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The first non-bullshit book about culture I've read

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Re: The first non-bullshit book about culture I've read

#81

Post by gav »

arethuza wrote: post #12
gherkinnn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gave “Leaders eat last” a try, but found it unreadable. It starts with SEALs in Afghanistan, because of course it does, and then the author loosely strings together a bunch of unconvincing anecdotes to support his core idea. The worst part is his constant reference to various hormones and fight or flight responses in a superficial way that would make even TEDx feel ashamed. Edit: there is absolutely no doubt in my…

I don't think I'd ever read a book purely on 'leadership' but I read a fair bit of military history and there is no doubt that there are some examples of outstanding leadership to be found there.

I really like "The Art of Action" by Stephen Bungay, who's a military historian/management consultant.

It's interesting to compare the Taylor vs. Drucker view on management against the Bülow vs. Clausewitz view on war.

Re: The first non-bullshit book about culture I've read

#82

Post by jtms »

Pxtl wrote: post #56
jtms wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this being downvoted? Did Scott Adams get cancelled or something?

Adams has gone a bit nuts in recent years and has become quite a controversial figure. Like, Ive seen him in political flamewars on Twitter responding to criticism with pictures of his abs. He was a little weird for a long time, but his divorce in 2014 kind of unmoored him.

oh that’s a shame. I used to really like his work back in the day - thanks for the answer

Re: The first non-bullshit book about culture I've read

#83

Post by caiocaiocaio »

The fact that headline points out that it's not bullshit makes it sound like bullshit.

When a pitch answers a question that no one asked, it's a pretty good indication that something's wrong. Like when an employer says they're looking for "team players", it means they have an aggressive workplace with a lot of backstabbing. If a restaurant specifically advertised that it was clean, and had a sign saying "clean food and kitchen" in the window, would you eat there?

Re: The first non-bullshit book about culture I've read

#84

Post by AdamM12 »

thatguy_2016 wrote: post #14

"Turn the ship around" is one of my favorite books too; most leadership books follow the same formula- everything is broken, the consultant arrives with a magic fix, and voila! Unicorns start flying. "Turn the ship around" is unique that it shows the problems with the author's approach- how it failed at first, how he had to work around it, how he tweaked the approach. A very honest, no BS book. Highly recommended

If you like that you should read "About Face" by David Hackworth. I have not read it but I've hear about it via the Jocko Podcast.

Re: The first non-bullshit book about culture I've read

#85

Post by netcan »

cushychicken wrote: post #57
netcan wrote: post #52

To some extent, I'm no longer curious about "leadership" ideas about organisational culture. I understand that culture counts for a lot, but modern organisational cultures are getting complaints that "leadership" is not going to solve at scale. Maybe motivation/attitudes can be improved and a naval hierarchy can work better, but this is not the typical issue in corporate culture. I'm curious about structural answers.…

>I understand that culture counts for a lot, but modern organisational cultures are getting complaints that "leadership" is not going to solve at scale. I'm not sure if I agree or disagree with you - on the one hand, this statement seems wrong, but on the other hand, everything else you said makes a ton of sense to me. Everyone seems so caught up by culture these days that they forget the other big part of the leader…

We disagree somewhere, but I'm not sure where. Let me take a stab...

If people don't scale, why are we hoping for "leadership" to be at the heart of it. The whole idea behind "inspired leadership" is that it's a person, and they need to be really good.

I'm saying too things, rely on simple, honest structural procedures to drive cultural changes... not leaders.

A lot of leadership is cosmetic. I'm not discounting the importance of feelings and symbols to an organisation. Just focusing on symbols, attitudes and such though... it's nonsense.

If you're trying to solve problems like "innovation at big companies," you'll need to deal in real currency. The stuff of real incentive... cultural stuff, but also monetary stuff, power stuff, etc.

Re: The first non-bullshit book about culture I've read

#86

Post by teddyh »

gexla wrote: post #53
jtms wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this being downvoted? Did Scott Adams get cancelled or something?

