On My Shelf with Jeff Gothelf— Author and Founder of Sense & Respond Press
About
I help teams build great products and executives build the cultures that build great products. I co-wrote Lean UX and Sense & Respond as well as Lean vs Agile vs Design Thinking.
My new book is called Forever Employable. — Order here
On my shelf
Unlearn
Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results
by Barry O’Reilly
My opinion
This book does a great job of applying two ideas together. Idea 1 is that the only way to progress is to unlearn what got you to this point. It’s a radical concept since we rely so much on past successes to keep moving forward. The other idea is that finding the next thing to learn is a series of experiments that continuously teach you where to focus. It’s short, practical and super helpful.
228 pages, McGraw-Hill Education 2010
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The Art of Action
by Steven Bungay
My opinion
Who knew that 19th century Prussian military tactics could have so much bearing on how to run companies well in the 21st century. This book introduces the concept of mission command and talk leaders out of command and control — the dominant management philosophy of the past 100 years.
288 pages, Harper Business 2016
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Small Teaching
Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning
by James M. Lang
My opinion
As a teacher, I’m always looking for new ways to get my ideas across. Most books on teaching have long cycles to validate their ideas. This book is a perfect combination of 100’s of years of teaching practice divided into actionable bits that yield change in your students in every class. It’s like “lean education improvement.” So useful.
272 pages, Jossey-Bass 2016
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Turn the ship around!
A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders
by L. David Marquet
My opinion
Push decision making authority down to those closest to the information. Empower teams to achieve a goal. Change the language you use to drive culture change. This is what the Captain Marquet (check title) did with the worst-performing nuclear submarine in the US Navy and then turned it into the best performing crew.
272 pages, Portfolio 2013
Get this book (amazon.com, amazon.de)
The PM Library series “On my shelf” features Product Leaders from all over the world who are passionate about reading and sharing with the community. If you want to join the movement and share your reading list with others send us a message or fill out the following form. Let’s get better together 📚.
