The initial title of this post was "Book Recommendation" but I felt that it isn't attractive enough, hopefully this one would gain more attention. Just finished a book,
Peopleware by Tom Demarco and Timothy Lister which I found it very interesting and thoughtful and I can't wait to publish some excerpts of it. I read quite a lot of books but this is the ever first book (I'm sure that it won't be the only one) which make me have the intention to recommend to others. In fact there are much more excerpts I wanted to give but eventually I might end up copying the whole book here.
The meeting started out with a few minutes of easy banter, a lighthearted comment addressed to each one of those present by Ambrose, the boss. Each recipient rose to the bait and offered an equally lighthearted riposte, all in good fun. Then there was a sharp changeof mood as Ambrose took control. Issues were set out on the table and addressed, briefly and very efficiently. Each issue were discussed with one of the participants. There was a short dialogue between Ambrose and that person, a transfer of status information so that Ambrose would know exactly what progress had been made that week. During the meeting, the time was about equally focused on each of the participants, each interacting separately with the boss while the others listened in, silently. During Elaine's moment in the sun, I could see that Roger was distracted, obviously planning what he would say when Ambrose turned to him. At the end of the meeting, Ambrose established action items, more or less one per person. What could possibly be wrong with this oh-so-familiar picture? What's wrong to my mind is that this is not a meeting at all; it's a ceremony.
and also
The meeting wasn't really necessary to convey status; there are many less wasteful ways to do that. The need that was being served was not the boss's need for information, but for reassurance. The ceremony supplies reassurance. It established for everyone that the boss is boss, that he or she gets to run the meeting, that attendance is expected, that the hierarchy is being respected.
If you're a boss, I'd strongly recommend you to read this book and you might have a ultimate productive team assisting you to accomplish your goal. If you're not, I'd beg you to buy one for your boss and you might have better time spent on daytime job, better working environment, more joys during working hours and much more less overtime required.
Footnote: Over my past 5 years of working on software development, I've gone through many many "status meetings". Actually before discovering this book, I've been wondering for so long that why the process of progress status updates can't be done via email. I think it's a waste of time but I kept silent, because I lacked of the definitive statistical evidence that proved the case. Now that I'm not so willing to tell you that in my current company, I'm not only having team status meeting but a bi-weekly cross-teams status meeting with the application demo which no one (other than the presenter) could ever remember what's been presented. So, are you having team status meeting (ceremony)?
