Organizations Books

With software and engineering management, problem *formulation* is often harder than problem *resolution*. In my experience, the problem isn't answering the questions, it's knowing what questions to ask.

The genius of this book is that it offers a bunch of really good questions to help you frame the problems, large and small, in your own organization. Himelstein also offers solid advice to help you find answers that work in your particular environment. It's a real distillation of thoughtful experience, presented in a very accessible way.

I became an instant fan of this book. I recommend it to any software manager trying to improve their organization, whether tuning up a good operation, or fixing a badly broken one.

The book provides a well ordered how-to-do list for senior software executives. From managing technology, to managing personnel, 100 questions has the answers.

When Mark asked me to read his manuscript, I had no
idea that I would end up credited as its editor. In
the interests of full disclosure, I shall tell you
that Mark is an old friend of mine, and it was for
that reason that I agreed to help him. But as I
read through that very first draft of _100 Questions to
Ask Your Software Organization_, I realized that this was
about more than just helping out an old friend.

Having spent more than 25 years working in Silicon
Valley, I've seen whole companies hobbled by
the inadvertent bad management of people, processes,
and products. This deficiency costs everyone, from a
company's investors to its customers. It is
particularly hard on its employees, who are any
company's principal asset. Worse, the problems that
plague development organizations are never binary.
Managing even a small group of smart people is
inherently complex and challenging. There's a lot
to know, and a lot to do. And that's part of what
makes this book important.

So what's it about? First and foremost, it is
exactly what it says it is: 100 questions which, while you're
figuring out how to fix or improve a software
engineering organization, you can ask of that
organization to help ascertain the shape it's in.
These are the questions you ask to gather the data
needed to form a plan, and they are organized in a
systematic and methodical way. Grouped by topic
into chapters, examples of some of the chapter headers
include: Communications, Roles and Responsibilities,
Strategy, Resources, Schedule, and Execution.
Grounded in his many years of successfully managing
engineering groups at major companies like Apple
and Sun Microsystems, Mark discusses some of the
answers you might get, how to interpret them, and
what, if anything, to do about them.

But this book is far from the run-of-the-mill, overly
analytical management tract. My two favorite chapters
are those he entitles Humanity and Final Words. Here,
the level of discourse rises, from sharing lessons
learned in hard experience to reflections on that
experience that smack of true wisdom. It's easy to
repeat the bromide that all business relationships
are human relationships, but Mark is able to articulate
the implications of this truth in a way that is
tangible and actionable. Do as he suggests, and all
in your environment will benefit.

Almost as important as the questions and the
discussion that accompanies them is the material Mark
includes in the appendices. In this concluding
section, he breaks down a hypothetical, large
engineering project into its components, and
provides examples of presentation templates and others tools
that will help the reader to manage a similar project.

I endorse this book without reservation. I know
personally that Mark's methods work, and that his
thinking has helped me run my own organization.

I personally use this book as a reference guide many times in my day-to-day business and I find the examples particularly helpful Hermann Jakob, Launch Planning & Training Manager, Ford Europ

For years, all the books available on organization design were written at too high a level of abstraction for practicing managers or were so enmeshed in detail that they simultaneously confused and bored the reader. At last, with The 20% Solution, John Cotter has provided a readable and practical guide to designing organizations for todayÍs business environments. This book is a real treasure chest of ideas. A must read! - Leonard A. Schlesinger, George F. Baker Jr., Professor of Business Administration, Ha

Very well written with suberb examples. A good plain-language introduction to sociotechnical systems design - Harvey Kolodny, Professor, Faculty of Management, University of Toront

This book should be read by everyone from young adults to senior executives. As a lay person, not only did I understand how to be successful in the business world, but how to improve my own life. The pages provided me with a fresh insight into leadership; one is not born as a leader, rather one must use leadership skills. Although this book provides examples with well known figures, it also points towards lesser known, but amply talented, leaders. However, albeit how successful some of these people are, some stories serve to remind us that even leaders cannot escape their own humanity. I loudly applaud Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner for giving me the tools to make my way through the 21st century!

