Concept index

Looking for one idea by name? It's here. To see how the ideas fit together, and which ones you've already met, open the management map.

1Management Fundamentals

What does a manager actually manage?

Fayol's Functions and Principles Henri Fayol, Administration Industrielle et Générale, 1916

Five Functions of ManagementManaging is a craft of its own, beside the work itself; Fayol named five parts of it.
Unity of CommandEveryone should know whose order wins before the moment there is no time to ask.
Fayol's Bridge (Gangplank)Peers across branches can deal directly, if both bosses allow it and hear what was agreed.

Mintzberg's Managerial Roles Henry Mintzberg, The Nature of Managerial Work, 1973

Ten Managerial RolesA manager changes hats all day, and the hats only work as a set.
Informational RolesA manager is the team's information hub, and a hub knows only what reaches it.
Fragmentation of Managerial WorkA manager's day comes in short pieces, and the manager often does the chopping.

Scientific Management and the Hawthorne Studies Frederick W. Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management, 1911; Elton Mayo, The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization, 1933

Scientific ManagementTime the work instead of guessing at it, and a better method often shows up.
Separation of Planning and DoingOne group decides how the work is done; another does it as written.
Hawthorne EffectBeing watched can change what people do, but less reliably than the famous story says.

Drucker's Practice of Management Peter F. Drucker, The Practice of Management, 1954; The Effective Executive, 1967

What Is Our Business?Your business is what the customer thinks they are buying, not what you make.
To Create a CustomerIn Drucker's view, a business exists to create customers; profit is the test, not the aim.
Knowledge WorkerWork done in the head can't be run by watching. Start by asking what the task is.
Efficiency vs. EffectivenessDoing the work right counts for little if it isn't the right work.

Grove's Managerial Leverage Andrew S. Grove, High Output Management, 1983

A Manager's OutputYour output as a manager is what your team, and the teams you influence, produce.
Managerial LeverageA manager's hour can shape hundreds of other people's hours, for better or worse.

From Doing to Leading Linda A. Hill, Becoming a Manager, 1992; Charan, Drotter & Noel, The Leadership Pipeline, 2001; Michael Watkins, The First 90 Days, 2003

From Individual Contributor to ManagerThe skills that got you promoted are not the job you were promoted into.
The Leadership PipelineEach step up changes which work counts as yours, and what you have to let go.
The First 90 DaysRead the new situation before you reach for the playbook that got you hired.

2Self-Management

Before you manage others, how do you manage yourself?

The Effective Executive Peter F. Drucker, The Effective Executive, 1967

Know Thy TimeMemory reports where your time should have gone. Only a record shows where it went.
Focus on ContributionEffort is what you put in. Contribution is what the people relying on you get out.
Make Strengths ProductiveHire for what someone does uncommonly well, then make their weak spots matter less.
First Things FirstDo the most important thing first, one thing at a time, and decide what you won't do.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, 1989

Eisenhower MatrixA ticking clock pulls you toward the urgent task, even when the important one pays more.
Circle of Influence vs. Circle of ConcernSpend your effort on what you can reach, not on everything you worry about.
Begin with the End in MindBefore you start, decide what finished looks like, then plan back from it.

Laws of Time C. Northcote Parkinson, The Economist, 1955; Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach, 1979; Joseph M. Juran, Quality Control Handbook, 1951

Parkinson's LawGive a job a week, and a week is often what it takes.
Hofstadter's LawIt takes longer than you expect, even after you've allowed for that.
Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)A few causes often make most of the trouble. Count before you fix.

Getting Things Done David Allen, Getting Things Done, 2001

Next ActionA to-do you can't picture doing tends to wait. Write down the next visible step instead.
Two-Minute RuleWhen clearing an inbox, a step under two minutes is usually cheaper to do than to track.

Deep Work Cal Newport, Deep Work, 2016; Sophie Leroy, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2009; Paul Graham, Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule, 2009

Deep WorkFree hours aren't deep work until you spend them on something hard, undistracted.
Attention ResidueSwitch tasks before you've let go of the last one, and part of your mind stays behind.
Maker's Schedule, Manager's ScheduleOne meeting in the middle of an afternoon can cost a maker the whole afternoon.

Growth and Habits Carol Dweck, Mindset, 2006; Peter Gollwitzer, American Psychologist, 1999; Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement, 2003

Growth MindsetBelieve ability can grow, and a hard problem looks like practice instead of a verdict.
Implementation IntentionsTie an action to a moment you name in advance, and you're more likely to start it.
Energy ManagementWhen you can't add hours, what you can still manage is the energy you bring to them.

3Goals & Metrics

What do you really want, and how will you know you got it?

Management by Objectives Peter F. Drucker, The Practice of Management, 1954

Management by Objectives (MBO)Manage people by the results you agree on, not by watching how they work.
Self-Control through MeasurementGive people a goal and their own numbers in time to act, and they can steer themselves.
Goal CascadingSplit a big goal level by level, until each person holds a piece they can move.

