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I have just completed Behind Closed Doors by Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby.  I wanted to read something by these authors, since I will be going to their Problem Solving Leadership training in January in Uppsala, Sweden. Gerald Weinberg will also be part of the teaching team and you can be sure I look forward to it.

The book

I read this book two times and that tells you how much I appreciated it. Behind Closed Doors is about best practise in management. Rothman’s and Derby’s approach is a bit different than in many other books. Here we have a story about fictitious manager, Sam, newly employed at a software development company. You follow him as he deals with different situations and uses sound management principles. The story is accompanied with the author’s comments about the situations. At the end there is a chapter called Techniques for Practising Great Management that discusses some of the principles in greater detail.

Story-telling

The story-telling ingredient in the authors teaching style is a great idea and it enables them to communicate and paint the picture of good management even better. Though the story does not have novel quality, it carries the message in an acceptable way.

Team building

It is very interesting to see how Sam treats the development department as a system and how he works on jellying the leader group together. Leadership is creating an environment that enables people to work successfully. Sam spends time every week with his group leaders in one-on-one meetings. He helps them to see the big picture and their role in the company. Together they create shared goals as a team and time boxed action plans.  Sam coaches them to formulate personal goals that fit into the company’s goals.

Ego

People often optimize for their own success, at the expense of the team or the entire organization.  I have surely been guilty of this. We are working each one in our own hole, digging and shovelling. There is clearly a need for leaders who can bring people together.

System problems

We are quick to blame each other for problems, but often problems are not caused by individuals. The cause can be  rooted in the system and its processes. People do not see the system problems, because they are part of the system. They are on the inside of it. An experienced manager (systems thinker) can see the system and facilitate the group’s problem solving work. A system problem can only be solved by the involved group of people. This is very interesting. The ability to take a step back and reveal what is going on and see the system processes is extremely valuable.

People

Sam is very interested in each one in his department employees. He coaches them to improve their capabilities and gives them clear feedback. Step by step he builds a successful team in difficult situations, prioritizing (and reprioritizing as circumstances change) the work that supports the goals of the group and the organization.

Simple principles

Rothman’s and Derby’s main tenet is that the principles of good management are not that difficult to understand. They discuss for example one-on-ones, portfolio management, feedback, coaching and delegation. The thing is to consistently and reliably perform these practises week after week.

Wise thoughts

I have started to read good books a bit more careful lately. When good thoughts are brought to us, we can act as they are just interesting; like standing at a distance and observing them. But wise thoughts should be treated in a better way. If you find them, take the time to expose yourself to them. Thoughts are powerful. Let them sink in and affect your mind-world and your feelings. There is plenty of room for some changed worlds today.

A good mix of different personalities, roles and experiences increases the creativity and quality of teamwork. In groups and any kind of collaboration, we need diverse angles of approach. We ought to choose members in a team on purpose with diversification in mind, but if you are like me, the first thought is to choose people like yourself. You know, some people you just immediately get along with and relationship feels natural. Other people are more troublesome and hard to understand. What if we too soon exclude people? Perhaps they are hard to understand, because you are different. What would happen if we took a step towards them and tried to build something together? I am playing with the thought that some possible connections pass by unnoticed because of preconceived ideas.

Differences first

We are usually quite fast to categorize people when we meet; most of the time we see differences first. The first thought is accompanied with a feeling. We compare ourselves with the other person in some areas. Either it turns out favourable for us or we feel inferior. We might feel envy, insecurity or contempt and distance. As a result we put a label on the other person. We see what’s separating us and hang on to that. If we look at our behaviour a bit more closely, it has actually an egoistic smell on our part. Why do we choose the differences first?

Similarities first

What would happen if the first thing we do, we look for things that connect us with the other person, things we have in common? We can first try to build a bridge, even if it is a tiny one. At least we are two human beings; that’s something at least. Connecting to and cooperating with someone that is unlike you is powerful. It could be worth the extra energy we have to put into it. Diversification is a key to survival in nature.

I was thinking along these lines while standing in a queue at a grocery store a few days ago. I looked at each person in the queue while noticing my own reactions. There were different ages and different social statuses represented. Some looked cool and self-confident, other confused, insecure or overbearing. I  noticed my initial thoughts about them. But we were all humans; we all stood in the same queue buying groceries, probably facing the same kind of troubles in life.

