I must admit, I bought Thinking for a Living
by Thomas Davenport for 2 reasons.
1) I wanted to get some ideas on motivating and guiding other developers (aka computer programmers)
2) I also want to see the techniques others would try to use on me to accomplish the same goals.
Knowledge workers (of every type) are definitely a tough lot to manage. It is very hard to tell when we are being productive, and when we are just goofing off. We are a secretive bunch, and for the most part, really don’t analyze the process of how we accomplish or goals at work, so it becomes very hard for others to help improve our process. The typical knowledge worker doesn’t not value the opinions of “outsiders”, since we feel that they don’t really understand how we do things. Occasionally, there is one among our skill set that can’t break down how we accomplish our tasks, and figure out ways to improve the process. But even then, we are pretty reluctant to listen to advice. Like I said, a pretty tough bunch to manage. The prototypical knowledge worker seems to be those in Information Technologies (like programmers), and of course Davenport does talk about us. But, to my surprise, he also uses the medical profession in his examples (doctors and nurses, etc.). Yes, they are knowledge workers too, but I never really lumped them into the same group as developers. But, you know what, now that I think about, yes it makes total sense.
So, if you have to think for a living, or have to manage people that think for a living, and want to gain some insight into how to manage folks like us, then this is another must have book. There is lots of great information in “Thinking for a Living”, and will also get you think about ways to improve our/their performance.
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