SMART Criteria George T. Doran, There's a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management's Goals and Objectives, Management Review, 1981

SMART GoalsA good goal tells you when you're done. It can't tell you whether it was worth doing.

Goal-Setting Theory Edwin Locke & Gary Latham, A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance, 1990; Ordóñez, Schweitzer, Galinsky & Bazerman, Goals Gone Wild, 2009

Specific, Difficult Goals"Do your best" lets people define best. A specific, hard target usually gets more.
Goals Gone WildFix hard on one goal, and the costs outside it can go unnoticed.

Objectives and Key Results Andrew S. Grove, High Output Management, 1983; John Doerr, Measure What Matters, 2018

Objectives and Key Results (OKR)One sentence for where you're going, plus a few numbers that answer yes or no.
Key ResultsIf you can't say which number would prove it, it isn't a key result yet.
Committed vs. Aspirational OKRsBefore setting a goal you may miss, say how a miss will count. It isn't a promise.

Balanced Scorecard Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton, The Balanced Scorecard, 1996; Strategy Maps, 2004

Balanced ScorecardJudging a company by its financial results alone is like driving by the rearview mirror.
Strategy MapDraw the chain from today's work to tomorrow's results, then check each link.
Leading vs. Lagging IndicatorsBy the time the result comes in, it's too late to change it. Watch what moves first.

Metric Design Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown, Hacking Growth, 2017; Eric Ries, The Lean Startup, 2011; Andrew S. Grove, High Output Management, 1983

North Star MetricPick one number for the value people get, and you've also picked what you'll give up.
Vanity MetricsA number that makes you feel good isn't necessarily one that tells you what to do next.
Paired IndicatorsEvery number you push on needs a partner that shows what the pushing costs.

Metric Traps Charles Goodhart, 1975; Donald T. Campbell, 1979; Steven Kerr, Academy of Management Journal, 1975; Horst Siebert, Der Kobra-Effekt, 2001; Daniel Yankelovich, 1972

Goodhart's LawYou get what you reward, just not the thing you wanted.
Campbell's LawThe more decisions ride on a number, the more it bends the work it was meant to watch.
Cobra EffectPay for proof that a problem is gone, and you may end up paying people to breed it.
On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for BPay for one thing while hoping for another, and the one you pay for tends to win.
McNamara FallacyWhat's easy to count can quietly stand in for what actually matters.

4Decision-Making

How do you decide well when you don't have all the facts?

Bounded Rationality Herbert A. Simon, Administrative Behavior, 1947; Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World, 1971

Bounded RationalityNobody can weigh every option, so we decide with the pieces we can see and measure.
SatisficingDecide what good enough means, take the first option that clears it, and stop looking.
Poverty of AttentionInformation uses up attention. The more of it arrives, the less each piece gets.

Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2011

System 1 and System 2An answer can arrive on its own, fast. Checking it takes effort, and often never starts.
Anchoring EffectThe first number you hear can pull your estimate toward it, even one you know is random.
Framing EffectSay the same numbers a different way, and people often choose differently.
WYSIATI (What You See Is All There Is)We build a confident story from what's in front of us and rarely ask what's missing.
Planning FallacyWe forecast from our own plan and forget what happened to everyone else who tried.
Outside View (Reference Class Forecasting)Before trusting your plan, check how similar projects actually turned out.
Confirmation BiasOnce you believe something, you tend to look for the evidence that agrees with it.
Sunk Cost FallacyMoney spent that you can't get back is gone either way. Let what comes next decide.

Noise Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony & Cass Sunstein, Noise, 2021

NoiseSame case, different expert, different answer, often by far more than anyone guessed.
Decision HygieneForm your view alone, from the evidence, before you see anyone else's answer.

Drucker on Effective Decisions Peter F. Drucker, The Effective Executive, 1967

Generic vs. Exceptional ProblemsBefore you fix a problem, ask whether it's a one-off or a case of a wider problem.
Decisions Require DissentWhen nobody in the room disagrees, you haven't seen the alternatives yet.

Decision Mechanisms Jeff Bezos, Amazon Shareholder Letters, 2015–2016; Gary Klein, Performing a Project Premortem, HBR, 2007; John Boyd, 1976; Annie Duke, Thinking in Bets, 2018

One-Way vs. Two-Way DoorsMove fast through doors you can walk back through. Slow down at the ones you can't.
Pre-mortemTell people the plan already failed, and they'll tell you why.
Disagree and CommitArgue hard before the decision. Once it's made, carry it out as if it were your own.
OODA LoopObserve, orient, decide, act, faster than rivals. How you read things steers all four.
ResultingA good result doesn't prove a good decision, and a bad result doesn't prove a bad one.

