Managing Humans: More Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager

Contents
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Preface to the Fourth Edition
Part I: The Management Quiver
	Chapter 1: Don’t Be a Prick
	Chapter 2: Managers Are Not Evil
		There Is Evil
		Your Manager’s Job
		Where Does Your Manager Come From?
		How Is He Compensating for His Blind Spots?
		Does Your Manager Speak the Language?
		How Does Your Manager Talk to You?
		How Much Action per Decision?
		Where Is Your Manager in the Political Food Chain?
		What Happens When They Lose Their Shit?
		The Big Finish
	Chapter 3: Stables and Volatiles
		The Factions
		A Stable Evolution
		Wait, What?
		Take Crazy Risks
	Chapter 4: The Rands Test
		The Rands Test: 11 Possible Points
			Do You Have a Consistent One-on-One Where You Talk About Topics Other Than Status? (+1)
			Do You Have a Consistent Team Meeting? (+1)
			Are Handwritten Status Reports Delivered Weekly via E-mail? (–1)
			Are You Comfortable Saying “No” to Your Boss? (+1)
			Can You Explain the Strategy of Your Company to a Stranger? (+1)
			Can You Tell Me with Some Accuracy the State of the Business? (Or Could You Go to Someone Somewhere and Figure It Out Right Now?) (+1)
			Is There a Regular Meeting Where the Guy/Gal in Charge Gets Up in Front of Everyone and Tells You What He/She Is Thinking? (+1) And Are You Buying It? (+1)
			Can You Explain Your Career Trajectory? (+1) Bonus: Can Your Boss? (+1)
			Do You Have Well-Defined and Protected Time to Be Strategic? (+1)
			Are You Actively Killing the Grapevine? (+1)
		A Start
	Chapter 5: How to Run a Meeting
		Alignment vs. Creation
		A Culture of Meetings
	Chapter 6: The Twinge
		Twinge Acquisition
		Twinges: Built on Experience
		A Manager’s Day: Full of Stories
		A Familiar Nail
		A Twinge Catastrophe
		Just Another Nail
	Chapter 7: The Update, the Vent, and the Disaster
		The Basics
		How Are You?
		The Update
		The Vent
		The Disaster
		Assume They Have Something to Teach You
	Chapter 8: Lost in Translation
		Wallace Hates Me
		The Fall Is Not the Lesson
		Your Instincts Are 100 Percent Wrong
		The Size of the Lesson
	Chapter 9: Agenda Detection
		Meeting Bail Tip #1: Identify the Type of Meeting
		Meeting Bail Tip #2: Classify the Participants
		Meeting Bail Tip #3: Identify the Players
		Meeting Bail Tip #4: Identify the Pros and Cons
		Meeting Bail Tip #5: Figure Out the Issue
		Meeting Bail Tip #6: Give the Cons What They Want
		Meeting Bail Tip #7: Figure Out the Issue
		Organizational Accents
	Chapter 10: Management via Worry and Crisis
		Management via Worry
		Management via Crisis
		A Coping Mechanism
	Chapter 11: Dissecting the Mandate
		Decide
		Deliver
		Deliver (Again)
		Foreign Mandates
	Chapter 12: Information Starvation
		Information Conduit
		Nature Abhors a Vacuum
		Starvation Prevention
		Aggressive Silence
	Chapter 13: Subtlety, Subterfuge, and Silence
		Subtlety
		Subterfuge
		Silence
		Business Isn’t War
	Chapter 14: Your Mid-Year Leadership Check-in
	Chapter 15: Managementese
		Management Metaphors
		Language of the Lazy
		The “Bottom Line”
	Chapter 16: You’re Not Listening
		A Listening Structure
		There Will Be Nothing to Hear
	Chapter 17: The Hotel Giraffe
		Three Numbers
		The Stress Math
		Leading Stress Indicators
		Food
		Exercise
		Sleep
		Deeply Buried Things
	Chapter 18: Fred Hates the Off-Site
		Why I Get in Fred’s Face
		Who We Are, What We Need, and Our Epic Journey
			We Need to Understand Who We Are
			We Need a New Direction and/or Fewer Disasters
			We Are Embarking on an Epic Journey
		A Meeting with Certain Characteristics
			By Definition, You Can’t Invite Everyone
			Everyone Presents or at least Speaks
			It’s Not in Your Usual Building
			There’s Someone Responsible for Flow as well as Action
			No Personality Tests, No Trust Falls, and No Outsiders
			They Need to Sleep on It
		What Fred Really Hates
	Chapter 19: A Different Kind of DNA
		No Ticker-Tape Parade
		Five Kinds of Win
		Flat Is a State of Mind
	Chapter 20: An Engineering Mindset
		Wrong?
		Remove Yourself from the Code, But…
		Don’t Stop Developing
	Chapter 21: Tear It Down
		Bright People with a Dream
		Three Leaders
		Keep the Sub-Minions in Line
	Chapter 22: Titles Are Toxic
		On the Origin of Titles
		The Leadership Path
		The People Path
		You Are a Beautiful Snowflake
		R.I.P. Business Cards, Resumes, and Titles
	Chapter 23: Saying No
		Managers Lose It
		Losing It
		Recovering It
		Never Trust a Pixie
Part II: The Process Is the Product
	Chapter 24: 1.0
		Understanding 1.0
		Rands 1.0 Hierarchy
			Pitch
			People
			Process
			Product
		Using the Pyramid
		Building Culture
	Chapter 25: The Process Myth
		Don’t Answer the Question
		Healthy Process Is Awesome
		The Dry Documentation of How
		Defend Itself
	Chapter 26: How to Start
		A Critical Analysis of Beginning
		Morning Stretch
		An Experienced Evening
		Happenstance
	Chapter 27: Taking Time to Think
		Reacting vs. Thinking
		Getting Started
			Players
			Content
			Is It Working?
