The Books I Read in 2021: Part 1
In 2021, I started a new job as the manager of the front-end reporting team on the electronic health records implementation programme at Guy's and St Thomas'. This was my first time managing a team, and my first time working on a programme rather than in a business-as-usual role. I was both excited, but also anxious - and so my usual coping mechanism of buying books kicked in!
Now, a year after our go-live, I want to look back at some of the books I read at the time, and what I took from them.
- Title: High Output Management
- Author: Andrew S Grove
- Publication Date: 1983
- How did I hear about it: From a news article about books Dominic Cummings told civil servants to read
This is a blessedly short and straightforward manual of the mechanics of management. Looking over it today, two sections stand out.
The third chapter defines a manager’s output as the output of their team and the teams that they influence. This framing steered me toward measuring team and programme outputs, rather than individual outputs; and to think about process, environment and tooling.
Grove points out the influence wielded by knowledge workers who solve problems for other teams or business units. Usefully, he broadens the definition of middle management to encompass these colleagues. It feels like a practical application of Galbraith’s idea of the technostructure, and shaped my expectations and priorities for the expert technologists I manage.
This chapter also introduces and defines managerial leverage. High-leverage activities occur when a manager influences many people; by a brief intervention influences one person for a long time; or provides a crucial piece of expertise which unlocks a solution. And Grove does not shy from pointing out that this leverage can be negative: for instance through ill-preparedness or indecision.
The twelfth chapter, on task-relevant maturity (TRM), is the other one which helped me the most. It was particularly helpful during heavily integrated tasks which required contributions from dozens of colleagues in our application teams. Thinking about TRM and tailoring support accordingly seemed to work.