Schutzblog Recommended Reading List

The books and articles that can radically change the way you see the world

Updated for 2024, here are the books & articles most often recommended to Schutzworks clients leading organizations through chaos and uncertainty. They comprise the cornerstone of my approach to getting things done quickly, effectively and properly.  Just in time for those last minute holiday gifts! (note that these are Amazon affiliate links) Please leave any of your favorites in the comments.

Top Pick:

Build: I’ll be honest, I like the advice in this book so much I sometime contemplate referencing it rather than continuing to write! Definitely worth a read whether you are in an organization, in transition or looking to start something new.

Changing How You See the World

Antifragile: pay attention to the limits of your own narrative fallacy and keep an eye out for asymmetric opportunities in the world. 

Give and Take: How to find your toughness without losing your goodness. Related and a little less “nice”: Looking Out for #1 & Winning through Intimidation

The Tools: Watch Stutz then read this– incredibly concrete steps to improve your life, almost immediately. 

How to Win Friends and Influence People: Don’t let the title fool you, this is a classic on how to be a decent human being.

Misbehaving: Good intros to behavioral economics, which will simplify your decision making and free you from the trap of induced regret.

Meditations: Great intro to Stoicism, nothing is more humbling (and relieving) than reading descriptions of your problems from thousands of years ago. 

Four Thousand Weeks: Time is running by and you cannot stop it.  Relax, stop trying to clear the decks and live a little. 

People Leadership

Tribal Leadership: Let the words of others help you gain empathy for their frame of mind and understand how best to help them progress.  Also a great study on organizational culture.  Related: Leadership & Self Deception, which is the unintentional detailed path from Stage 3 to Stage 4

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Maybe the best book on the loneliness and challenges of leadership.  The message repeats throughout: “Do the things you know you should do but don’t want to.”  Very useful, also connects well with The Tools.

Turn the Ship Around:  Unlock the power of your people, harness that energy for major progress.  Related: Who’s Got the Monkey 

Nine Lies About Work: Part management book, part job hunting book.  I think it works better here as it can help you design your organization effectively and lose much of the bullshit of corporate life. 

Strategy & Innovation

The Innovator’s Prescription & Zero to One: How to come up with new ideas and/or pivot your current business. 

How Stella Saved the Farm and the more formal The Other Side of Innovation: How to execute that pivot within an organization from any level.  

Playing to Win & The Advantage: Great books on designing your company & strategy to achieve what you want. The related article on Strategic Capabilities offers a way to connect strategy to planning, if you think of Capabilities in terms of KPIs/OKRs with Agile as your management system. 

Planning, Prioritizing & Work Management

Making Work Visible: Let this book convince you to work on as few things as possible at once to get the most done over time. The tools & principles contained within are the first step to any disciplined approach to work. 

The 4 Disciplines of Execution and/or Radical Focus→The OKRs Field Book: Turn your strategy above into actionable goals and hypotheses so you can actually get a huge number of people working together. Related: A Seat at the Table will cure you of your planning fallacies.

The Goal→The Phoenix Project→The DevOps Handbook Intro & Part 1: Once you’ve committed to doing the least possible at once, this book series introduces you to Constraint Theory and DevOps, which help you figure out WHAT one thing to focus on! Amazing set of books. Of note, you are going to have to use your imagination to move from technology to your own sector.  Just think of software as a model complex system in which you can get feedback really, really fast.  The principles apply to almost any sector you come across at work and in life. 

Scrum Guide & Scrum at Scale: when you are ready to dive into Scrum Agile as a work management system.  

Job Hunting/Role Transition

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko & Drive: This pair of books will help you understand what you want.  Then read Bullshit Jobs mostly to understand what to avoid.

What Got You Here Won't Get You There: asks the question “are you where you are BECAUSE of certain traits or IN SPITE of them? It hits hard and is most useful when you are in that new role. 

Here’s hoping for a bright and healthy New Year!