Reading Time: 4 minutes
This reading list on new ways of managing is taken from our books The agile Manager (small a) and Open Management, and further updated here.
The Amazon links here are paid links, you support us when you use them, so thank-you.
Most of us don’t read any more, so go here for video and other online resources.
Here’s our Vietnamese reading list Đọc sách bằng tiếng việt – Nhà Quản lý linh hoạt
These ones are pretty much mandatory reading:
Reinventing Organizations, Frederic Laloux . Amazon
– Don’t miss the Foreword by Ken Wilber
Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan. This may be the best introductory book of all. . . Amazon
Humanocracy, Gary Hamel. Also a must read on work culture and better ways . . Amazon
That feeling when you spend a year writing a book because you think there aren’t enough around like it, then keep finding some quite similar. We don’t think our book is better, only (a little) different. You tell us. The only one of these books that we read before we finished writing The agile Manager was Dan’s:
The Culture Game, Daniel Mezick . . Amazon
Management 3.0, Jurgen Appelo . . . Amazon
The Leader’s Dilemma, Hope, Bunce, and Roosli . . . Amazon
Agile Management, Mike Hoogveld . . . Amazon
Directing the Agile Organisation, Evan Leybourn . . . Amazon
Better Value Sooner Safer Happier, Jonathan Smart et al. . . Amazon
…and the rest are all books about human, systems, or agility worth reading. Loosely in descending recommended order for a manager to read them.
The Age of Agile, Steve Denning . Amazon
Slack, Tom DeMarco, 2000 . Amazon
Team of Teams, Stanley McChrystal . Amazon
No More Feedback, Carol Stanford . . Amazon
Flux, April Rinne
Beyond Command and Control, John Seddon, 2019. Read at least the first half. . . Amazon
High Output Management, Andrew Grove . Amazon
The Open Organization, Jim Whitehurst. . . Amazon
How Complex Systems Fail, Dr Richard Cook
– brief paper available as downloadable PDF.
Turn the Ship Around, L David Marquet . Amazon
Why Agile Works, Michael De La Maza, David Benz . Amazon
The Field Guide to Understanding ‘Human Error’, Sidney Dekker . Amazon
Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman . Amazon
Thinking in Systems, Daniela Meadows
The Lean Startup, Eric Ries . Amazon
Spirit: Transformation and Development in Organisations, Harrison Owen
– available for download at www.openspaceworld.com
Inviting Leadership, Daniel Mezick and Mark Sheffield . Amazon
Lead Together, Brent Lowe, Susan Basterfield, Travis Marsh . Amazon
Cynefin framework, Dave Snowden
– A website not a book cognitive-edge.com
Toyota Kata, Mike Rother . Amazon
Tribes, Seth Godin . Amazon
Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide, Harrison Owen . Amazon
Making Work Visible, Dominica Degrandis . Amazon
The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande . Amazon
How Knowledge Workers Get Things Done, ed. Layna Fischer . Amazon
Lean Enterprise, Humble, Molesky, O’Reilly . Amazon
Out of the Crisis, J.Edwards Deming . Amazon
The New Economics, J.Edwards Deming . Amazon
The Future of Management, Gary Hamel . Amazon
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni . Amazon
The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge . Amazon
Organize for Complexity, Niels Pflaeging . Amazon
The Goal, Eli Goldratt . Amazon
Start With Why, Simon Sinek . Amazon
Antifragile, Nicholas Taleb . Amazon
(warning: I find Taleb unreadable)
Mastering the Unpredictable, Keith Swenson
Joy, Inc., Richard Sheridan
First Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
Game On! Change is Constant, Karen Ferris
Dialogue, William Isaac
The High-Velocity Edge, Dr Steven Spear
Product Development Flow, Don Reinertsen
Freedom from Command and Control, John Seddon
Systemantics. The Systems Bible, John Gall
Plus! The Standard+Case approach, Rob England