Cynefin Framework David Snowden & Mary Boone, A Leader's Framework for Decision Making, HBR, 2007

Cynefin FrameworkBefore you pick how to decide, work out what kind of problem you're facing.
Probe-Sense-RespondWhen cause and effect can't be seen ahead, run small, cheap tries and grow what works.

Group Decision-Making Irving Janis, Victims of Groupthink, 1972; Jerry B. Harvey, The Abilene Paradox, Organizational Dynamics, 1974

GroupthinkWhen agreement matters more than being right, a group stops hearing its own doubts.
Abilene ParadoxEveryone goes along with a plan nobody wants, because each thinks the others want it.
Devil's AdvocateAppoint someone to argue against the plan, then let the argument change something.

5Strategy & Innovation

Where can you win, what lets you win, and how do you avoid being disrupted?

Porter's Competitive Strategy Michael E. Porter, Competitive Strategy, 1980; What Is Strategy?, HBR, 1996

Porter's Five ForcesBefore asking how well a company is run, look at the five forces squeezing its industry.
Generic Competitive StrategiesWin on lower cost, on value others don't offer, or by focusing on one slice of the market.
Operational Effectiveness Is Not StrategyDoing what rivals do, only better, is necessary but rarely lasts. They catch up.
Strategy Is About Trade-offsThe hard part of strategy is choosing what not to do.

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy Richard Rumelt, Good Strategy Bad Strategy, 2011

The Kernel of StrategyA strategy names what's wrong, picks a way through, and lines up actions that fit.
Bad StrategyA goal, a slogan or a wish list can pass for a strategy. None of them chooses anything.

Blue Ocean Strategy W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne, Blue Ocean Strategy, 2005

Blue Ocean vs. Red OceanInstead of fighting rivals for the same buyers, look for the people the industry left out.
Four Actions Framework (ERRC)Decide what to drop, what to cut back, what to raise and what to add, all on one page.

Classic Strategy Tools Learned, Christensen, Andrews & Guth, Business Policy, 1965; Bruce Henderson, The Product Portfolio, BCG, 1970; C. K. Prahalad & Gary Hamel, The Core Competence of the Corporation, HBR, 1990

SWOT AnalysisA SWOT sorts the good, bad, promising and risky. If no choice follows, it's just a list.
BCG Growth-Share MatrixGrowth and share show where cash comes from and where it goes. A label isn't a verdict.
Core CompetenceYour strength is the skill under your products, not the products themselves.

Good to Great Jim Collins, Good to Great, 2001

Level 5 LeadershipHumble about themselves, relentless for the company. Collins's portrait of a great CEO.
First Who, Then WhatChoose the people before the plan. The right ones can fix a weak plan.
Stockdale ParadoxKeep faith in the ending, and face today's facts without promising yourself a date.
Hedgehog ConceptFind what you can be best at, what pays, and what you care about. Then stop the rest.
The FlywheelNo single push turns the wheel. Each turn makes the next one a little easier.

Disruptive Innovation Clayton M. Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma, 1997; Christensen et al., Competing Against Luck, 2016

The Innovator's DilemmaWell-run companies can lose by doing exactly what their best customers ask.
Disruptive InnovationA product worse for your customers may start with people you ignore, then win yours away.
Jobs to Be DonePeople hire a product to get a job done, and the job may not be the one the maker thinks.

The Lean Startup Eric Ries, The Lean Startup, 2011

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)Build the smallest real thing that can teach you something, and put it in real hands.
Build-Measure-Learn LoopBuild a little, measure what people actually do, and let it change your next move.

Exploration and Exploitation James G. March, Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning, Organization Science, 1991

Exploration vs. ExploitationGetting better at what already works can crowd out the search for what works next.

6Organization Design & Governance

Who does what, who reports to whom, and who gets to decide?

Classic Organizing Principles Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776; Max Weber, Economy and Society, 1922; V. A. Graicunas, Relationship in Organization, 1933; Alfred P. Sloan, My Years with General Motors, 1963

Division of LaborSplit work into small steps and output can soar. So can the boredom.
BureaucracyWrite the rules down so the work doesn't depend on who happens to be doing it.
Span of ControlOne boss can lead four people or thirty. It depends on how much they need each other.
Centralization vs. DecentralizationDecide which calls stay at the top and which belong to the people closest to the work.

Mintzberg's Structure in Fives Henry Mintzberg, The Structuring of Organizations, 1979; Structure in Fives, 1983

Five Basic Parts of the OrganizationAn organization can be drawn as five parts. The biggest part says a lot about how it runs.
Coordinating MechanismsWork gets fitted together a few ways. People talk, someone directs, or a standard decides.