My introduction to formalized leadership came during the Korean War, as I served as an instructor in the U.S. Army Infantry Leadership Course at Ft. Dix, NJ. There it was a pretty cut and dried formula with no opportunity for innovation. In the ensuing years leadership innovations have leaped into the spotlight with ever increasing frequency. Hardly a year goes by without some professor or management guru promulgating the latest leadership theory and its applications.

In my reading of this literature, I find that many, if not most, of them offer little of substance and seem to focus on providing panaceas that seldom seem to be applicable to my or my clients' situations. They enjoy waves of popularity and then like the old soldier just fade away to be replaced by the next new popular leadership theory.

Well, Tom Peters et al can step aside. The dynamic duo of Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner clearly demonstrate what effective managers need to learn to lead their organizations into the digital age. Rather than offering universal applications, these authors examine the nature of effective leadership in some depth. In specific situations they review the dilemmas of management and provide hardcore examples of how to reconcile fundamental issues of leadership.

Utilizing their base data from thousands of surveys of leaders and followers around the world and with their seven dimensions of cultural competence they have interviewed global leaders as they cope with the dilemmas of leadership. Rather than presenting seven or more essential habits, they focus on how these leaders reconcile differences to attain more effective management.

The authors suggest that business cultures are different, and that because business is run differently around the globe, we need different managerial and leadership competencies. What they call transcultural competence is their way of bridging those differences. It is a logic that tends to unify differences and that delineates the manager from the leader and the successful leader from the unsuccessful one. They call for a new way of thinking. Through-Through thinking is beyond either-or and even and- and thinking in that it synthesizes seemingly opposed values into coherence. Thus the main theme throughout this book is that effective leaders reconcile value dilemmas better than those who don't.

In in-depth interviews with 21 business leaders that run the range from Richard Branson of Virgin through the former Russian Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko, to corporate leaders throughout the West, we see the applications of transcultural competence through the use of the authors' seven dimensions: rule-making vs exception finding, that is universalism vs particularism; self-interest and personal fulfillment vs group interest and social concern, that is individualism vs communitarianism; preference for precise, singular, "hard" standards vs preference for pervasive, patterned. "soft: processes, that is specificity vs diffusion; emotions inhibited vs emotions expressed, that is neutral vs affective; status achieved through success and track record vs status ascribed to person's potential such as age, family, education, that is achievement vs ascription; control and effective direction comes from within vs control and effective direction comes from inside, that is inner-directed vs outer-directed; and time is conceived of as a "race" with passing increments vs time is conceived of as a "dance" with circular iterations, that is sequential vs synchronic. While not all of the 21 leaders address all of the above factors in their corporations, we do see that a number of these dimensions occur in varying issues of each organization. They include Kiriyenko working to reconcile dilemmas at the Nizhmy Novorod Oil Company (NORSI) such as that of inner direction (young Russians) vs outer directed (older Russians) or that of cronyism vs new rules or universalism vs particularism. Philippe Bourguignon of Club Med working to reconcile the dilemma of the unique, seamless, personalized vacation vs the reliable, affordable, segmented, standardized holiday with the specific ingredients going into the making of diffuse experiences.

Other examples of the reconciliation of dilemmas appear in such case studies as: creating a hyperculture with Martin Gillo of Advanced Micro Devices; recapturing the true mission with Christian Majgaard of Lego; the balance between market and product with Anders Knutsen of Bang and Olufsen; keeping closer to the customer with David Komansky of Merrill Lynch; and much more. Each of the case studies in the book offers rare insights into how the dilemmas of leadership can be met and how transcultural competence can be applied to leadership in the digital age. To quote the book itself: "The central premise that evolved is that the propensity to reconcile seemingly different contradictory values is the key competence behavior required for a leader to be effective in today's digital world." This is a fascinating spellbinding text blending the intercultural dilemmas of management with the reconciling forces of leadership to create innovative leaders. The examples from 21 business leaders prove again and again that Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner have hit enough nails on the head to build a solid model for the future.

