Software for Your Head: Core Protocols for Creating and Maintaining Shared Vision

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Aimed at forward-thinking software developers and IT managers, Software for Your Head: Core Protocols for Creating and Maintaining Shared Vision provides an innovative set of procedures and reusable "patterns" for improving the way teams work together.

This book's amalgam of the lingo of software patterns and management theory (and even New Age and popular psychology) helps make the text one of the most challenging you'll ever read about team building. Based on the authors' considerable experience with Microsoft and their simulated developer boot camps run with hundreds of teams, this book eschews providing practical evidence drawn from real projects. Instead, it formulates a unique vocabulary of terms, protocols, and patterns that arguably should allow teams to carry out decisions and build better team focus.

The tour of tools and techniques begins with ways of getting individuals to commit totally to their work in teams. (The authors show how individuals can "check in" to work environments or "check out" as necessary.) They offer a set of techniques that can allow teams to work together more effectively, as well as obstacles (or "antipatterns") that can get in the way. Early sections culminate with a "team equals product" philosophy, arguing that highly calibrated teams will produce insanely great software.

A cluster of tips and patterns for better decision making comes next. Here, the Decider pattern offers a step-by-step protocol for voting and resolving disputed items effectively. For anyone stuck in interminable meetings where egos instead of good ideas triumph, such ideas may well help change things. Alignment patterns come next, which allow teams to overcome perceived shortages of people or time to get the job done. The most far-reaching sections here argue that teams need a long-distance vision to drive their work lives. (This is considerably more ambitious than a standard corporate mission statement and involves a guiding principle that will change the world 20 years into the future.) A final, intriguing group exercise walks teams through a protocol to do something "perfect" in a group setting, with steps to refine the "design."

The text closes with appendices covering Core Protocol terminology, as well as the opening statement delivered to participants at the authors' five-day boot camp (where their techniques are played out). The Core Protocols themselves, wittily released under the General Public License as open source, close out this often fascinating book.

Long on theory but consciously short on any practical examples, this title offers an uncompromising vision for getting teams to work together. Though it's doubtful that your average IT department will be able to commit to such a different set of terms for the everyday workplace, Software for Your Head provides a fascinating glimpse into the world of highly committed and collaborative teams written by two legendary ex-Microsofties. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Introduction to the Core Protocols (protocols and patterns for team-based development), the "Check In" protocol (for centering team members on work efforts), the "Check Out" protocol (for individual time-outs), the "Passer" pattern (for not participating in group efforts), the "Connection" protocol, problem behaviors (antipatterns: "Too Emotional," "No Hurt Feelings," and "Wrong Tolerance"), additional "Check In" patterns (including "Team = Product," "Self-Care," and the "Greatness Cycle"), "Decider" protocols (for making team decisions), the "Resolution," "Work with Intention," and "Ecology of Ideas" patterns, "Decider" antipatterns (including "Resolution Avoidance," "Turf," and "Team Quackery"), guide to personal and team alignment, patterns and antipatterns for team alignment (including "Investigate," "Web of Commitment," and "Ask for Help"), building shared vision in teams, patterns and protocols for shared vision (including "Metavision" and "Far Vision"), shared vision antipatterns (including "Blinder," "Technicality," and "Recoil"), the "Perfection Game" protocol (for building team vision), appendices for the lexicon of terms used in the Core Protocols, transcript of the authors' boot camp development scenario, the Core Protocols 1.0 and General Public License.

Customer Reviews:

We're humans, not machines........2006-09-23

Most people don't work the way Jim wants them to, don't think that way, and they never will. There're myriads of things in the way of sanity when developing intellectual assets as a part of collective efforts. Yes, we're inherentily egotistical and inefficient. However, this "OS" will not help it. The success of collective efforts will continue to be determined through the good old positives (leadership, drive, personal charisma, excellency of communication), productive negatives (challenge, competition, need for $$$), unproductive negatives (fear, intimidation, anxiety)... and a lot of luck. Not through the protocols and behavior agreements. We're humans, not machines. Since we're humans the only real help we can offer ourselves is investing in our human growth.

Some great ideas wrapped in too much padding.......2005-04-20

I'm a big fan of "Dynamics of Software Development" and I expected this book to be 10 years better than that. It isn't.

It's like buying a favourite band's new CD and finding that you really liked the old work in the days of vinyl. And the CD collects dust.

I bought this book and tried to read it many times. I've willed it to be engaging, I wanted it to be good, I've given time over to reading it, but it's not engaging and feels bloated.

Sure there are some great ideas, but they're fighting to get out of the "stuff" around it.

Looking forward to the next book Jim. I hope it's the one I was looking for.

Teams become real.......2004-07-29

It'is one of the most wonderful books I ever read about teams. What I mostly appreciate is that talks about teams in a language a developer or an engineer can understand (bypassing the resistances and prejudices that technicians have treating emotions, motivations, groups and so on) and usually it's a nightmare for me to explain them that poor performance are not simply related to task assignments or character or people smartness...
Definitely a great book.

