The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jiminez (2022)

I did not like this story or the interesting surreal setting. The writing is good but the plot, characters, magic system, etc. were terrible, 1/5 Stars.

The Motive by Patrick Lencioni (2020)

Short, sharp, insightful, valuable.  I am catching up on the Lencioni books I should have read a while ago. 5/5 Stars.

Über Menschen von Juli Zeh (2021)

Humorvoll und wunderbarer Roman über Menschen verschiedenen Charakters. Die Hauptfiguren sind teils sozial schwierig, aber dennoch liebenswert. Die Geschichte handelt von ihre Lebensumstände und Beziehungen zueinander. Es geht um kulturelle und mentale Barrieren, um menschlichen, toleranten und angstfreien Umgang mit gegensätzlichen politischen Einstellungen in der Familie und in der Nachbarschaft. 5/5 Sterne.

When to create a better fire extinguisher

In a work meeting today someone explained an aphorism of the three times to build a better fire extinguisher:

1. Before a fire so you are prepared,
2. After a fire so you are better prepared for the next fire
3. During a fire, which is a terrible idea.

As software developers, we frequently look at all problems and projects as new code (or a cool script) to be written, optimistically predicting we can develop, test, and run the new code and meet the deadline. It's frequently better to use an existing system or process to meet a tight, important deadline than to bet your reputation that your new code will work perfectly the first time.

Birds of Prey by various authors (2022)

This collection is very disappointing. Don't waste an audible token. 2/5 Stars.

Drop the Pink Elephant by Bill McFarlan (2004)

My buddy in Berlin posted a selection of "hidden gems" book recommendations. I read this one in one sitting and also recommend it. It is a "self-help" book about communication with simple, effective methods we can all apply. 4/5 Stars.

Never by Ken Follett (2021)

Another "impulse borrow" from the library.  Thrilling and chilling. I liked all the characters. 4/5 Stars.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (2023)

I usually don't like swords & sorcery (high) fantasy because the magic systems are usually arbitrary.  This book is unbelievably brutal; everyone except the main character is trying to kill lots of other people.  There are lots of silly, political secrets for which everyone will kill to protect. And the explicit over-the-top erotica is also odd.  The whole book is like an overdose of 15 year olds' hormones, driving out all rational thought as everyone just wants to fight and f*&k.  The mystery is quite good, as is the writing and I enjoyed the characters, world-building, and story. 3/5 Stars.

Communication and Decisions (2 of 2)

Many of us prefer frank, open, direct transparency; we are attracted to the concept of keeping a decision log into which major decisions are entered before they are made and then recorded along with alternatives, context, desired result, vision, etc. At first blush such a decision log seems like a great idea. One can go back to these logs to see what the decision makers were thinking and how they arrived at their decision. Even better is that folks who want to become involved in decisions by advocating for one alternative or another can subscribe to changes in the log document (e.g. using watch in Atlassian or notifications in Google sheets). These interested stakeholders can contact the decision owner and other stakeholders to advocate for their preferred option. My personal experiences implementing such a system have been extremely disappointing.  Many decisions, such as who gets promoted (and more importantly who does not) are very sensitive. Other decisions, such as organization changes, additions or reductions in staff, and other personnel decisions are confidential. "Build versus Buy" business decisions for upgrading an in-house system are always controversial.

Many people prefer to complain after the fact instead of communicating their point of view before the decision is made (Failure is an orphan).  Sometimes there are stakeholders who have valuable input for a decision but are too shy or too busy to make their ideas known; decision owners should proactively solicit points of view either 1:1 or in a meeting if such an effort is worth the time and if the decision will have a big impact.

Starting with the questions from this book (not a good book) I have created the following checklist of questions a person or small team might want to  consider when they are discussing and solving problems or discussing alternatives (e.g. a design review) for a decision and some action they will take.     Note there should always be a  "so that" clause in the answer to describe the result and success vision as shown in these examples.

 

 

Question	Example
What are we trying to accomplish? What is the desired result or outcome and why is it good?	We are trying to prevent the customer from falling into this confused error state in our app. We want the customer to understand and select the appropriate option so that she can complete the larger task in her workflow for her business purpose.
What are expectations for next steps?	We shall create, ship, and run A/B tests of alternative wording in the app on a stratified sample of customers to measure if we can reduce customer confusion and errors in the app so that we can gain confidence in shipping our fix.
What should we not do?	We do not want to shift right to customer service or app training because we want our app to be intuitive in first use for absolute beginners.
What could go wrong? If something goes wrong, what should we do?	Our online A/B testing may measure only this point in time or season and fail for future customers. Our new experience may cause more confusion and have the opposite effect as the result desired. We may be spending time on the wrong problem (priorities) and fail to deliver more important bug fixes or revenue. If there is testing bandwidth, we should re-test each quarter so that we verify the fix continues working. We should verify priorities with business owners so that we maximize value delivery to customers.
What is the status update frequency? What stakeholder feedback is expected by when? How & when are surprises communicated to stakeholders? If you were in one of the roles receiving this information rather than delivering it, what else would you want to know?	Trello cards updated daily with re-estimates of time to milestone; weekly status reports with JIRA links to stakeholders; we have no separate update email to stakeholders so that we concentrate on work and automate the communication. As a stakeholder receiving confusing updates in the trello cards that are tracking progress on this decision I know I should add a comment asking for clarity on confusing information so that I can stay informed and aligned. Surprises are sent via SMS and live meetings.

Obviously, many of these factors are not applicable or not important to some decisions.  However, prompting yourself to consider these criteria can be helpful, even with smaller decisions.