More on this subject:
Living inside walls
Your thoughts are not you

A while ago I finished reading Weinberg on Writing – The Fieldstone Method by Gerald Weinberg. I have always been interested in storytelling. When my children were small, we dreamed up stories and fantasy creatures, each one crazier than the other. I used to have secret plans of making children’s books. Writing has for a long time been on my list of personal development areas.

Since I have read other books of this author and like them, I bought The Fieldstone Method. In it, Weinberg manages to clearly describe the creative process of writing, step by step. The writing style is very practical, with a lot of exercises in each chapter. He has regular training seminars on this subject.

Fieldstone process

Weinberg uses the metaphor of building with fieldstones to illustrate the process. When you build with fieldstones you first walk around in the fields and gather a lot of stones. After that you line them up for inspection. Every stone is rough, uneven and unique as nature made them. When building, you take them one by one and try to find a fitting place. Sometimes you have to do some trimming or even cutting to get a smooth wall. Perhaps after a while, you must go out collecting stones again to fill some obstinate holes. The result is a unique wall that’s not as boring and predictable as a brick wall.

Writing process

Gathering fieldstones is catching the ideas that pop up in your mind. You catch them by writing down phrases or key words that carries the idea. Ideas can come haphazardly or in any order, but you just hang on to what is coming. Don’t try to organize or trim them at the same time. After a while you have a pile of interesting thoughts and reflections that might end up in several articles. As next activity, go through your ideas and organize; see how they can fit together and arrange them in some order. Lastly trimming is necessary; looking at the flow of language.

The metaphor he uses is spot-on. Weinberg states that creativity is a non-linear process. Reading is a linear process; most of the time you read a book from beginning to end, but creating a book is different. There is an inherent randomness in creating, because of how our brain works. Weinberg talks about different activities in the writing process; briefly he calls them gathering, organizing and trimming. You stay with one activity for as long as you have ideas. When the flow stops, you change to some of the other activities. Don’t force yourself to continue. Different activities need different states of mind. Gathering is unlike organizing and organizing is unlike trimming; the focus is different.

Software development process

I can’t help comparing Weinberg’s method to the prevalent way of creating programs. In software development we talk about working incrementally and with many iterations. That means that we build little by little and go back and forth between different phases, instead of first doing all the analyzing, after that all the design and lastly all the implementation. Software industry has found out that this way of working is consistent with man’s creative abilities and is the best way to handle complexity and the ever changing requirements.

Precious stones

Here is another word of wisdom from the book; Look for stones with emotional energy. Weinberg discusses how you can use your inner being to find the real gems. Watch your own emotional response to your stones. Don’t look so much at the exterior, you will trim and polish them later. Go for stones that awaken something in you.

Understanding through writing

To me writing is very much part of the process of understanding a subject. I don’t wait to write about something until I have fully understood. I write, and during the writing process, during the gathering, organization and trimming the deeper understanding comes. Rearranging and rephrasing becomes a powerful tool of reflection.

Weinberg’s book made explicit the way of working that I partly already used. It has deepened my understanding and enhanced my creativity. Now, I can “go with the flow” in a better way. If I would summarize with a sentence I would say “practical wisdom”. I really recommend it.

We went to Spain for a week in April last year and I had to tailor the flying route and other things. Today you can manage much by yourself by using internet. Self-service is nice, but you are faced with many choices and much details. It can be overwhelming. At work and in our private life, we have to handle an ever increasing amount of information. We make more decisions in a week than people did in a life-time hundred years ago and as a result many these days are suffering from informational stress.

Complexity

The human being can handle only a limited amount of complexity. We as individuals have different limits, and if we exceed this limit for some time it will affect us very negatively.

Quality

I can’t help comparing it with software engineering. Try to follow me; In order to cope with the complexity of today’s programs; we encapsulate or hide the details when we build a program. We move functionality into small components and build bigger components out of the small ones. We try to deal with things at a higher level. The nitty-gritty details can kill the quality of an application.

In the same way, to ensure quality in our own lives, we have to watch out for the details. The details and dependencies can become a nightmare. It might be so already in your life. Information stress undermines relationships and makes us blind to what is withering away. We have an internal limit of what we can handle and we have to be kind to ourselves and respect that limit. To build a life with quality, we need to delegate and let go of details. Let’s do that before stress kills us and we get burned out.

Prioritizing

Some choices are more important than others. Some details just have to be left to someone else to be taken care of. These days we have many gadgets and they have to be maintained. Let’s throw away some things! We have many activities and the schedule is crowded. Let’s throw away some things! Imagine how your life would be with a simpler lifestyle.

The Juggler

We can be like the juggler that adds one ball and then one more. He begins to drop balls, but do not notice and keeps on adding balls. We have to learn to know our capacity, so that when we begin to drop balls, we notice it and do something about it. Every now and then we ought to take pause and reflect and listen to our family or workmates. When we become easily irritated, it’s a sign that balls are rolling on the floor.

Help from the outside

New kind of services emerges; information brokers. We can get much information from the web, but sometimes we need to go to a travel agency and meet a friendly person, describe our desires and put the details in his or her hands. There will always be a place for service by humans. Man can never be replaced by machines or programs.

A week ago I completed “An Introduction to General Systems Thinking” by Gerald Weinberg. What a book!

During Christmas I read the novel “The Aremac Project” by the same author. That book is a sci-fi thriller about two software developers. Since Gerald Weinberg is a consultant in the computer industry, I became curious about it and bought it. It was well written and exciting with all the details interestingly and correctly described. Anyway I sensed he was a good writer with depth and I wanted to read more. I am constantly hunting for books and resources that are food for thought, about software development, project management or life in general. Finding a good book is like finding a treasure. The past year systems thinking and lean thinking have been on my mind. So all this lead me to “An Introduction to General Systems Thinking”.

What is systems thinking? Wikipedia says:
“Systems thinking is a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system will act differently when the systems relationships are removed and it is viewed in isolation. The only way to fully understand why a problem or element occurs and persists is to understand the part in relation to the whole. Standing in contrast to Descartes’, scientific reductionism and philosophical analysis, it proposes to view systems in a holistic manner. Consistent with systems philosophy, systems thinking concerns an understanding of a system by examining the linkages and interactions between the elements that comprise the entirety of the system.”

We have concentrated on and optimized components and forgotten the interaction between them, perhaps because of the complexities involved. We have exaggerated the apparent independence of the parts of a system. Science has been very successful, but the consequences or side effects as seen today are scaring. Look at the effects on nature for example. Systems thinking study the process of defining models and making assumptions to find the optimum necessary ingredients in a systems model for a specific purpose that is possible to handle and solve.

The book was originally published in 1975 and has been reprinted many times. It has become a classic. Weinberg uses clear writing and basic algebraic principles to explore new approaches to projects, products, organizations, and all kinds of system. He unravels the scientific defining of systems and the assumptions and simplifications made. Weinberg discusses the science of mechanics and the science of large populations and how the underlying philosophies and the simplifications made have been used inappropriately for systems that should have been handled in a different way.

The book requires some concentration and energy to read, but is indeed food for thought. To me, systems thinking really improves my thinking as a project manager, application developer, general problems solver and as someone who cares for the environmental issues and for people around me.

Have you ever been in that situation that you wanted to rename a directory and you couldn’t? Windows tells you “used by another user or program” and you know for sure that you haven’t any programs using that directory. What to do? Use an excellent program called Process Explorer from Sysinternals, that tells you which program that is holding the resource. Select Find >> Find Handle in the menu and write the name of the directory in the search field and press the search button.

This happened to me 5 minutes ago. What program was cheating on me? Acrobat Reader. I had viewed a pdf-document in this directory together with documents in other folders. Even though Acrobat now wasn’t displaying this particular document, the lock was still on the directory. I had to close down Acrobat completely to be able to rename. The UltraEdit and even Microsoft Word behaves like this sometimes.

Do you ever make the same mistake twice? I do. Sometimes it is embarrassing. Have you ever resumed a project that was halted 6 months ago? I have. To help my failing memory I make personal log of lessons learned generally and per project. I jot down a few notes and describe the problem and the solution clearly enough so that I will understand it a year later. I also try to take personal notes of the background of decisions made in projects.

