Book Club: "Know What You Don't Know" by Dr. Michael Roberto

Over the course of the summer, I will be reading books on professional development and posting my less than professional opinion and a summery of lessons to take away.  Feel free to read the books and comment your opinions!  Share any books you've read on professional development (or something of interest to SWE)!  

The first book I read was "Know What You Don't Know" by Dr. Michael Roberto and my book club post can be read below!

Best wishes,

Emily

This was one of those books I read with a pen in hand writing how my own personal work and leadership experiences compare to the examples given in this novel.  The most interesting part was reading dozens of different case-study like examples about the leaders in hospitals, the military, the government, and industry (Pixar, Chrysler, Dyson, Polaroid, etc).  Each case-study from the variety of industries and companies showed different leadership styles, work environments, and levels of experience.

The leadership skills this book attempts to develop are how to find problems before they become even larger issues.  Problems can come from breakdowns of a technical, cognitive, and/or interpersonal nature.  Learning to be a "problem finder" is broken into seven sections:

1. Circumvent the gatekeepers: look for the raw data, remove information filters
2. Become an ethnographer:  observe and take note of employees, customers, and suppliers
3. Hunt for patterns:  experience gives you a deck of patterns you've seen; reflecting and refining your pattern recognition helps; novices often don't see the same patterns as those with experience, which has pros/cons (I'm talking to you interns and those new to a job!)
4. Connect the dots:  large scale failures are often preceded by small problems
5. Encourage useful failures:  always be reflecting (some companies in the book had museums or walls dedicated to remembering failures); "rapid, relatively low cost experimentation" (pg 133) is an opportunity for youth (such as interns or newbies) to experiment and for anyone to be creative and find problems early
6. Teach how to talk and listen:  communicating effectively; the RPI Archer Center for Student Leadership Development is a great resource for all students to take advantage of to build collaborative  skills, as well as speaking and listening
7. Watch the game film:  review what you've done as well as competitors (ESPECIALLY your competitors) to learn from what you've done

Quick Tips to Consider:

• Empower those you work with to bring problems forward.  Mistakes and false alarms are learning experiences.  Even if you intuition is saying something is wrong, run with it.
• There is a fear of repercussions for bringing forward a problem, but know that you were hired for a reason, so don't worry about your job security.  Bring forward the issues so you can get help with them.  
• Do not conform, a unique viewpoint makes you an asset
• Make sure everyone feels personally accountable and invested in the project
• Look at the assembly line, not just the task at hand
• Group decisions exceed the quality of individual choices (studies have shown this!)
• Communicate face to face whenever possible

This novel also brought up points you should consider as you look for your dream career!  The environment is a large part of ensuring your happiness in your career.  This novel brought up the thought that the company/managers/leaders should create "a climate in which people feel comfortable coming forward" (pg 35) with any problems.  You should feel considered and valued, and not fear bringing up a problem.  Job rotations are a part of some careers early on.  They are very beneficial in that they expose you to other units of an organization.  This fosters a better understanding and appreciation for the work being done in other units.  This also helps individuals build your social networks as well as who to ask about critical information (pg 110).

Leaders should be on the lookout for problems, no matter your position in an organization.  This novel was a great breakdown of how to train your brain to look for them.  Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences!