Books with practical tools to get things done well
Getting things done, and doing them well are not the same thing. To do things well, we need time to work out what to do, and the right tools for the job. If you’re trying to fix things with other people, then the right tools are thinking skills. Trouble is, there are so many ways of thinking about things, how do we know what’s right?
I may be a professional business consultant, but I can’t tell you what’s ‘right’ — all I can do is draw on 30 years of learning and experience to suggest an approach that will work. The books here contain some of my favourite ‘go to’ tools for getting things done. These are the thinking skills which most often prove useful when I’m asked for help or advice. I hope you find what you need.
Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur is my favourite business planning tool. It was co-created by 470 Business Model Canvas practitioners from 45 countries and contains lots of great practical innovation techniques. I think the 9 ‘building blocks’ of the canvas itself ask all the most important questions, and I love the simple, flexible and visual way it’s used. Especially handy when you’re planning with people who have different learning styles.
Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono is a timeless classic in my view — a ‘devastatingly simple technique based on the brain’s different modes of thinking’. It’s used to help people make better decisions by looking at a problem from six different points of view. The technique gets results because it makes us more objective than we normally are, while also helping us see things as others do. The text is here and although he’s known mainly for this and ‘Lateral Thinking’, I’d recommend almost anything by de Bono :)
The Essentials of Theory U by Otto Scharmer is about the journey. Like Six Hats, it’ll expose blind spots, but this one’s designed to go deeper and shift the ‘inner place’ we operate from. It’s a repeating learning process with good practical tools. I think it’s useful for helping people grasp how small changes in approach can make sizeable difference to the big picture. If you want to see where the journey began, read Presence.
Flawless Consulting by Peter Block is a cracker for methodical thinking about how to solve problems with genuine care for other people. You don’t have to be ‘a consultant’ to apply the abundance of sound advice here. Everything from making really clear agreements, dealing with resistance and data gathering to strategies for engagement with change. As he wisely says ‘the struggle is the solution’, and this one can definitely help with the struggle.
Collaborative Advantage by Elizabeth Lank is a mini masterpiece about working across organisational boundaries. Collaboration can be a difficult business because it requires a great deal of trust which can be easily and accidentally undermined. This book does what it says on the tin, offering a comprehensive view of structures, processes, roles, skills, tools and techniques that can be applied to make collaboration safe and sound. I wrote a brief summary of key learning points here — but read the book too!
The Solutions Focus by Paul Z Jackson and Mark Mckergow is a longstanding favourite, offering an ‘incisive way of building positive change in tough situations’. Storytelling is our superpower, and this book explores our positive potential for solving problems with simple, sound techniques. As a related bonus, take a look at the 4D Appreciative Inquiry Process, which isn’t a book, but is such a brilliant ‘get things done well’ tool I couldn’t leave it out.
How to be a Productivity Ninja by Graham Allcott is about attention management. We’re all prone to distraction and the more connected we get, the greater the risk of diversion. Full of simple, practical tips on how to keep the focus we need when we need it, I think this book is a great aid to the achievement of goals.
All of these books are great for getting things done well — I reckon you could pick up any one at random and learn something useful even if you only read a chapter. The last book in this selection is my all time favourite. It makes room for everyone to contribute as they can. It’s my best book because of the way it can bring out the best in us all…
Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide by Harrison Owen is an explanation of the most powerful technique I know for unleashing our collective power. Commonly just called ‘Open Space’, this technique is all about self-organizing and the wisdom of the crowd. It can sound daunting at first, and needs to be handled with confidence to give courage to those who need it. Trust the process and each other, and you’ll find It’s useful for just about anything you can think of. There’s an amazing community of practitioners on OpenSpaceWorld
As always with these kinds of lists — there’s more left out than put in. I’ve written separately about books to help you work well with people here, and I plan to add more reference materials on the resource page of my website here. If you’d like to make a comment or contribution, please send suggestions to me from here.
