3 minutes
In this post I recently wrote about the importance of reading widely. (Also see my notes at the bottom of that post for alternatives to traditional ‘reading’). I believe this applies to everybody, but this blog is for relatively new Scrum Masters, with 1 or 2 year’s experience. Each month I’ll post a brief run down of what books I read during the month, and give my opinions on each one
In January I read 2 and a half books – you’ll see why I didn’t count Essentialism as a whole book!
Essentialism: The Disciplined Persuit of Less, Greg McKeown
Rework – Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Daily Rituals, Mason Currey
I really enjoyed this book. It is nothing more than a collection of curated reports from contemporaries of famous creative people (artists, writers, dancers etc), and yet…
You won’t come away from this book with concrete knowledge of how to ritualise your habits to make yourself more creative. Nor will you throw your hands up in horror that everyone seems to be different. Some how, seeing how many many artists struggle with finding the time, will and energy to indulge their passion is reassuring.
If you are an aspiring creative of any sort, this will ease your guilt and help you see that you don’t struggle alone.
There are some similar threads you can pull together from the tales, although Mason Currey has carefully included examples of contrary behaviour being successful too..
A pleasure to listen to, and neatly broken down in to bite size chunks!
Scrum Mastery, Geoff Watts
Additionally, the NewVoiceMedia Scrum Masters’ Book Club is currently reading Scrum Mastery, By Geoff Watts. I am joining them but we are reading it a chapter at a time and discussing it every week. I personally found this book brilliant and pitched just right for a scrum master who knows the basics but is coming to terms with the wider and more complicated world of scrum mastery.
I particularly like Geoff’s way of highlighting the subtle differences that experience brings to make a good scrum master great by having specific sections opened with: a good scrum master would do this, where as a great scrum master will do that. He then goes on to describe in more detail.
I think this book is so important, it is already on the required reading for NewVoiceMedia Scrum Masters, and it really should be on yours too.
I’m part way through these, so in February I’ll be reviewing them both, amongst others:
“Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges” by Amy Cuddy
&
“The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from the Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It” by Valerie Young.