		When to Stop
		Fighting Stagnation
	Chapter 28: Meetings Are Not for You
		Meetings Are a Privilege
		Worst Meeting… Ever
	Chapter 29: The Value of the Soak
		Emotion and Ignorance
		Active Soaking
		Passive Soaking
		Soaking Takes Time
	Chapter 30: Capturing Context
		So What?
		Nerd Disclosure
	Chapter 31: Trickle Theory
		Our Villain
		Nothing Happens Until You Start
		Iterate
		Mix It Up
		Entropy Always Wins
	Chapter 32: When the Sky Falls
		Step 1: The Situation in the War Room
			What Happens If You Ignore This
		Step 2: The “Bet Your Car” Perspective
			The First Thing You Must Do
			The Second Thing You Must Do
			What Happens If You Ignore This
		Step 3: Constant and Consistent Sky-Propping Pressure
			What Happens If You Ignore This
		The Elusive Step 0
	Chapter 33: Hacking Is Important
		“Hackers Believe Something Can Always Be Better”
		Where’s Dieter?
		Unintentionally Forgetting What It Took to Get You There
	Chapter 34: WFH
	Chapter 35: Entropy Crushers
		The Project Rules
		The Project Concerns
		The Question
	Chapter 36: Your Culture Is Rotting
		Humane Resources
		Culture == Values
		Has Anyone Seen Ryan Today?
	Chapter 37: The Metronome
		A Collective Impression
		Your Hidden Job
Part III: Versions of You
	Chapter 38: Bored People Quit
		Detecting Boredom
		A Boredom Plan of Action
			Keep an Interesting Problem Squarely in Front of Them
			Let Them Experiment
			Remember They Can Only Take One for the Team for So Long
			Protect Their Time
			Aggressively Remove Noise
			Tell Them What the Hell Is Going On
		Don’t Forget What It’s Like to Build a Thing
	Chapter 39: Bellwethers
		The Core Interview Team
			Technical
			Cultural
			Vision (Strategic or Tactical?)
		Team Consensus
		Be a Fool
		Still Delusional
	Chapter 40: The Ninety-Day Interview
		Deliberation
		1. Stay Late, Show Up Early
		2. Accept Every Lunch Invitation You Get
		3. Always Ask About Acronyms
		4. Say Something Really Stupid
		5. Have a Drink
		6. Tell Someone What to Do
		7. Have an Argument
		8. Find Your Inner Circle
		Finishing the Interview
	Chapter 41: Managing Nerds
		A Worst-Case Scenario
		A Problem
		Chasing the Two Highs
		The Nerd Burden
	Chapter 42: Incrementalists and Completionists
		Somewhere in the Middle
			Incrementalists Need Vision
			Completionists Need Action
		Two Different Coffee Addictions
		See It Yet?
	Chapter 43: NADD
		A Nerd Diagnosis
		The Context Switch
		Leveraging NADD
		Downsides
	Chapter 44: A Nerd in a Cave
		The Cave
		The Zone
		The Snap
		The Place
		Other Places
	Chapter 45: Meeting Creatures
		The Anchor
		Laptop Larry
		Mr. Irrelevant
		Chatty Patty
		Translator Tim
		Sally Synthesizer
		Curveball Kurt
		The Snake
	Chapter 46: Organics and Mechanics
		The Itch Perspective
			If You Work for an Organic…
			If You Work for a Mechanic…
			Look Out For…
		The Answer Is in the Middle
	Chapter 47: Inwards, Outwards, and Holistics
		The Vision Hierarchy
		Agenda Confusion
		Watch for Growth
	Chapter 48: The Wolf
	Chapter 49: Free Electrons
		Care and Feeding
		Back to Jerry
	Chapter 50: The Old Guard
		They Won
		The New Guard
		New Guard Friction
		A Culture Quandary
	Chapter 51: Rules for the Reorg
		Rule #1: Figure Out Your Role
		Rule #2: People Are Paranoid
		Rule #3: The Grapevine Gone Mad
		Rule #4: Reorgs Take Forever
		Rule #5: Most Folks Love Reorgs (But Hate to Admit It)
		The Only Rule: Patience
	Chapter 52: An Unexpected Connection
		Two Buckets
		The Value of Relevance
		To Wit
		Connecting the Relevant
	Chapter 53: You Are Going on a Quest
		This. Forever.
		Poetry, Not Tasks
	Chapter 54: A Glimpse and a Hook
		The First Pass
		The Second Pass
		Differentiate, Don’t Annoy
		A Glimpse and a Hook
	Chapter 55: Nailing the Phone Screen
		The Purpose
		Your Job Is to Prepare
		Back to the Beginning
		The Close
	Chapter 56: Your Resignation Checklist
		Rule #1: Don’t Promise What You Can’t Do
		Rule #2: Respect Your Network
		Rule #3: Update “The Crew”
		Rule #4: Don’t Take Cheap Shots
		Rule #5: Do Right by Those Who Work for You and with You
		Rule #6: Don’t Volunteer to Do Work After You Leave (or, if You Do, Make Sure You Get a Lot of Money for It)
		Rule #7: Don’t Give Too Much Notice
		They Know
	Chapter 57: Shields Down
		A Potential Future
		Humans Never Forget
		It’s Not Just Boredom
	Chapter 58: Chaotic, Beautiful Snowflakes
		Non-obvious Work
		You Squared
		On Leadership
		Chaotic, Beautiful Snowflakes
	Chapter 59: Epilogue: Fear Is a Liar
Glossary
Index