David C. Wigglesworth an interculturalist is a management and organization development consultant and is president of D.C.W. Research Associates International in Kingwood, Texas. He can be reached at 281-359-4234 and dcwigg@earthlink.net
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Charles Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars have been collaborating for many years to develop an understanding of how different cultures approach and resolve problems and the cross-cultural issues that arise from it. In the course of this collaboration they have developed a formidable database of responses from managers around the world, and a 'dilemma methodology' which they use to demonstrate how superior results flow from the way in which dilemmas are managed and resolved.

This book is a direct successor to a series of books by one or both authors, which develop the methodology and its application. This one applies it to the question of effective leadership, and makes a valuable contribution to a generally overcrowded field. In particular, it adds to understanding of the particular skill of an effective leader and also helps to build an operational understanding of what is meant by 'managing a culture'. The book can be read and used without reference to the earlier works, but Building Cross-Cultural Competence is particularly useful in providing an extended statement of the principles and dimensions summarized in the first 2 chapters of 21 Leaders.

The nine opening pages of the Introduction provide a succinct overview of the main thesis, described as a 'metatheory of leadership'. They argue that leaders 'manage culture' by fine-tuning and reconciling dilemmas and that that culture then runs the organization. Outstanding leaders are particularly adept at reconciling dilemmas - they make the necessary distinctions yet integrate them into a viable whole. The authors conceptualise apparently opposed values (eg individualism versus communitarianism) as being the opposite ends of a continuum and the test of successful reconciliation being that both values should emerge stronger from the interaction.

The book and most of the examples are based on issues of cross-cultural in the sense of cross-national values, but the principles apply equally wherever there is a potential clash of values - for example in a merger or a major program of change.

Through expanding their methodology and showing how it applies in a wide range of complex situations the authors seek to help leaders :

"Elicit and become aware of major business dilemmas in cross-cultural environments
See dilemma resolution as a crucial ingredient of strategy
Utilize dilemmas as strategic contexts for action
Learn the art of achieving one value through another in a virtuous circle (a process known as through-through thinking)
Learn how transnational entrepreneurs take their stands (preneur) between (entre) contrasting values."

Much of the book is devoted to case studies of the 21 selected leaders. These are not all the 'usual suspects' of the management literature, but include a former Russian Prime Minister and the heads of companies in a variety of industries and from a range of nations. Each is well-written and argues its particular points in a way that gives depth to the main thesis of the book.

Though I didn't read the whole thing, this is a good book. It doesn't merely complain about the problems that we women (sadly) still face. It actually provides us with solutions on how to remedy problems ranging from threats to reproductive freedom to pay inequities to racism against women of color, among other things. The book also provides a list of websites, books, and organizations that readers can contact for additional help. At a time when we as women are still facing injustices because of our sex, this book gives us what we need to fight the good fight and achieve justice, dignity, respect, and freedom for us and our sisters.

50 Ways To Improve Women's Lives: The Essential Women's Guide To Achieving Equality, Health, And Success by the National Council of Women's Organizations (a nonpartisan coalition of 200 women's groups representing more than 10 million woman across the United States) addresses a diversity of subjects of particular interest to women including pay equity, reproductive health, child care, racism, education, social responsibilities, political leadership, and more. Very highly recommended and accessible reading, 50 Ways To Improve Women's Lives provides practical advice that will enable the reader to become actively involved in advancing the quality and independence of her life, and to more effectively pursue her personal and professional agendas.

This book gives a great overview of issues that most effect women by sharing stories and facts to illustrate important areas where change needs to occur, from childcare and family issues to equal pay, and women in sports and science.