8/10.......2004-06-26

I give this book eight out of ten.
What I like about it:
The ideas in this book have enormous power. They could (and can) change the way people work with each other for the better.
The book presents the function that team = product. The better the team works together the better the product. This is so obvious and yet gets constantly overlooked.
The patterns and anti patterns of behavior are very well observed and described.
After reading this book the second time I have been to a McCarthy boot camp and the book does an admirable job of describing what is achievable.
I have tried each of the protocols described in this book and I can tell you they rate amongst the best ways I have discovered of helping teams work well together.
The title describes the book well, it takes some time to work this out. It is a clever idea that we can load new software into our brains and therefore become better at doing something - such as interacting with other people (or even ourselves!)

In order to get a ten:
It would be easier to read. The book is written too much like a software manual. The McCarthy's previous book - Dynamics of Software Development - was much easier to read and proved to be very popular with the development teams I introduced it to. Software For Your Head requires commitment to read to the end.
The examples would be clearer. Throughout the book are stories which serve as examples of the ideas being presented. I often have to read these a second time to get the full meaning of them.

For more of Dr. Neil's reviews go to http://www.Roodyn.com/BookReviews.aspx

Software for Your Head.......2004-05-15

I've read the book and sponsored several of the Boot Camps in a company. The protocols work and they are not just for any IT or high-tech team as some reviewers have noted. We took groups of Sr. and Executive management as well as mid-management and technical professionals through the boot camp and it really helped solidify these groups and raise their performance level. Several of them then took the BC to their teams. One particular exec takes his team through the BC almost every year.

Yes, there's some pretty deep psychology and maybe a little new age in the text but there's nothing harmful about it at all. The Core protocols are great and I continue to use them all and teach teams these protocols.

The book is a tough read, but worth it. The boot camps are really good and will blow you away.If you really want to jump start a team and get them firing on all cylinders then read the book and get a boot camp quick. It's worth the investment. But I do recommend you ensure it's a fit for your culture. The authors are very knowledgable but will pretty much tell you how it has to be to be successful with the Core and a boot camp. This can be too painful for some organizations but if you really want to change then it may well be for you.

Book Description

A compilation of the most respected authorities in financial engineering
Based around a conference on financial modeling held in Milan in December 1999, New Directions in Mathematical Finance brings together the leading names in quantitative finance to discuss the most current modeling techniques in a variety of areas of financial engineering. The contributions featured in this volume are all new items, based on each speaker's topic of presentation at the convention. Editors Paul Wilmott and Henrik Rasmussen include an introduction which pulls together the themes of the book.

Income Distribution in a Corporate Economy (New Directions in Modern Economics)

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Income Distribution in a Corporate Economy (New Directions in Modern Economics)
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Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
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New Directions in Computational Economics (Advances in Computational Economics)

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New Directions in Computational Economics (Advances in Computational Economics)

Manufacturer: Springer
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Binding: Hardcover

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New Directions in Computational Economics brings together for the first time a diverse selection of papers, sharing the underlying theme of application of computing technology as a tool for achieving solutions to realistic problems in computational economics and related areas in the environmental, ecological and energy fields.
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What's wrong with empirical exchange rate models: Some critical issues and new directions (International finance discussion papers)
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Manufacturer: Board of Governmors of the Federal Reserve System
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Binding: Unknown Binding

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Published posthumously, the second edition of The Concept of Law contains one important addition to the first edition, a substantial Postscript, in which Hart reflects upon some of the central concerns that have been expressed about the book since its publication in 1961. The Postscript is especially noteworthy because it contains Hart's only sustained response to the objections pressed by his foremost critic, Ronald Dworkin, who succeeded him to the Chair of Jurisprudence at Oxford. The Postscript focuses on a range of issues covering both Hart's substantive view and his methodological commitments. In particular, Hart endorses Inclusive Legal Positivism, asserts that his is a methodology of descriptive jurisprudence which he contrasts with Dworkin's normative jurisprudence or interpretivism, while denying that his theory of law has a semantic underpinning. The essays in this collection address each of these issues in a sustained way. The book contains discussions of Hart's semantic commitments, his rejection of a normative jurisprudence as well as the extent to which he can embrace Inclusive Legal Positivism in a way that is consistent with his other stated positions. The book's contributors include the leading advocates of alternative schools of Positivist jurisprudence, important contributors to the methodogical disputes in jurisprudence and noted experts on the relationship of philosophy of language to jurisprudence. Among the contributors of note are: Joseph Raz, Jules L. Coleman, Stephen Perry , Brian Leiter, Scott Shapiro and Andrei Marmor.

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The present volume is an intellectual agglomeration covering a variety of topics in diagenesis. It starts with the diagenesis of marine pore waters and soft-sediment deformations, followed by two chapters on sandstones - one on climatic influence in terrestrial sandstone diagenesis and the other on the deep-sea volcaniclastic sandstones. Diagenesis of carbonates is treated next, with one chapter on compactional diagenesis and another devoted to a case study (Aymestry Limestone Beds, UK). There are two chapters on the origin and migration of oil: (a) maturation of organic matter, and (b) relation of diagenesis to mineralization and hydrocarbon reservoir development, followed by a chapter on sedimentary ore genesis - banded iron-formation. In conclusion there are two chapters on paleosols. This book will be of interest to geologists, geochemists and petroleum engineers.

