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Do you have any recommended materials for gaining skill in organizational theory?

mikehollinger 4y ago
> Do you have any recommended materials for gaining skill in organizational theory? Absolutely. First, start with Manager Tools [1]. This is my go-to for stuff a couple of times a week. Start with their "getting started" page and they map out how effective relationships work within an effective organization. Second, have a look at Peter Drucker. Depending on where you want to go, he's probably literally written a book on the topic. The Effective Executive [2] might be useful, depending on your job. I haven't read his others. Third, tangentially, is Good Strategy / Bad Strategy, by Richard Rumelt [3]. It's not organizational theory, but its adjacent, in that it pretty ruthlessly dissects good and bad strategies for various organizations and entities, and tries to summarize what a "good" strategy looks like if you have to form one, or what a "bad" strategy looks like if you're subject to one. I link to a video here because the guy's a great speaker, and for us here, he looks (in 2011) at why NVIDIA was dominating the market at the time. :-) Skip to 47m 06 seconds for the NVIDIA bit. As an aside, the way he explains the 3D marketplace, and -gets it right- makes me trust everything else he wrote. He explains how 3DFX was crushed. Along with everyone else. He explains how NVIDIA's simulators, and driver expertise helped them to fundamentally disrupt the market. And then continue to stay ahead of it, and eventually become multiples bigger than Intel, who at the time was the behemoth in the space. [1] https://manager-tools.com/get-started https://manager-tools.com/get-started [2] https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-effective-executive-peter-f-drucker https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-effective-executi... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZrTl16hZdk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZrTl16hZdk <-- 90 minute video, but he narrates a lot of the points from the book.
bradwood 4y ago
If you're in software, check out Team Topologies.
- mikehollinger 4y ago
  Oh fascinating! You are the second person in as many days to recommend it. I just bought a copy and am looking forward to reading it this weekend.

> Do you have any recommended materials for gaining skill in organizational theory? Absolutely. First, start with Manager Tools [1]. This is my go-to for stuff a couple of times a week. Start with their "getting started" page and they map out how effective relationships work within an effective organization. Second, have a look at Peter Drucker. Depending on where you want to go, he's probably literally written a book on the topic. The Effective Executive [2] might be useful, depending on your job. I haven't read his others. Third, tangentially, is Good Strategy / Bad Strategy, by Richard Rumelt [3]. It's not organizational theory, but its adjacent, in that it pretty ruthlessly dissects good and bad strategies for various organizations and entities, and tries to summarize what a "good" strategy looks like if you have to form one, or what a "bad" strategy looks like if you're subject to one. I link to a video here because the guy's a great speaker, and for us here, he looks (in 2011) at why NVIDIA was dominating the market at the time. :-) Skip to 47m 06 seconds for the NVIDIA bit. As an aside, the way he explains the 3D marketplace, and -gets it right- makes me trust everything else he wrote. He explains how 3DFX was crushed. Along with everyone else. He explains how NVIDIA's simulators, and driver expertise helped them to fundamentally disrupt the market. And then continue to stay ahead of it, and eventually become multiples bigger than Intel, who at the time was the behemoth in the space. [1] https://manager-tools.com/get-started https://manager-tools.com/get-started [2] https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-effective-executive-peter-f-drucker https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-effective-executi... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZrTl16hZdk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZrTl16hZdk <-- 90 minute video, but he narrates a lot of the points from the book.

bradwood 4y ago

If you're in software, check out Team Topologies.

mikehollinger 4y ago
Oh fascinating! You are the second person in as many days to recommend it. I just bought a copy and am looking forward to reading it this weekend.