Organization Structure Design Jay Galbraith, Designing Organizations, 1995; Brad Stone, The Everything Store, 2013; Robin Dunbar, Journal of Human Evolution, 1992

Functional, Divisional and Matrix StructuresGroup people by skill or by product. Either way, some work falls across the seam.
Star ModelA new org chart alone changes little. Strategy, process, pay and people have to move too.
Two-Pizza TeamBezos's rule of thumb: if two pizzas can't feed a team, it's too big.
Dunbar's NumberDunbar estimates we can keep up about 150 real relationships. Critics dispute it.

Conway's Law Melvin E. Conway, How Do Committees Invent?, Datamation, 1968; Skelton & Pais, Team Topologies, 2019

Conway's LawWhat a team builds tends to copy the way the team talks to itself.
Inverse Conway ManeuverIf systems copy the teams that build them, arrange the teams the way you want the system.

Team Topologies Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais, Team Topologies, 2019

Four Fundamental Team TypesMost teams should own a flow of work end to end. A few exist to make those teams faster.
Team Cognitive LoadA team can keep only so much in mind. Pile on more, and mistakes and delays tend to rise.
Three Team Interaction ModesTeams can build together, serve one another, or coach. Each suits different work.

Responsibility Assignment RACI Matrix, PMI, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide); Adam Lashinsky, Inside Apple, 2012

RACI MatrixEvery piece of work needs one name beside it, and everyone needs to know whose it is.
Directly Responsible Individual (DRI)Every piece of work needs one named person who answers for it, with the authority to act.

Corporate Governance and Internal Control Adolf Berle & Gardiner Means, The Modern Corporation and Private Property, 1932; Michael Jensen & William Meckling, Journal of Financial Economics, 1976; COSO, Internal Control—Integrated Framework, 1992; IIA, Three Lines Model, 2020

Principal–Agent ProblemWhoever works for you has goals of their own, and you can't watch everything they do.
Separation of Ownership and ControlIn widely held companies, owners rarely run the firm, and managers rarely own much of it.
Segregation of Duties and the Four-Eyes PrincipleSeparate risky work from its approval and checks, so no one does and checks it alone.
Three Lines Model (Three Lines of Defense)Those doing the work own the risk, a separate team checks it, and auditors check both.

7Leadership & Delegation

How do you get people to follow you, and trust them to run with it?

Situational Leadership Paul Hersey & Ken Blanchard, Management of Organizational Behavior, 1969

Situational LeadershipDifferent people need different handling. So does one person on a new task.

Task-Relevant Maturity Andrew S. Grove, High Output Management, 1983

Task-Relevant Maturity (TRM)Give people rope by how well they know this task, not by how good they are.

Levels of Delegation William Oncken Jr. & Donald L. Wass, Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey?, HBR, 1974; Jurgen Appelo, Management 3.0, 2010

Who's Got the Monkey?The moment you say "let me think about it," the next move on their problem is yours.
Seven Levels of DelegationDelegation isn't on or off. Agree up front how far it goes, one decision at a time.
MicromanagementWatch every move, and the good ideas move to where you can't see them.

Mission Command Stephen Bungay, The Art of Action, 2011

Mission CommandTell people what you want and why. Let them tell you how.
Commander's IntentTell people what the plan is for, and they can still act when the plan breaks.
BackbriefingHave people tell you what they'll do and why. The gaps show up before the work starts.

Leader-Leader Model L. David Marquet, Turn the Ship Around!, 2012

Leader-Leader ModelHand people the decision, and with it the know-how and the why.
"I Intend To…"Don't ask what to do. Within agreed limits, say what you intend and let the boss stop you.

8Motivation

Why do people work, and what makes them want to do it well?

Hierarchy of Needs Abraham Maslow, A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review, 1943

Maslow's Hierarchy of NeedsBread comes first only when there's no bread. Otherwise people want many things at once.

Two-Factor Theory Frederick Herzberg, The Motivation to Work, 1959; One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?, HBR, 1968

Two-Factor (Motivation-Hygiene) TheoryThe opposite of miserable at work isn't motivated. It's just not miserable.
Job EnrichmentTo make a job worth doing, give people more say over it, not more of it.

Theory X and Theory Y Douglas McGregor, The Human Side of Enterprise, 1960

Theory X and Theory YRules built for people you don't trust can produce the very behavior that justifies them.

Self-Determination Theory Edward Deci & Richard Ryan, Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior, 1985; Uri Gneezy & Aldo Rustichini, A Fine Is a Price, 2000

Self-Determination TheoryPay can make people do a task. Choice, skill and belonging make them want to.
Overjustification EffectPromise a prize for something people already enjoy, and they may come to enjoy it less.
Motivation Crowding OutPay people for what they did out of duty, and some of them may stop doing it.

Drive Daniel H. Pink, Drive, 2009; Sam Glucksberg, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1962

Autonomy, Mastery and PurposeOnce pay feels fair, choice, growth and a reason can move people in ways a bonus doesn't.
Candle ProblemA prize can speed up an easy task and slow down one that needs a fresh idea.

