Philosophical References

Purpose

To share the external ideas and resources which have helped shape our company’s philosophy.

Scope

Currently consists primarily of resources on management styles and lists the books that most heavily influenced this ops manual.

Management

Some resources in line with our thinking on management styles.

Multipliers

• Mulitpliers - How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter
• Data Driven Investor post on letting your team speak up

“The Culture Code”

Team performance can be predicted by:

1. All members speak equally
2. Members maintain eye contact (please use video sometimes)
3. Members communicate directly with each other
4. Members break from the team to focus or explore, and bring skills back to the team

These are more important for individual performance, so a manager’s job is to create “belonging cues” which foster the above behaviours.

These things also happen to make it more enjoyable to work together, which is also important. We need to build trust in each other that Countable is a safe place to try your hardest, knowing the team will support you whether you succeed or fail.

We need to trust each other enough to give honest feedback when it’s hard, so we can help one another improve to the next level without getting stuck in a rut. We push each other because we have high expectations for the team, and trust each other to reach them.

References

Books that heavily influenced this manual are listed here. They are recommended as having an influence on our company culture.

A general trend of these books is that they follow somewhat of a narrative format so are easy to read. Countable will reimburse the purchase of any of these books. For other professional development materials you will usually be approved, but ask first.

Understand What Matters

• The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle
• Nonviolent Communiction, MarshalL Rosenberg

Make Clear Shared Goals

• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni

Make and Measure Progress on Goals

• Scrum: The art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time, Jeff Sutherland
• Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, Adam Grant
• 12factor.net

Technical

• The Unix Philosophy
• Domain Driven Design
• Javascript: The Good Parts
• Philosophy of Software Design
• Clean Code

Write Down What You Learn

• Principles, Ray Dalio
• The E-Myth, Seth Godin
• The Great CEO Within, Matt Mochary

Other Company Functions

• Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen, Donald Miller
• Laws of UX: Using Psychology to Design Better Products & Services, Jon Yablonski