Monday, March 31, 2003

Organizing Genius: The Secrets of creative collaboration (on amazon.ca) This book explores common treats of what author calls a "Great Group". The book tells stories of a dozen groups that created breakthroughs in many different domains from creation of the first Disney’s animated feature film, to the development of first Apple computer. Authors uncover and show characteristics of Great Groups using numerous and at times repetitive examples. The last chapter summarizes the lessons. I’ve been lucky to find some of characteristics of Great Groups in best teams I was involved with. I think that one of the best goals a manager can set for himself is to make his group closer to being a Great Group. It is certainly one of my biggest goals as a manager of software development team. I have a mixed feeling about this book. Even though I’ve found messages contained in this book to be extremely valuable, I don’t think authors have chosen the best way to present them. Most of the volume of the book is taken by numerous stories about how a particular group worked. Many of the tales add little to the core message of the book and merely dissolve that message in irrelevant material. My advice the author: the title of this book should have been "Organizing Genius. Stories of creative collaboration". Or even better – instead of writing the book authors could have written a fantastic article that spells out all the same points without wasting reader’s time. Pretty much every chapter digests other sources, so if you’re interested in each particular group, I think you’ll find much better accounts elsewhere. Here’s how I would summarize the lessons. I feel they are all important, but I’ve tried to put them in order of importance: 1. Great Groups start with superb people. In Great Groups the golden rule "hire good people" is pushed to the extreme. 2. Great Groups made of people who can work together. Great Group will not happen if it is made of geniuses, but they cannot work together towards the shared goal. 3. Every Great Group has a strong leader. Great Groups don’t need leaders to be saints, but they require for leaders to be absolutely thrustwordy as far as project is concerned. 4. Great Groups are extremely focused on the project at hand. The project is all they see. 5. Great Groups ship. Such groups are inherently action oriented. Even though people thoroughly enjoy the creative process, everyone if focused on one single thing – end result. 6. Leaders of Great Groups give them what they want and free them from the rest. People in Great Groups have the right tools, they have the right working environment, they are spared from bureaucracy and excise. 7. In Great Groups the right person has the right job. In such groups people are not interchangeable. They feel that they are the only once in the universe who can do the job. 8. Great Groups see themselves as winning underdogs. Great Groups don’t merely produce the product – they "win". 9. Great Groups always have an enemy. The group cannot "win" without having a natural or manufactured enemy. 10. Great Groups think they are on a mission from God. Great Groups don’t just produce something – they are "making a dent in a universe". 11. Every Great Group is an island – but an island with a bridge to the mainland. It is the job of the leader to create island and to be that bridge. 12. Great Groups are optimistic, not realistic. This is how such groups are able to do what others say cannot be done. 13. Great work is its own reward. Vast majority of people involved in a Great Group did so not because of money, but because of the insane fun they had in the process.

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