I found it quick and easy to read--and I have very little time as a working mom!--with practical and doable actions if I so chose. For example, I was appalled to hear about the state of (very little or misleading!) sex education for high school students. Since I have kids about to enter their teens, this issue spoke to me. And it gave several ways for me to get active: by not supporting funding for harmful abstinence programs; asking my elected officials to fund honest and comprehensive sex ed; and then how to make sure my kids develop their own decision-making and critical thinking skills related to sex (and how to talk to them about it!) And this is just one of the 50 Ways... in the book.

I highly recommend this for people who want to get involved but are not sure how--and who don't have time to read huge volumes of books on politics and public policy.

This text was a relatively quick read and it confirmed what I had learned in my teacher prepatory classes; however, it is the kind of belief system that some districts have steered away from in attempts to be more in touch with the emotional needs of students (this is not to say that meeting the emotional needs of the students isn't important, however, effort *can* equal achievement! It was in excellent condition; as well.

As other reviewers have noted, Jeanne Chall was passionately opinionated but also extremely well informed from her own decades of experience and research of educational methods. The evidence she presents in this book is wide-ranging, both historically and in subject matter. And her arguments as always are both rock-solid factual and heart-tuggingly persuasive. This is an excellent book that I would encourage as an appropriate and thoughtful gift for any educator.

Parents who are concerned with getting the best education for their children should also read this book. Chall's language is less esoteric here than in her scholarly articles (although this is a scholarly book and her conclusions are consistent with those papers). She demonstrates here that educational methods and research are not too obscure for the general reader.

In fact, her review of 100 years of research and experimentation shows that the common-sense notions held by the layman are correct -- that real teaching (instruction, direction, leadership, not just "guidance") works best to educate children. Chall explains why this is so, and shows the dire consequences of ignoring the facts.

This is an important book because Chall endeavors to provide a historical and social context for understanding the debates about how best to teach the majority of children in schools. Chall invites educators, publishers, parents, and policy makers to look beyond the politics and trends in education, and to focus on the research evidence on what methods get results. She also calls for teacher training programs to empower teachers with the knowledge to examine and question the research they base their practice on. She advocates for using the past constructively to inform choices made in the future. She often said that doctors would never dream of prescribing a brand new treatment without researching past cures and treatments... and yet educators, she said, seemed to reinvent the same ideas over and over without considerating research evidence already gathered. It made her hopping mad.

What is interesting to about this book is the story of it's evolution. Originally Chall drafted a very candid and straight forward manuscript based on the questions and opinions she had developed over 50 years as an educator. The book was going to be quite different from her well known scholarly publications. But then she kept rediscovering bits of newspaper and scraps from nagazines which she had piled away in vast personal collection of snippets -- all of which confirmed her thinking on what was going on in education. She became so excited about each interesting piece of evidence that including them became irresistable for her. But with each new snippet she then felt a need to address alternative viewpoints in order to try and offer a well rounded approach. Having been attacked in the past for her poignant views, I think she found it difficult (or maybe just stupid) to set herself for obvious criticisms. So what would originally have been a very personal argument based on her depth of experience in the field eventually evolved into a scholarly review of the historical evidence. This book -- completed during the last month's of her impressive life -- may not be her best work. But it is certainly her most personal. You just have to read between the lines.

This is a beautifully illustrated version of the 19th century hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful." The illustrations follow a country girl as she explores the world around her. The illustrations propel the text's message to the next level, powerfully demonstrating the beauty of God's creation. It's worth pausing at every page-spread to admire the pictures for a few extra seconds, and it doesn't detract from the reading of the story at all.

Each 2-page spread has 2 lines from the hymn, and a 2-page illustration spread surrounding the words. The text is a nice large size. In the back two pages, the hymn is printed if you'd want to play it or sing it with your children.

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone with young children that they want to teach of God from their earlist days.