Process Theories of Motivation Victor Vroom, Work and Motivation, 1964; J. Stacy Adams, Toward an Understanding of Inequity, 1963

Expectancy TheoryEffort follows three beliefs: I can do it, it will count, and the reward is worth having.
Equity TheoryPeople judge their pay by what others get for the same work, not by the pay alone.

Job Characteristics Model J. Richard Hackman & Greg R. Oldham, Work Redesign, 1980

Job Characteristics ModelWork often motivates when it's varied, whole, meaningful, yours to run and shows results.

Engagement and Expectations Teresa Amabile & Steven Kramer, The Progress Principle, 2011; Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, 1990; J. Sterling Livingston, Pygmalion in Management, HBR, 1969

The Progress PrincipleGood workdays tend to be the days when work that matters moved forward, even a little.
FlowAbsorption tends to come when a task is hard but doable and shows you how you're doing.
Pygmalion EffectWhat a boss expects of you leaks into how you're treated, and can show up in your results.

9Talent

Whom do you hire, how do you judge people, and how do you help them grow?

The Science of Hiring Frank L. Schmidt & John E. Hunter, The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, 1998

Structured InterviewAsk every candidate the same questions and score the answers on the same scale.
Work Sample TestTo find out whether someone can do the work, watch them do a small piece of it.
The Unstructured InterviewFeeling you got to know a candidate is not evidence that you did.

Hiring Methods Geoff Smart & Randy Street, Who, 2008; Colin Bryar & Bill Carr, Working Backwards, 2021

Job ScorecardBefore you meet candidates, write down what the job must deliver, and by when.
Bar RaiserGive a say in every hire to someone who won't have to live with the empty seat.

Biases in Judging People Edward Thorndike, A Constant Error in Psychological Ratings, 1920; Justin Kruger & David Dunning, 1999; Laurence J. Peter & Raymond Hull, The Peter Principle, 1969

The Halo EffectOne overall impression can color every separate judgment, and you may not notice.
The Dunning-Kruger EffectPeople with less skill tend to overrate themselves; why is still argued over.
The Peter PrincipleYou get promoted for the job you did, not for the one you're about to do.

Developing People Michael Lombardo & Robert Eichinger, The Career Architect Development Planner, 1996; John Whitmore, Coaching for Performance, 1992

70-20-10 ModelExecutives in one study credited hard jobs and bosses over classes. 70-20-10 is shorthand.
GROW Coaching ModelBefore you tell, ask what they want, what's happening, what could work, what they'll do.

Gallup Engagement Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, First, Break All the Rules, 1999

Gallup Q12Twelve questions about your everyday work. Teams that score high tend to do better.
People Leave Managers, Not CompaniesPeople don't only quit managers. But a good one helps keep the people you'd hate to lose.

Talent Density Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer, No Rules Rules, 2020

Talent DensityAdding people who need carrying can cost a team more than they add.
The Keeper TestIf they told you they were leaving, would you fight to keep them?
Lead with Context, Not ControlGive people the goal, the stakes and the limits, then let them make the call.

Performance Appraisal Jack Welch, Jack: Straight from the Gut, 2001; Marcus Buckingham & Ashley Goodall, Reinventing Performance Management, HBR, 2015

Forced Ranking (Vitality Curve)A forced curve makes managers name their weakest. It can also turn teammates into rivals.
Continuous Performance ConversationsA once-a-year verdict often comes after the work is done. Talk while it can still change.

10Communication & Feedback

How do you say it clearly, get it through, and make people care?

Radical Candor Kim Scott, Radical Candor, 2017

Radical CandorTell people the hard thing straight, because you care about them.
Ruinous EmpathyKeep quiet to spare someone's feelings, and they may pay for it later.

Feedback Methods Center for Creative Leadership, SBI Model; Marshall Goldsmith, Feedforward, 2002; Joseph Luft & Harrington Ingham, 1955; Chris Argyris, Overcoming Organizational Defenses, 1990

Situation–Behavior–Impact (SBI)Say what they did and what it caused, not what kind of person they are.

One-on-Ones and Walking Around Andrew S. Grove, High Output Management, 1983; Tom Peters & Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence, 1982

One-on-One MeetingSeeing someone every day isn't a one-on-one. Give them a set time and their own agenda.

The Pyramid Principle Barbara Minto, The Pyramid Principle, 1987; Jeff Bezos, Amazon internal email, 2004 (in Bryar & Carr, Working Backwards, 2021)

Pyramid PrincipleStart with your answer, then give the reasons under it, one layer at a time.
MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive)Split a problem into pieces that don't overlap and, together, leave nothing out.
Six-Page Narrative MemoWrite the argument in full sentences. Let the room read it in silence before anyone talks.