When an employee engagement survey or executive talks about "decision making process" remember it is a secret code word for "communication" and remind everyone to stay alert and remind themselves when they are taking some action that will affect others.  If people are not responding "no" to the question in meetings, "Are we making a decision?" at least once during a meeting, you are not surfacing that question frequently enough.  It is also important to be very proactive in communication about decisions. Do not expect anyone (ever) to search for information about your decisions.  Add them to the notifications or "watchers" lists yourself. 

Communication & Decisions (1 of 2)

TL; DR (too long; didn't read)

Your issue is communications, not "the decision making process."

Decisions and Decision Making receive an enormous amount of attention among managers in the global 5,000 largest companies. Many processes, paradigms, job aids, tools, articles, case studies, patterns, & practices are researched, taught, applied, and evolved to overcome "problems in the decision making process" at organizations. From responsibility assignment matrices to the neuroscience of decision making, studies and analysis of decision making produces petabytes of wisdom and thousands of column inches of Harvard Business Review (HBR) studies. Old "models" that are new again continually fail to solve underlying issues and group dynamics of the people and teams affected by, or involved in business decisions. There is even a society of decision professionals whose careers revolve around helping others make decisions and that try to "repair" others' decision making processes. The large majority of  issues perceived as caused by "the decision making process" are not associated with decisions or the process.

Solving any problem normally involves a decision about what changes will be made as part of the solution.  Frequently, many others will be affected by such changes. When a decision is identified, a number of others affected by the outcome are unaware the decision owner will or has already made a decision.      Those affected are  blindsided by the changes and confused how and why the changes were made. Issues in "decision making" start with discovering that       someone or a team is or will soon be making a decision that materially affects others.  Once the decision owner or participants  realize(s) there is a      decision that affects others she can go about identifying who all will be affected, as well as what all communication is needed.  But there remain problems of effectively communicating with everyone impacted.

Thrashing (wasted work)

As the Poppendiecks explained when they invented Lean Software Development, the worst impediment to rapid, high value delivery in software development is   waste. And the largest source of waste is partially done work. Poor communications about decisions contributes enormously to unplanned changes, which, in   turn, results in partially done work (thrashing).

Instead of concentrating on decision quality or decision process, we should frame issues and solutions as communication. This focus will lead to less       friction, better behaviors, and better outcomes.  Managing behaviors and process changes is always painful and difficult in organizations. Concentrating on changes associated exclusively with communication will go a longer way in solving problems in "the decision making process" that are in reality issues in   communication surrounding decisions.

The first person with whom the decision owner must communicate is herself.  She must first surface the fact to herself that she is making a decision that   will affect others and consider if and how to communicate this discovery to each person affected. Then she can execute whichever "decision making process"  her organization prescribes that is appropriate to the impact of her decision and type of decision. She could, for example, start with identifying          audiences and members of a responsibility assignment matrix associated with the decision she discovered she is making.

In some situations, decisions are pushed down to the person and team with the most context; leaders are content to be "informed" of how their teams have    chosen to accomplish a result instead of pulling decision ownership up to HIPPOs (higher paid people in the org).  In these cases, clear accountability for the success of a decision should also be delegated. (Success has many parents but Failure is an orphan). It is imperative that a decision owner understands who all her decision will affect and the consequences; such an understanding is difficult in large organizations; therefore stakeholders must be very
proactive in communicating this context.

In other situations there is a top-down hierarchical command and control culture, where most decisions float up to HIPPOs, decision criteria are often less-technical and more business-oriented. In such circumstances, technical folks are tasked to communicate the context, desired outcomes and acceptable tradeoffs (collateral damage) of a decision to leaders using concerns and language the HIPPO understands.  The vision for how a decision will lead to the desired result, as well as a clear measurement for success must be part of the decision's communication.

In the second half of this blog post we shall cover a checklist to consider associated with your decision as well as how to craft communication persuasively to your audiences.

Nullzeit von Juli Zeh (2012)

Schauplatz dieses fantastischen Psychothrillers ist eine deutsche Tauchschule auf Lanzarote (Kanarische Inseln). Der Besitzer der Schule, Sven, lernt ein soziopathisches, gewalttätiges deutsches Paar aus Berlin kennen. Sven durchlebt eine Reihe lebensbedrohlicher, spannender und melodramatischer Selbstfindungs-Abenteuer. Die Schönheit und Struktur des Sporttauchens ist faszinierend und fesselnd. Die Charaktere erwachen durch ihre komplexen Persönlichkeiten, ihr Aussehen, ihre Haltung, ihre Kleidung und ihre Dialoge zum Leben. 5/5 Sterne. Ich kann es kaum erwarten, das nächste Buch von Juli Zeh zu lesen.

Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben (2012)

I occasionally dip into Harlan Coben thrillers and I was curious about the origins of his Myron Bolitar character so I picked this one off the library shelf on a whim.  It's a typical, fun, Coben thriller; the mystery is a little too complicated but I figured it out early in the story. 4/5 Stars.

Red Ice by William C Dietz (2018)

Some work colleagues recommended this series and lent me the first one; it's ok, but not great.  And recent events make the entire plot line ridiculous. 3/5 Stars.

Death and Faxes (Audio) by Brandon Sanderson

Not good, 2/5 Stars.

Eifelheim by Michael Flynn

The characters, settings, and writing craft are fantastic but I am disappointed by the plot, character arcs, and story.  3/5 Stars.

The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni

Fantastic book. Prescriptive and useful. Highly recommended for senior leaders in any organization. 4/5 Stars.

Freefall (Expeditionary Force Mavericks) #2 by Craig Alanson

Fun story; next time I start a series I shall read the books in publication order. 4/5 Stars.