This is an easy review - the book is simply great! If parents are willing to sit down with their children and read, especially starting before they are two years old, this book will help to spark the imagination of practically any child. The song couldn't make a better subject for a book. The story should help form the foundation for a strong moral and religious background. The illustrations are beautifully done and our twenty-two month old picks out things that we hadn't even noticed. I recommend the book to all parents and encourage them to read it nightly, taking the time to discuss what they see in the pictures. I sincerely hope the author has more projects in the works!

All creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all... This is a great hymn, one of my favorites (especially the arrangement by John Rutter). Reading (singing!) this book to my children has given them an appreciation for the beauty in God's world. The illustrations are the kind that a child is drawn into - the kind they can gaze at and imagine themselves in the scene.
A carefree country girl goes on a ramble as the hymn unfolds. My children (me too!) want to kick off their shoes and share in the child's absorption of the beauty around her.
Great way to children-ize a hymn.

This is a book you are going to think about for a long, long time. You are going to recommend it to all your friends. It highlights the essential tool we must utilize to defeat radical Islam and their terrorist methods-a return to our traditional values. London's brilliance is that he creates his air tight case in 97 very accessible pages. This one or two night read will arouse in you many years of thought.

Could extremist secularism be doing as much damage as extremist religions? "America's Secular Challenge: The Rise of a New National Religion" is an examination of secularism and its impact on America. Herbert London, president of the Hudson institute, lays out his argument against something that the country so often ignores in the idea of tolerance and political correctness. "America's Secular Challenge" is a top pick for anyone who thinks political correctness may be going too far.

Most people in the United States appear to have no idea what secular humanism is, even though they are surrounded by it every day. It is the only religion for many people, but they often cannot even recognize it as a belief system. This book is short and easy to read, but it conveys very important information. It ought to be assigned to high school classes to give the students a better understanding of modern culture.

The railroads, the first national industry, the industry on which giant battles were waged not just between the workers and the employers, but a major factor in farmers fight for land, and their continued fight for their fair share of the profits from their labor. This book talks about the railroad's real history in American capitalism, a history of class struggle, class war. This book also talks about how at a much earlier easier stage of the crisis of capitalism, the railroads themselves
were torn apart by economic crisis, thousands of employees lost their jobs, and the economy of this country was thrown amuck.
Read this now,
because the crisis of the railroads at they were when this book was written in the 1970s is nothing compared to the growing crisis. Read this now because it is written not as nostalgic lying history, or armchair economics, but as a contribution to the need for all working people, not just railroad workers, to know what is coming, know how our predecessors have shown the way to fight, know how to win!

Read this now because a crisis in the airline industry of exactly the same character with questions of nationalization is going on now. Here in Miami where the airlines are a major employer many of my friends and neighbors are afraid that their jobs will be lost. Read this book for them as well!

The labor movement today encounters calls for patriotic sacrifice as well as threats of employer bankruptcy and government attack. We need to be educated on these issues. For example, the Railway Labor Act has recently been used to deny airline workers the right to strike. This book by Dick Roberts tells you how this package of laws was first used against labor in the 1920s, to satisfy the needs of big business. Roberts tells the story of the rail barons' greed and the bailouts they got from bought-and-paid-for politicians. He also tells the story of the great struggles by rail workers. Throughout, the government has backed the railroad companies and called on rail workers to sacrifice in the name of patriotism, just as airline workers are today being pressured in the name of Homeland Security to abandon their right to strike and continue down the slippery slope of take-backs.

A short, lively study of labor and capital in one of the key industries in modern society. The railroads have been one of the biggest money-makers for their wealthy owners from the mid-1800s on, and also one of the scenes of fierce strike battles as bosses brutally resisted workers' demands for better wages, job security and safer working conditions.
I found Robert's detailed look at stock ownership of the railroads in the 1970s very helpful in figuring out how modern capitalism works, and an example that could be applied to other major industries. His discussion of why essential industries such as transportation cannot be left to the mercy of the profit needs of private capital is really relevant for anyone grappling with the economic crises of the 21st century.
Roberts also presents a lively history of capital-labor struggles over the past 150 years. I'd suggest reading it along with the more detailed books on working class leadership in the United States by Farrell Dobbs, especially his two-volume series Revolutionary Continuity.

