The empowered manager

What Hacker News says

1. rramadassJan 2024
   A timely remainder on the realities of "Life/Work/Society/Groups" for everybody.

   Politics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics) is considered a dirty discipline but it is not so and is intrinsic to the life of any Social Animal and in particular to complex social structures like those setup by Homo Sapiens. Everybody needs to learn how to "play the game" albeit within whatever boundaries they choose to confine themselves to. It is human nature whether one be in a role of Engineer/Admin/Management/whatever that is at play here and cannot be wished away but needs to be faced. At the minimum one needs it to "protect" oneself from the games others play and which may lead one to be at the losing end.

   Some relevant resources (in addition to the works of Jeffrey Pfeffer mentioned in the article);

   1. The 4 Types of Organizational Politics - https://hbr.org/2017/04/the-4-types-of-organizational-politi...

   2. The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work by Peter Block.

   3. Management: A Political Activity by Ted Stephenson.

   4. HBR's 10 must reads; 2-vol On Communication, 2-vol On Managing Yourself, 2-vol On Managing People.

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2. rramadassDec 2020
   This is a very interesting question since it is a fundamental problem in any group human activity. I have found the following useful;

   * Management: A political activity by Ted Stephenson. For some reason, most people are not aware of this book. Deals with Power, Conflict, Bargaining, Compromise, Participation and Change. The opening line of the preface states "This book presents the view that management is substantially a political activity, based on power and characterized by conflict". Since we are dealing with Human organisms this is absolutely the right approach to take.

   * The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work by Peter Block is also good but more idealistic. But be aware that trying to be/do good does not guarantee reciprocation.

   * The Complete Upmanship: Including Gamesmanship, Lifemanship, One-upmanship and Supermanship by Stephen Potter. Humourous, but a great deal of life advice in it. Basically, how to put down other people and show yourself in the best light using "genteel" psychological means.

   * Behavior Modification: Principles and Procedures by Raymond Miltenberger. ABA psychology course textbook which is a must read.

   * Brainwashing: The science of thought control by Kathleen Taylor. The title is bit sensationalist, but the content is very relevant.

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3. rramadassFeb 2019
   Humans are "Hard" because they are individuals with their own motivations, drives, capricious emotions and in a word, are not always "rational". I feel most of the books on management/organizations/communications, approach Human Communications from a utopian viewpoint. They assume a path of least resistance and then impose a structured process (fad of the month) to arrive at a positive end goal. I have come to the conclusion that this is all unworkable BS (note books like "Leadership BS", "Bullshit Jobs" etc.) and we need to change our approach completely based on actual realities rather than wishful thinking. To that end i found the following books useful;

   The Art of Worldly Wisdom (aka The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence) by Balthasar Gracian - A set of aphorisms with penetrating insight into Human Nature.

   Why we do what we do: Understanding Self-Motivation by Edward Deci - A short book from a psychologist.

   The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work by Peter Block

   Management: A Political Activity by Ted Stephenson

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4. skmurphyMar 2008
   in no particular order:

   Myers-Brigs Model for Personality

   "Four Steps to the Epiphany" by Steve Blank

   John Boyd's OODA Loop as a model for competitive decision making

   Decision Analysis techniques: in particular decision trees, expected value of perfect information, and good decision bad outcome

   BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) concept for negotiation planning

   "Secrets of Consulting" by Gerald M. Weinberg

   "Bionomics" by Michael Rothschild

   SimCity computer game

   Analysis of Competing Hypotheses methodology

   wiki (social process) model for small team collaborative document development

   community of practice model for knowledge management

   "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein (in particular TANSTAAFL)

   activation energy, catalyst, and phase change concepts from physics/chemistry

   Amplify Positive Deviance model from Jerry Sternin (Save the Children)

   "The Empowered Manager" by Peter Block, in particular his trust vs. agreement matrix

   "Crossing the Chasm" & "Inside the Tornado" by Geoffrey Moore

   "Maneuver Warfare Handbook" by William Lind

   "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life" by Daniel Amen

   "Micromotives and Macrobehavior" by Thomas Schelling

   Appreciative Inquiry Techniques

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