Maybe explain how it fits. All the books I mentioned were written about these people running or being placed at a high level in these organizations and making decisions which had a substantial impact on them. Does Scott Adams cover this in his book or did he largely work solo?

It fits your description of being a book of advice about how to succeed which is also largely autobiographical.

As far as I know, Adams worked solo, and failed to gain any traction in any large organization, so if that’s what you want to have advice about, the Dilbert guy might not be the one to advise you about how to enjoy success in large organizations.

Re: The first non-bullshit book about culture I've read

#87

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

harimau777 wrote: post #80
cushychicken wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I understand that culture counts for a lot, but modern organisational cultures are getting complaints that "leadership" is not going to solve at scale. I'm not sure if I agree or disagree with you - on the one hand, this statement seems wrong, but on the other hand, everything else you said makes a ton of sense to me. Everyone seems so caught up by culture these days that they forget the other big part of the leader…

How would you approach customizing the process to the individual or to a given circumstance? For example, I had a situation where I had a story to write functional tests for a piece of our software. The story's scope had creeped (there turned out to be disagreement between different levels of leadership over what the tests should cover), but I had reached a point where I had implemented roughly 80% of the tests that…

When people follow policies strictly to the exclusion of work getting done, that's not something to be solved with another policy. In a well-functioning environment, people are very willing (too willing, if you ask most security teams!) to ignore or override annoying policies that stop things from getting done. If people are working to rule, that's almost always a protest action, and the only real solution is resolving the protesters' frustration.

Re: The first non-bullshit book about culture I've read

#88

Post by teddyh »

Pxtl wrote: post #56
jtms wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this being downvoted? Did Scott Adams get cancelled or something?

Adams has gone a bit nuts in recent years and has become quite a controversial figure. Like, Ive seen him in political flamewars on Twitter responding to criticism with pictures of his abs. He was a little weird for a long time, but his divorce in 2014 kind of unmoored him.

As far as I know, his “cancellation” stems from one thing, and one thing only: He says that Trump is skilled at being convincing (and explains how, at length). This, in the eyes of others, makes him a Trump apologist, and must therefore be shunned.

If you had a link to that weird tweet I would like to see it; it would be interesting to see if I agree with your characterization.

Re: The first non-bullshit book about culture I've read

#89

Post by klenwell »

nogabebop23 wrote: post #66

My experience as a Development Manager for the past ~year (YMMV): 1. I'm playing chess; senior management is playing checkers. No, not because I'm some sort of genius and they are simpletons, but rather they talk about interchangeable "resource units" and I know these FTE's as "Tom" and "Amy", each with specific strenghts and weaker areas. Big strategic plans cannot differentiate but we front-line managers need to fi…

Well stated. Bookmarked.

One additional bullet point I would add: Hiring.

If an isolated HR unit controls hiring and freezes the hiring managers and team out of the process, or effectively alienates them, you're wasting a huge amount of energy.

This is part of the methodology I try to weave into my organizations:

- A thoughtful and literate job posting, purged of gratuitous jargon, will accurately describe the job and foreshadow the company culture.

- Candidates will be evaluated using a simple quantitative assessment of core competencies (see Ch. 21 of Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow).

- Final decision will be a collective decision of the hiring team.

- After hiring cycle is complete, hiring team will hold a retrospective.

- We will acknowledge mistakes and work to correct them quickly and humanely.

https://wiki.klenwell.com/view/Hiring

Re: The first non-bullshit book about culture I've read

#90

Post by icelancer »

caiocaiocaio wrote: post #83

The fact that headline points out that it's not bullshit makes it sound like bullshit. When a pitch answers a question that no one asked, it's a pretty good indication that something's wrong. Like when an employer says they're looking for "team players", it means they have an aggressive workplace with a lot of backstabbing. If a restaurant specifically advertised that it was clean, and had a sign saying "clean food a…

Well, we don't really have a choice in Seattle / SF; they hang those signs in every restaurant.
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