With so little time spent on caring in the workplace, Giovagnoli shows us all that there are practical, powerful things we can all do daily to make a difference in our workplaces. The book was so well laid out and the stories brought me to tears as well as laughter. Great Angel Advice Corners at the end of each section really help bring the strategies she offers to life. I put the Action Strategies page up in my lunch room as Giovagnoli suggests and last week alone three people brought food treats for my department. For the first time in a long time, this Christmas at the office feels like there are people who care about each other. It's even getting to the point that I look forward to going to work to see what new idea someone has come up with--all from the strategies Giovagnoli recommends.

Angels in the Workplace is by far the best book to come along in years! Workers and employers all over America will improve their attitude and working environment by reading this book. In a time where the knowledged-based workplace is imminent, employers and employees alike are looking for ways to enhance their work life. This is the way! Using Giovagnoli's action steps, your workplace will become a more spiritual and fulfilled place to spend your 40 hours a week.

This is the perfect gift for family, friends, colleagues. I even gave a copy to my boss. I like the way each belief--faith,hope, charity, courage, truth, trust and love have not only stories, but strategies to make them work in your work place. I turn to the book once a day to get ideas and inspiration.

For executives searching for innovative ways to execute strategy effectively, Jim Haudan's "The Art of Engagement" is an excellent field guide for that journey. Many will want to keep it as a deskbook, especially for those dark days when strategy stalls, or never gets off the ground.

Haudan offers a refreshingly practical approach to executing strategy by engaging people to think and act much differently about strategy. It is about how to use strategic conversations and visualization of systems to accelerate strategy execution through people.

Loaded with innovative ideas and lessons learned from Haudan's 20 years of helping executives in some of the world's largest companies bring their strategies to life, the book also offers readers an opportunity to test some of Haudan's proven methods through free downloads of strategic learning applications discussed in the book.

Here is a caveat: Don't buy this book if you think you can execute strategy despite your people, and not through them. Quite frankly, it will waste your time.

But if you want to learn about proven methods to engage the hearts and minds of your leaders, managers and front line to execute a shared mental model of strategy, then grab a bunch of copies for your team and test the concepts.

Human capital is a concept that has been evolving to explain a major portion of the intangibles underlying market valuation of a company. Jim Haudan is providing the key to leveraging human capital. Investment of financial capital is routinely justified by monitoring the return on investment. Investment of scarce resources in human capital can deliver outsized returns, as Haudan clearly illustrates.

There is a difference in performance between a company whose employees routinely deliver discretionary effort and a company whose employees are marking time until the end of the work day, work week, or retirement. The contrasting depiction of engagement and disengagement in this book shows the path to energizing employees, who then deliver results.

The Art of Engagement offers an abundance of wisdom in how any organization can benefit from the hearts and minds of its membership. These incredible resources are all too often wasted, but the chances of that will be far less for those business leaders who embrace Haudan's lessons of engagement.

One of the most daunting accomplishments to which any one organization can aspire is breaking the code on how to create an environment where employees enthusiastically not only pour their minds and bodies into their work but also their heart and spirit as well.

Providing employees the opportunity to understand and influence their work and how they contribute to achieving the overall mission of the organization is highest form of recognition any company can give.

The Art of Engagement provides a terrific framework to begin thinking and acting on those participative management practices that if done well can elevate an organization to a whole new level of performance.

I recommend Jim Hauden's book to any entity who truly believes the people within their organization deserve the opportunity to understand and feel inspired about their job and the organization for which they work.