And how do you find your way in your own gigabytes of data? I use a Desktop Search Programs that is called Copernic. It is a nice, small program that silently indexes the content of your laptop when the computer is resting and it gives you search results fast as the lightning. There is also a Google Desktop Search Program, but Copernic is much better.

A good source of information, which you might not be aware of, is the online libraries that several publishing houses offer. I have tested (and still use) Wrox Books 24×7 and O’Reilly Safari. Wrox has a simpler interface and somewhat fewer books. The cost of subscription is $50 per 3 months. O’Reilly is more expensive, $40 per month. You can browse chapters, copy and paste text and code, add bookmarks and notes and in limited measure download chapters (O’Reilly). O’Reilly also has a very useful cross-reference between sections relating to each other in different books.

It is not like having the book on your desk, but it is a great complement. I like to underline with different colors and write in the margin of books that I read. You can’t do that (yet). Also, it is still more comfortable to read text on paper than on screen if you read for a while.

The main advantage is that you can search through the whole library and find several aspects of what you are searching for. Two explanations are much better than one. Another advantage is that most of these books are so heavy that you don’t carry them voluntarily. I often bike to work and I assure you that it makes a difference whether you have 1584 pages of Professional ASP.NET Special Edition in your bag or not. Online books as such is an interesting path from the environmental perspective, since it is a renewable resource.

The cost of the subscription is easily covered by the time you save.

My eldest daughter is studying chemistry at the University of Prince George in Canada this autumn. As a part of the education they will take some computer courses and will learn one programming language. And which language does the faculty choose? C++. I have nothing against C++, I grew up on it. But, I am a developer. Why do she and other students in chemistry and physics have to learn about memory allocation and unsigned int’s, when there are languages with higher abstraction levels that are more suitable for their domain? I know they have the same approach at the University in my town UmeÃ¥ in Sweden. The purpose of computer courses for them must be to learn to solve problems and express algorithms in a programming language and the step between their world and the language shouldn’t be unnecessary big for no reason.

I started my career in the Unix and C world and I soon settled for the vi editor when writing program code. The Emacs editor was also there, but it felt like a dinosaurian, bloated and clumsy. I liked the idea behind editing in vi, being small, quick and fast. Vi is a modal editor and that means (simplified) it either operates in insert/append-mode or in command-mode. What makes it unique is that when in command mode, all keys are used as command keys. For example d$ means delete from cursor to the end of line, M means move cursor to the middle of screen or y3w means copy (yank) the three words following after cursor to buffer. This allows you to perform all editing functions with no use of the mouse or menus and minimal use of CTRL and ALT keys. Keys can be combined and you can do a whole lot with a few keystrokes. When you have the key combinations in your muscle memory you can work real fast. If you have never tested vi, have a look at vim, the de facto vi editor of today. The learning curve is quite steep, but if you stay with it you will be rewarded. Know one editor real well and use it as much as possible. I like to work ergonomic and use the keyboard , relax my arms and avoid the mouse as much as possible, so I still use vi-clones as often as I can. To me the mouse is an evil thing.

Vi was created by Bill Joy back in 1976. Now it is 2007 and we have full featured integrated development environments. But guess what, you can still use the good old vi-paradigm. Almost every day I do work in both Eclipse and Visual Studio 2005. They are highly configurable and since people still like the vi idea there are plug-ins that make the IDE editor work like vi.

For Eclise we have the excellent viPlugin, which I have used for a number of years.

To get the vim control characters to work, do the following in Eclipse; go to menu Window – Preferences and choose General and then Keys. Click on the modify tab and choose ViPlugin in the Scheme drop down box. You will lose some usable functionality, like CTRL-F which is the eclipse find dialogue, so you might want to stay with the default scheme and add those vim-commands you especially like, for ex CTRL-D and CTRL-U.

For Visual Studio 2005 we have viEmu. The company even has a plug-in that gives you vi emulation in MS Word!

In both these cases the vim-functionality is blended into the IDE’s all functionality, like building, refactoring etc in a quite seamless way.

You can find a good quick reference card for vim here.