaluate how you are doing things now. whether as a lead or a contributor, creative or support or whatever your role in the organization is.
It is still free in kindle format. Head on over to Amazon : https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DVJXI4M/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
#mustread
my take 