My 10 Favourite Books of 2015

The last day of this year seems a nice moment to reflect on the books I’ve read in 2015. In total, I’ve read about 50 books. Some of them were intensively studied, and others were used as reference material. I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, 95% of my books are about teamwork, leadership, coaching, change management, software development, training, facilitation, entrepreneurship, writing, or biographies.

This blog post contains my 10 favorite books I’ve read this year. This doesn’t necessarily mean every book was also actually released this year…

My Top 10 Books of 2015

1. Legacy — James Kerr

After reading the book I have to say: this is one of the best books I’ve ever read about leadership! So much wisdom in one book. ‘Legacy‘ contains a comprehensive description of the All Blacks (the New Zealand men’s rugby team) culture. The culture is translated into 15 lessons in leadership. I was able to translate these lessons directly into my own organizational (business) environment. Every team, and basically every individual, should take these lessons into account when aiming to become the best and leave a legacy. I can highly recommend this book to everyone interested in leadership. Check this blog post for a more extensive description.

2. Lean Change Management — Jason Little

As an Agile Coach, the book ‘Lean Change Management‘ by Jason Little was most useful for me. Jason not only offers some refreshing insights about change management but the book (and related website) also provides templates you can use right away. Examples are the Strategic Change Canvas, the One Page Change Plan, or the Experiment Tracker. With Lean Change Management you use a feedback-driven change approach that helps manage the uncertainty, resistance, and emotional responses to change. Everything with a mindset of co-creating change to ensure successful change. Must-read for everyone involved in (Agile) change management.

3. How Creative Workers Learn — Alexandre Magno

The way Lean Change Management impacted me as an Agile Coach, and the book ‘How Creative Workers Learn‘ influenced me as a trainer and facilitator. I’ve always embraced the idea of trying to create an environment in which everyone feels safe to collaborate and to share experiences in order to harness the power of our collective knowledge. Alexandre was so kind to write a book about it 🙂 He describes it as Learning 3.0. In learning 1.0 the expert defines the questions and answers. In learning 2.0 the learner defines questions, and the expert defines the answer. In learning 3.0 the learner defines questions and answers. Hereby the motto is “sharing is the new teaching”. It’s up to the trainer to create an environment where the participants are invited to share experiences and create a learning atmosphere. Check this blog post for a more detailed description.

4. Scrum a Pocket Guide — Gunther Verheyen

‘Scrum a Pocket Guide‘ by Gunther Verheyen is the one I’ve studied most thoroughly. As a Professional Scrum Trainer of Scrum.org, the book is very useful to focus on actually “speaking Scrum”. It provides a clear description of the background of Scrum and what is really intended with the Scrum values. It captures the essence and makes a valuable distinction between the core of Scrum and the best practices that nowadays already seem intertwined with Scrum. I highly recommend having this book in your pocket while undertaking the Scrum journey!

5. Steal Like an Artist — Austin Kleon

The book ‘Steal Like an Artist‘ by Austin Kleon is one of the most fun and inspiring books I’ve read in a long time. Austin managed to take away the last restraint of my writing ambitions. I’ve always had the urge to write, but for a long time, I struggled with what to write. What if someone else already wrote something about the topic I had in mind? My first intention was to write unique — one-of-a-kind — blog posts. Topics that no one else had written about yet. If I had stuck to this ambition, I wouldn’t have written a single post by today. Nowadays I’ve changed this mindset drastically, basically, anything can result in a blog post: problems, articles, books, lessons learned, models, frameworks, and methodologies. I read something, consider it interesting, give it some time for reflection, and then share the idea combined with my own experiences and insights. Austin describes this as good theft. Good theft is about honoring, studying, stealing from many, crediting the source, transforming, and remixing. It’s about practice, not plagiarism. Check this blog post for more details.

6. The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management — Stephen Denning

I already bought Stephen Denning’s book a few years ago, but only recently took some time to actually read it. And just like his weekly blog posts on Forbes, it was time spent well. The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management helped me grasp what Agile is really about. It’s about focusing on the work of delighting clients (principle 1). Do work through self-organizing teams (principle 2). Do work in client-driven iterations (principle 3). Deliver value to clients each iteration (principle 4). Be totally open about impediments to improvement (principle 5). Creating a context for continuous self-improvement by the team (principle 6). Interactively share stories, questions, and conversations (principle 7). The seven principles clarify what Agile is about. Check this blog post for more details.

7. #Workout — Jurgen Appelo

In the last couple of years, Jurgen Appelo produced some great stuff. Blog posts, books, presentations, and videos: are all well worth reading & watching. His latest book ‘#workout‘ hereby is no exception. It’s full of games, tools, and practices to engage people, improve work, and delight clients (as the subtitle promises…). Although the book is worth reading, it’s actually even more worth doing. All the games, tools, and practices deserve to be put into practice. This is exactly my ambition for 2016: put some Management 3.0 & Learning 3.0 practices into reality at some of my clients. For sure it will help to create a better work environment.

8. Facilitator’s and Trainer’s Toolkit — Artie Mahal

A couple of months ago I read the book ‘Facilitator’s and Trainer’s Toolkit‘ by Artie Mahal. This book proved to be a gold mine for people interested in the craft of facilitation. I’ve always had the feeling that facilitation can be a powerful instrument that exceeds merely ‘hosting meetings’. Facilitation skills are essential in everything we do, they are truly people- and leadership skills. Artie Mahal put my thoughts into words. It was definitely worth reading when you’re interested in this topic. For me, it confirmed my view that professional facilitation is an art that desires craftsmanship. It’s all about creating an environment where learning can take place. Pretty important I would say… Check this blog post for more details.

9. Reinventing Organizations — Frederic Laloux

Within the Agile / Change Management community, this is probably the most discussed book. Frederic Laloux makes a compelling case that modern industrial society needs a new type of organizational structure, which he believes is the next evolutionary leap in how humans can organize to better accomplish the complex tasks of this era, and which can decrease the discontent and malaise of current world society. Although I found the book quite hard to read, the topic and message are intriguing. It offers valuable insights into organizational development and possible next evolutions. If you’re interested in the topic but don’t favor reading a book, you might be interested in the related video “Lean and Agile Adoption with the Laloux Culture Model“.

10. Host — Mark McKergow and Helen Balley

In 2014 I did some research on the topic of Servant Leadership. At the end of that year, I attended the XP Days Benelux and joined a session about Host Leadership. This was presented by Pierluigi Pugliese as a possible new metaphor for leadership in Agile. Servant Leadership is seen as a good idea with some limitations: How am I going to really lead as a servant? How can I be “responsible” if I have no authority? But if I have the authority don’t I end up being a command and control manager all over again? A very interesting alternative metaphor has been developed by Marc McKergow and Helen Bailey and it’s called “Host Leadership”. In this case, the leader is neither a hero nor a servant. He/she is a host, i.e. somebody who receives and entertains guests. As a host, we all have duties and responsibilities: from setting up a good environment for our guests to being part of the event together with them and helping them have a good time. However, hosts have also some rights: deciding who comes and who does not come, setting some rules and boundaries, and ensuring people respect them. At the same time, the host relies on the guests to “be part of the event” and be active in it. This mix of authority and responsibilities can be seen as a much richer and more effective metaphor than Servant Leadership. If you’re interested in this topic, check the book ‘Host’ or read the related InfoQ article.

Wrap up

There you have it, my 10 favorite books of 2015. What are the books you enjoyed most this year? Please share them, maybe I’ll add them to my list of favorite books of 2016 🙂

Originally published at www.barryovereem.com on December 31, 2015.