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good attempt at Persuasion

Unlikeable Annie..

3 1/2 stars

You won't need a lot of persuading to love this one!

A modern-day version of the Jane Austin classic

Persuading Annie
Melissa Nathan
Manufacturer: Avon A
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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After years as a sweet, good-natured pushover, Annie Markham has had to face up to three hard truths:

You've got to be tough to succeed in business and romance.
Sometimes your meddling loved ones are right about your worthless, no-good boyfriend being worthless and no good.
The only reliable thing about men is that they're totally unreliable.

Okay, she's been persuaded. So now, seven years after wisely and abruptly dumping the "love of her life," Jake Mead, things should be going better for Annie Markham, right? Unfortunately, her life's going nowhere, her family's going mental, and the family business is heading straight down the tubes. Could it get worse? Of course! Jake's back, Annie's getting ready for bankruptcy, and no one's ready for Christmas ... let alone a happy New Year.

And no amount of persuasion will ever convince Annie that magic does happen and dreams do come true, not even at the stroke of midnight on December 31 at New York's Plaza Hotel ... will it?

Customer Reviews:

good attempt at Persuasion.......2007-04-10

Persuasion is Jane Austen's last novel. In this modern adaptaion Melissa Nathan attempts to capture the boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl plot found so often in modern literature. Annie is such an unlikeable character in the beginning, it was hard to get into feeling sympathy for her. I realize the author was trying to show how much Annie changes within the book, but Austen's changes are more subtle. Having her ex-boyfriend rescue her father's company is a break from the way Austen saw the relationship, but, overall, I would not turn the book down if given the opportunity to read it again. It is just that Persuasion is one of my favorite Austen works so I was hoping for so much more.

Unlikeable Annie.........2006-08-31

I liked Melissa Nathan's other books, particularily Pride..Jasmine Field, but this one was hard to like. Primarily because Annie was such a drip-no backbone whatsoever. Furthermore she stayed a drip till the very end. Her sisters were selfish twits which would have been okay if they provided comic relief. Unfortunately, not. The other characters were two-dimensional and also, not entertaining.

3 1/2 stars.......2006-08-13

Persuading Annie started out slow while introducing the backstory involving Annie and Jake. University sweethearts, the lovers find themselves in a sticky situation when Annie thinks she is pregnant. Persuaded not to run away with Jake, her godmother ruins their relationship. 10 years later, both Annie and Jake fill their lives with work to forget about the pain of losing each other. When Annie's father's company starts losing money, the best consulants in the company are brought in to help the company. Little did Annie or Jake know that their lives would end up crossing paths.

The story that ensues is charming, fun, and heart warming.

You won't need a lot of persuading to love this one!.......2006-01-03

Author Melissa Nathan continues her love of all things Jane Austen with an updated version of "Persuasion" with a couple twists to update it for the 21st century.

After a home pregnancy test reveals she is pregnant, Annie Markham is ready to elope with her boyfriend Jake. But family machinations have a way of rearing their ugly heads, as family friend Susannah plants seeds of doubt in Annie's mind (Annie is an heiress, while Jake is working class). When she suddenly gets her period and is in shock, a row with Jake results in his leaving her, thinking that she lied to him.

Fast forward seven years. Annie still could not be more different then her two sisters, Katherine and Victoria, both of whom spend the family fortune as if it might disappear. Of course, the Markham family PR firm is finding itself in dire straights, and in need of a miracle. Enter management consulting whiz Jake Mead, the same Jake that shares a past with Annie. As Annie schemes to keep her distance from Jake, they do in fact run into each other (when she is not at her best, of course). He is still reeling that she dumped him without explanation; she cannot forgive him for walking out on her in her time of need. He revels to his shrink that he does not want closure from Annie and her family - he wants revenge.

Annie still feels a connection to her first love, nut keeps the long-ended relationship a secret from her family, while they try to marry her off to the Markham CEO, and encourage Jake into a romance with the young sister of Victoria's husband.

Will either of them ever have the guts to be truthful about their feelings and revisit the pain of their youth? Nathan's excellent prose peppers a truly original adaptation of a classic novel, giving it a great contemporary flavor that is sure to grasp the reader's attention.

A modern-day version of the Jane Austin classic.......2005-01-04

In Persuading Annie, author Melissa Nathan has paid homage to Jane Austen's classic novel Persuasion with not only her title but also her cast of characters. Annie, a young, motherless college student from a wealthy family, is persuaded to reconsider her plans to elope with her college sweetheart, Jake, by her interfering stepmother. Seven years later, Annie is still unhappily single, and the family business is rapidly going downhill. Re-enter Jake, a business consultant, to not only save the family but possibly Annie as well.

Although Nathan mirrors Austen's style of using chance encounters, misunderstandings, and various group outings to futher the plot, her writing lacks Austen's wit as well as its unique charm. This leaves the reader with a very average, somewhat amusing boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back story which ultimately fails to live up to the classic novel which inspired it.

Average customer rating:

Persuading Annie
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Manufacturer: Avon Trade
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Binding: Paperback
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Average customer rating:

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