Meetings Patrick Lencioni, Death by Meeting, 2004; C. Northcote Parkinson, Parkinson's Law, 1957

Law of Triviality (Bikeshedding)Meetings tend to spend longest on what everyone understands, not on what costs the most.

Principled Negotiation Roger Fisher & William Ury, Getting to Yes, 1981; Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference, 2016

Focus on Interests, Not PositionsBehind a demand you can't meet, there is often a reason you can.
BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement)How hard you can push in a deal depends on what you'd do without it.
Insist on Objective CriteriaWhen a haggle stalls, agree on a fair yardstick before you argue about the number.
Tactical EmpathyYou can name what the other side fears without conceding a thing.

Communication Gaps Colin Camerer, George Loewenstein & Martin Weber, Journal of Political Economy, 1989; Marshall Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication, 2003

Curse of KnowledgeOnce you know something, it's hard to imagine not knowing it, so you explain too little.

11Teamwork

How does a group of people become a team?

Stages of Group Development Bruce Tuckman, Developmental Sequence in Small Groups, Psychological Bulletin, 1965; Tuckman & Jensen, 1977

Forming–Storming–Norming–PerformingWhen a new team starts fighting, ask whether anyone agreed how the work gets split.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, 2002

The Five Dysfunctions of a TeamLencioni's bet: when a team stops delivering, the trouble started lower down, with trust.
Fear of ConflictA team that never argues may not agree. It may just be afraid to.
Inattention to ResultsEveryone's own numbers can look fine while the team loses.

Psychological Safety Amy C. Edmondson, Administrative Science Quarterly, 1999; Teaming, 2012; Strategies for Learning from Failure, HBR, 2011; Google re:Work, Project Aristotle, 2015

Psychological SafetyNo reported mistakes doesn't mean no mistakes.
Project AristotleAt Google, how a team worked together mattered more than who was on it.
TeamingPeople who just met can still work as a team, if they share a playbook for roles and talk.
Spectrum of Reasons for FailureFailures come in different kinds, and blaming them all alike buries the lessons.

Conditions for Team Effectiveness J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams, 2002; Hackman & Wageman, A Theory of Team Coaching, 2005

Five Enabling ConditionsYou can't make a team great. You can set up the conditions that make it more likely.
60-30-10 RuleBy Hackman's estimate, most of how a team does is settled before its work begins.

Process Losses in Groups Maximilien Ringelmann, 1913; Ivan Steiner, Group Process and Productivity, 1972; John Darley & Bibb Latané, 1968

Ringelmann EffectAdd more hands to the rope and each one pulls a little less.
Bystander EffectThe more people who see it happen, the easier it is for each of them to wait.
Process LossA team delivers what its members could do, minus what gets lost working together.

Team Roles and Shared Cognition R. Meredith Belbin, Management Teams, 1981; Daniel Wegner, Transactive Memory, 1985; Cannon-Bowers, Salas & Converse, Shared Mental Models, 1993

Belbin Team RolesA team may need a mix of ways to contribute more than a room of the cleverest people.
Transactive Memory SystemA team can remember more than any one member, as long as everyone knows who knows what.
Shared Mental ModelsTeams coordinate better when everyone carries the same picture of the task and each other.

12Projects & Execution

How do you get something done on time and done right?

Critical Path Method James E. Kelley & Morgan R. Walker, Critical-Path Planning and Scheduling, 1959; PMI, PMBOK Guide; Martin Barnes, 1969

Critical Path MethodThe longest chain of steps that wait on each other sets the finish date. Watch that chain.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)Break a big job into pieces you can hand out, and check that nothing falls between them.
Iron Triangle (Triple Constraint)When time and money are tight, decide out loud which of time, cost or scope will give.

The Mythical Man-Month Frederick P. Brooks Jr., The Mythical Man-Month, 1975; No Silver Bullet, 1986

Brooks's LawAdding people to a late project usually makes it later.
The Surgical TeamOne person designs and writes the core; everyone else on the team supports them.
No Silver BulletTools can save the labor of writing code. They can't decide for you what to build.

Critical Chain Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Critical Chain, 1997

Critical Chain Project ManagementGuard the longest chain of linked work, people included. Stop juggling; pool the slack.
Student SyndromeWhen a deadline feels far away, people start late and use up the safety margin first.

Agile and Scrum Manifesto for Agile Software Development, 2001; Ken Schwaber & Jeff Sutherland, The Scrum Guide, 2020

The Agile ManifestoPrefer working results and conversation to paperwork and fixed plans, but keep both.
SprintWork in short, fixed rounds, and end each one with something that works and can be shown.
Daily Stand-up (Daily Scrum)A short daily meeting to check progress toward the goal and plan the day of work ahead.
Sprint RetrospectiveAfter each round, the team looks back at how it worked and picks something to change.
Definition of DoneAgree in writing, up front, what must be true before a piece of work counts as finished.
TimeboxingFix the deadline, then decide what fits. When time runs short, cut scope, not the date.

