Over half a year has passed since posting What I read got me thinking. It’s time to update the list with other great books – ones which made me think, find fascinating and thought-provoking.
Inspiration is a source of engagement which is key to reach goals and new things. Inspired by Marty Cagan is a great book on inspiring products and product management. Marty helps teams to discover and build outstanding products at the right time for consumers. In today’s fast-moving world it requires empowered teams which have experiences and deep insights to innovate and produce products clients love. The managers’ main duty is to enable and foster such teams rather than performing short-term labour arbitrage for income polishing.
Maybe you are tired as well of yearly performance management processes and feel that such processes do not produce any value in the current time of change. Measure What Matters by John Doerr gives a lot of insights into the operational key results (OKR) based approach adopted by many of the most successful companies today. Not all companies are ready to adopt this as it requires an honest and transparent culture from the CEO down to all the employees to get the organization aligned with what really matters.
Many companies have lost their innovative power which attributed to their past success(s). Many started to preserve their brand and sustain by iterations of the same products lacking any real innovation or change. Iterations are a sign that a company is on the way down and that it may need somebody to revitalize it by hitting the refresh button. Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella shows how Microsoft did this by aligning the employees and the company behind common goals. Such a refresh action will eliminate a substantial amount of the bureaucracy/overhead in many organizations today.
‘Zurück an die Arbeit‘ is another great read where Lars Vollmer relates as though he is an employee of the company you are working for. In a world of fast changes it is key to give the people the option and the authority to decide and move. In his newest book ‘Wie sich Menschen organisieren, wenn ihnen keiner sagt, was sie tun sollen‘ Lars outlines with great examples what happens when people just start to organize themselves based on shared objectives and how incredibly powerful and engaging the results can be.
Many people define goals without reflecting enough and get frustrated if things do not work out in the way they imagine. It becomes key to understand one’s own motivations and priorities to identify what really matters. The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson explores this in a direct and immensely thought-provoking style.
The amount of great knowledge out there at your fingertips is amazing. I wonder how many people think they are too busy to take the time to read, think and reflect.
FINthinkers 