Software for Your Head: Core Protocols for Creating and Maintaining Shared Vision - Softcover

McCarthy, Jim; McCarthy, Michele

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201604566 ISBN 13: 9780201604566

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2002

Synopsis

Most people have experienced--at least once in their lives--the incomparable thrill of being part of a great team effort. They can remember the unity of purpose they experienced, the powerful passion that inspired them, and the incredible results they achieved. People who have been on a great team can attest that the difference between being on a team with a shared vision and being on a team without one is the difference between joy and misery.

In 1996, Jim and Michele McCarthy, after successful careers leading software development teams at Microsoft and elsewhere, set out to discover a set of repeatable group behaviors that would always lead to the formation of a state of shared vision for any team. They hoped for a practical, communicable, and reliable process that could be used to create the best possible teams every time it was applied. They established a hands-on laboratory for the study and teaching of high-performance teamwork. In a controlled simulation environment, their principle research and teaching effort--the McCarthy Software Development BootCamp--challenged dozens of real-world, high-tech teams to produce and deliver a product. Teams were given a product development assignment, and instructed to form a team, envision the product, agree on how to make it, then design, build, and ship it on time. By repeating these simulations time after time, with the new teams building on the learning from previous teams, core practices emerged that were repeatedly successful. These were encoded as patterns and protocols.

Software for Your Head is the first publication of the most significant results of the authors' unprecedented five-year investigation into the dynamics of contemporary teams. The information in this book will provide a means for any team to create for itself a compelling state of shared vision.

0201604566B09042001

About this title

About the Author

Jim and Michele McCarthy founded McCarthy Technologies in 1996, after product development and program management positions at Microsoft, the Whitewater Group, Bell Laboratories, and elsewhere. Jim is the author of Dynamics of Software Development (Microsoft Press, 1995).

Jim and Michele McCarthy founded McCarthy Technologies in 1996, after product development and program management positions at Microsoft, the Whitewater Group, Bell Laboratories, and elsewhere. Jim is the author of Dynamics of Software Development (Microsoft Press, 1995).

0201604566AB12102001

From the Back Cover

At least once in their lives, most people experience the incomparable thrill of being part of a great team effort. Members of successful teams often feel a unity of purpose, powerful passion and inspiration, and a strong sense of accomplishment. People who have been on a great team know that the difference between being on a team with a shared vision and being on a team without one is the difference between joy and misery.

After successful careers leading software development teams at Microsoft and elsewhere, Jim and Michele McCarthy set out to discover a set of repeatable group behaviors that would always lead to a state of shared vision for any team. They hoped to design a practical, communicable, and reliable process that could be used to create the best possible team every time it was applied.

In 1996, Jim and Michele McCarthy established a hands-on laboratory for the study and teaching of high-performance teamwork, and in a controlled-simulation environment challenged dozens of real-world, high-tech teams to produce and deliver a product. The teams were given a product development assignment and instructed to envision the product, agree on how to make it, and then design, build, and ship it on time. Repeating these simulations time after time, with new teams building on the learning of previous teams, core practices emerged that were repeatedly successful. These were encoded as the patterns and protocols that became the "Software for Your Head" included in this book.

Software for Your Head is the first publication of the most significant results of the authors' unprecedented five-year investigation into the dynamics of contemporary teams. This book will give any team the know-how it needs to create its own compelling state of shared vision.

0201604566B12102001

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The purpose of this book is to communicate a collection of results-oriented ideas and practices that will reliably yield high performance teamwork for any team committed to achieving it. The name of this collection is theCore. TheCore is like an operating system. Instead of running on processors in machines, theCore runs in the minds of people on teams. It is software you run in your head1. Those who choose to run theCore will continue to do so only because they find that it favorably affects their results.

TheCore will evolve as many different teams run it, but all teams will benefit from standardization. For example, if a person understands the behaviors encouraged by theCore and is able to apply them, then that person can more readily connect with and act in concert with others who are running theCore. As a result, the best practices of teams can be made universally available, regardless of cultural and individual idiosyncrasies, geographical location, age, background, or gender.

TheCore must be easy to understand so that those who are using it can work effectively with those who are not. It must contain as little jargon as possible. It must rely on effective principles rather than conformity. Running theCore must be sufficiently rewarding that teams will want to run it. TheCore must increase adopters' results dramatically and rapidly, or it will (deservedly) be ignored. The superior results should come quickly; they need to start flowing within a couple of weeks of adoption, or everyone will lose interest. Ideally every step in theCore's adoption would pay off immediately, and be worth adopting as a practice regardless of any other consideration.

It is our deepest hope that the functionality of version 1.0 of theCore will deliver that kind of reward, with that kind of immediacy. TheCore comprises the most effective team practices that we have repeatedly observed. The hundreds of people who have experimented with theCore as it incubated have felt that theCore provides a vastly superior team modality compared to the accidental cultures that teams live in today. Jim and Michele McCarthy
January 2001

1One useful way to look at your cognitive processes is that you are "running" an elaborate simulation of the world in your mind. In building this simulation, you have accepted "programming" from your parents, your schooling, and from the cultures you have experienced. You have also shaped your internal simulation with your own intentions, desires, experiences, choices, and learning. Each person is "running" a unique operating system in his head. The processes that result in your behavior seem to cycle. These cycles are fractal-like or recursive-the small patterns make up bigger patterns that are, on a different level, the same as the smaller patterns. The uniqueness of your patterns also defines your interpersonal I/O. Unfortunately, there is only marginal compatibility among I/O systems. Our purpose is to implement a wrapper for the I/O of any personal OS and map its core functions to a universal, standard interpersonal I/O interface. This will enable more effective transmission and reception of ideas, facts, or other cognitive powers. The result will be improved learning. With more efficient I/O, and the subsequent boost in cognition, you are more likely to intentionally repair and streamline your personal OS. It seems little more than a classic bootstrapping problem. This is often solved incrementally; load a little code, run it; use that functionality to load more code, run that, and so on. 0201604566P06052001

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0201604566
• ISBN 13: 9780201604566
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 435