Kanban Method David J. Anderson, Kanban, 2010

Kanban BoardPut every piece of work, and the stage it has reached, where the whole team can see it.
WIP LimitsCap how many jobs are open at once, to stop work piling up and help each finish sooner.

Estimation and Scope Tom Cargill, quoted in Jon Bentley, Programming Pearls, Communications of the ACM, 1985; PMI, PMBOK Guide

Ninety-Ninety RuleThe last 10% of a project often takes as long as the first 90%.
Scope CreepWork gets added a little at a time, while the deadline and budget stay where they were.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution Chris McChesney, Sean Covey & Jim Huling, The 4 Disciplines of Execution, 2012

Wildly Important Goal (WIG)Pick the one or two goals that matter most, and give them attention daily work won't.

13Operations & Quality

How do you get it right every time, and a bit better each time?

Theory of Constraints Eliyahu M. Goldratt, The Goal, 1984

Theory of ConstraintsThe step with the least spare capacity sets the output. Speed up others and work piles up.
Five Focusing StepsFind the bottleneck, get the most from it, pace the rest to it, expand it, look again.
Local OptimaWhen every part chases its own best score, the whole can end up worse off.

Toyota Production System Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System, 1978; Shigeo Shingo, Zero Quality Control, 1986; Masaaki Imai, Kaizen, 1986

JidokaWhen something goes wrong, the machine or the worker stops the line and calls for help.
Andon CordA problem is cheapest to fix the moment someone sees it, if they're allowed to say so.
Seven Wastes (Muda)Waiting, hauling, extra stock and rework cost money, and customers rarely gain from them.
Five WhysAsk why, answer each time from evidence, and don't treat the fifth answer as the end.
Kaizen (Continuous Improvement)Improve the work a little at a time, every day, with ideas from the people doing it.
Poka-Yoke (Mistake-Proofing)Design the work so a slip is blocked, or caught on the spot, before it becomes a defect.

Lean Thinking James P. Womack & Daniel T. Jones, Lean Thinking, 1996

Value Stream MappingDraw every step a piece of work goes through, and time the waiting as well as the work.

Queues and Flow John D. C. Little, A Proof for the Queuing Formula L = λW, Operations Research, 1961; Donald Reinertsen, The Principles of Product Development Flow, 2009

Little's LawIn a steady system, average time inside equals average work in it over the exit rate.
Small Batch SizesDo and release work in small pieces, so problems show up sooner and do less damage.

Deming's Quality Management W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis, 1982; Walter A. Shewhart, Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product, 1931

PDCA CyclePlan a small change, try it, study what happened, then decide. Then go round again.
Common vs. Special Cause VariationOrdinary wobble comes from the system. An unusual swing may have a cause of its own.
Red Bead ExperimentMany of the results we blame workers for come from the system they work in.
Funnel Experiment (Tampering)Adjusting a stable process after every ordinary wobble makes its results swing wider.

Quality Engineering Motorola, Six Sigma, 1986; Joseph M. Juran, Quality Control Handbook, 1951; Philip Crosby, Quality Is Free, 1979

Cost of QualityA defect usually costs more the later it is found, and most once a customer finds it.

Safety and Reliability Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto, 2009; James Reason, Human Error, 1990; Charles Perrow, Normal Accidents, 1984; H. W. Heinrich, Industrial Accident Prevention, 1931; John Allspaw, Blameless PostMortems and a Just Culture, 2012

ChecklistEven a step you know by heart can get skipped on a busy day.
Swiss Cheese ModelAccidents usually need holes in several layers of defence to line up at once.
Normal Accident TheoryWhen parts interact in hidden ways and there's no slack, small failures can cascade.
Heinrich's LawHeinrich's estimate: for each serious injury, many smaller accidents of the same kind.
Blameless PostmortemBlame the person who slipped, and the next one is likelier to keep quiet.

14Culture & Change

How do you change what a group of people does out of habit?

Schein's Three Levels of Culture Edgar H. Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 1985

Three Levels of CultureYou can copy what a culture looks like. What its people take for granted stays behind.
Primary Embedding MechanismsTeams learn what really counts from what leaders watch, react to and reward.
Learning Anxiety vs. Survival AnxietyPeople change when fear of standing still outweighs fear of learning. Shrink the second.

Westrum Organizational Typology Ron Westrum, A Typology of Organisational Cultures, Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2004

Pathological, Bureaucratic and Generative CulturesWhether bad news reaches the top often depends on what happens to those who carry it.

Cultural Dimensions Theory Geert Hofstede, Culture's Consequences, 1980

Hofstede's Cultural DimensionsOn average, people in different countries expect different things from a boss.

