All posts tagged “Book Summary

Summary: The Manager’s Path

A colleague gave me this book earlier this year (2019), and it’s been on my to-read list since June 2017. I read it cover-to-cover, then went back to compile all of my margin notes and underlined parts. The latter part…

Making Work Visible – Part 3

This week we talked about the last thief of time (neglected work) and exposing time theft using a kanban board. Thief of Time: Neglected Work Zombie projects (not dead, but not getting attention either) are like old servers. The person…

Making Work Visible – Part 2

This week we talked about three other thieves of time: unknown dependencies, unplanned work, and conflicting priorities. Thief of Time: Unknown Dependencies Dependencies can be architecture, expertise, or sequential activities. If you’re the only skillset expert, you are a bottleneck….

Making Work Visible – Part 1

Our book club (Houston Miller and Jameson McGhee) started on our third book Making Work Visible: Exposing Time Theft to Optimize Work & Flow by Dominica DeGrandis and Tonianne DeMaria. Although Jameson has already read the book, we all agreed…

Remote – Part 7

Here are my notes for the seventh section, “Life as a Remote Worker”. Having a routine for your day is helpful. Houston’s is catch-up work from 9-10am, daily standup, group call or pairing sessions, and then free-form time. Houston has…

Remote – Part 6

Here are my notes for the sixth section, “Managing Remote Workers”. Start small and think of having a remote team as a low-risk experiment; try things out and keep what works. Unless you have good collaboration tools, working remotely will…

Remote – Part 5

Here are my notes for the fifth section, “Hiring and Keeping the Best.” General vibe: Most of this book is about how to have a healthy team and company, regardless of whether they’re remote. (It’s easier to sell a whole…

Remote – Part 4

Here are my notes for the fourth section, “Beware the Dragons.” Cabin fever… it seems like you would expect this if you’re working by yourself for long periods. How you manage this seems personal (e.g., introverts and extroverts). There are…

Remote – Part 3

Here are my notes for the third section, “How to Collaborate Remotely.” The part about overlapping time zones contradicted what the authors said earlier — that anyone can work whenever they want instead of 9-5. Now the authors are saying…

Remote – Part 2

This post continues the book club discussion of Remote: Office Not Required. See also: Remote – Part 1 Here are my notes for the second section, “Dealing with Excuses.” Houston thought some of the arguments in this section were cherry-picked…