Peopleware is a gem of a book, yet most managers and leaders in the tech world haven't heard of it (or at least never read it).
A recent example from my last gig: the way of working was to shuffle people relentlessly between teams to address tight deadlines.
Just to emphasise how bad this was, team names were "Feature Team X" (where X is a number), because management wanted teams to shift very quickly. This was in a company which was building a product, but treated people as in a body shop. What the managers didn't realise is that encouraging that detachment between teams and what they were building, also made teams not really care about what they were building. The message was clear: teams don't own any part of the product.
- Out of the crisis and The new economics, Deming
- Workplace Management and Toyota Production System, Ohno
- Peopleware, DeMarco & Lister
- Managing the professional service firm, Meister (delegation)
- Leadership Handbook, US Army