Kotter's 8-Step Change Model John P. Kotter, Leading Change, 1996

8-Step Process for Leading ChangeIn Kotter's observation, change that skips stages tends to stall. The speed isn't real.
Establish a Sense of UrgencyBad news isn't urgency until people believe business as usual can't go on.
Generate Short-Term WinsWin a few visible battles early, or many people give up before the change pays off.

Lewin's Change Model Kurt Lewin, Frontiers in Group Dynamics, Human Relations, 1947

Unfreeze–Change–RefreezeChanges often slide back unless the old habit is loosened and the new one held in place.
Force Field AnalysisBehaviour settles where pushes and brakes balance. Easing a brake often beats more push.

Individual Change Jeffrey Hiatt, ADKAR, 2006; William Bridges, Managing Transitions, 1991; Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying, 1969

ADKAR ModelADKAR splits change into five hurdles. Start with the first one a person missed.
Three Phases of TransitionBridges: change happens on a date. Transition happens inside, and starts with an ending.
Change CurveImposed change can bring a dip before people adapt, but there's no fixed script.

Diffusion of Innovations Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, 1962; Geoffrey Moore, Crossing the Chasm, 1991

Diffusion of Innovations CurveNew things often spread slowly at first. Most people wait to see someone try it.
Crossing the ChasmEarly fans and the cautious majority buy for different reasons, so a gap can open.

Ethical Blind Spots Diane Vaughan, The Challenger Launch Decision, 1996; Max Bazerman & Ann Tenbrunsel, Blind Spots, 2011; Stanley Milgram, Behavioral Study of Obedience, 1963; Francesca Gino & Max Bazerman, 2009

Normalization of DevianceEach time a warning sign passes without disaster, the next one looks more normal.
Ethical FadingTreat a choice as a technical or business problem, and its moral side can fade from view.
Milgram Obedience ExperimentTold the work requires it, people sometimes go further than anyone expected.
Slippery-Slope EffectSome big wrongs arrive in small steps, each only a little past the last.

15The AI Era

When you manage AI, which problems are genuinely new?

Human Factors of Automation Lisanne Bainbridge, Ironies of Automation, Automatica, 1983; Kathleen Mosier & Linda Skitka, 1996; Thomas Sheridan & William Verplank, 1978

Ironies of AutomationThe better the autopilot, the less ready you are when it lets go.
Automation BiasWhen a machine gives the answer, people tend to stop checking it.
Levels of AutomationAutomation isn't on or off. Decide how much the machine does for each part of the job.
DeskillingSkills you stop using fade, and a tool that does the work can quietly take them.

Human in the Loop Thomas B. Sheridan, Telerobotics, Automation, and Human Supervisory Control, 1992; Madeleine Clare Elish, Moral Crumple Zones, Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, 2019

Human-in-the-LoopPut a person in front of the steps you can't undo, and make the machine wait for them.
Human-on-the-Loop (Supervisory Control)Let the machine act on its own while a person watches and can step in, if they truly can.
Moral Crumple ZoneWhen automation fails, the nearest person often takes the blame, even with little control.

Specification Problems Dario Amodei et al., Concrete Problems in AI Safety, 2016; Victoria Krakovna et al., Specification Gaming: The Flip Side of AI Ingenuity, DeepMind, 2020; Mrinank Sharma et al., Towards Understanding Sycophancy in Language Models, 2023

Reward HackingScore an AI on a test, and it may learn to beat the test instead of doing the job.
Specification GamingA capable system can meet the exact words of a goal and still miss what you meant.
Negative Side EffectsChasing a goal can damage things the goal never mentioned. Say what must stay intact.
SycophancyAn AI trained on what people like learns to agree with them, even when they are wrong.
Scalable OversightWhen the worker knows more than you, build checks that still work, such as rival experts.

Agent Orchestration Anthropic, Building Effective Agents, 2024; How We Built Our Multi-Agent Research System, 2025; Effective Context Engineering for AI Agents, 2025

Orchestrator-WorkersA lead AI splits the job among helper AIs. How clearly it briefs them shapes the result.
Workflow vs. AgentFix the steps you can predict. Leave judgment only where the path can't be written down.
Evaluator-OptimizerOne drafts, another checks it against a clear standard, and it goes round until it passes.
Context EngineeringWhoever takes over, person or AI, needs the key facts from you. Pick and order them well.

Human–Automation Trust John D. Lee & Katrina A. See, Trust in Automation, Human Factors, 2004; Berkeley Dietvorst, Joseph Simmons & Cade Massey, Algorithm Aversion, 2015; Fabrizio Dell'Acqua et al., Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier, HBS Working Paper, 2023

Trust CalibrationTrust a tool as much as it has earned, for the specific job, and adjust when it changes.
Algorithm AversionPeople tend to drop a better formula after seeing it err, yet forgive humans the same.
Jagged Technological FrontierAI can be excellent at one task and poor at a similar one, with no warning which is which.