Top Reads of 2019

Below are my top five biz-book reads of 2019.

First, the honorable mentions:

• The Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg—I wanted to love this book yet could only like it. Silicon Valley's "Coach" Bill Campbell is a legend, having served as consigliere to industry leaders such as Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt. Coach was a good read, but I wanted to come away with insights into how to be more like Coach, not merely regaled by tales of how much folks loved Coach.
• Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg—Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella thinks the world of this book, and I think highly of Nadella. But this was a chore to chug through. At the end of most chapters, I found myself thinking, "Sounds great, but how do you start to put this into practice?" Rosenberg may be the sage on the hill when it comes to applying this approach, but I wish he'd given more help to those of us at the bottom of the hill, eager to begin our own ascents.
• The Essential Deming by W. Edwards Deming, edited by Joyce Orsini and Diana Deming Cahill—this might better have been called The Endless Deming, a collection of articles, essays, speeches, etc. in which the same set of key concepts are rehashed over and over again. However brilliant his concepts, warmed over rehash does not a scrumptious meal make.
• Inspired by Marty Cagan—another book I wished I'd loved but could only like; it informed and educated ... but didn't inspire. Still, I appreciated his emphasis on outcome over output and on the difference between product discovery and delivery. This may be a book I like better upon rereading.
• Win Forever by Pete Carroll—ironic maybe, but the parts that moved me most in this book by the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks (written at about the time he was hired) deal with loss, adversity, and struggle. I'll admit to thinking the title too rah-rah at first. By the end, though, I realized the difference between always winning and always competing with the desire, drive, and will to win.

Now for the top five:

#5: Good to Great by Jim Collins

I can't remember if I'd read this classic before, as there's overlap between this book and Built to Last, which I know I've read. At any rate, Good to Great illuminates that path— easy to find but hard to keep—that propels companies to greatness by embracing a host of deliberate behaviors that reinforce one another. No less real is the slippery slope that returns them to mediocrity when they abandon those behaviors. I'm still torn as to which behavior or attitude chronicled in the book resonated most deeply: "First who ... then what" or the "Hedgehog concept."

#4: Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters by Richard Rumelt

The notion of "strategy" has been simultaneously puffed up and hollowed out to the point where it means just about anything and, therefore, nothing. You could fill an ocean liner with books on corporate strategy, and many leave readers lost at sea. Rumelt throws a needed lifeline with a clear-eyed primer on crafting sound strategy. Despite its sometimes dry tone—"A good strategy has coherence, coordinating actions, policies, and resources so as to accomplish an important end"—the book speaks with conviction and gravitas. Good strategy is not so much found as forged, and Rumelt wields a deft hammer.

#3: The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John C. Maxwell

I don't know what devotees of John Maxwell call themselves. Maxwellians? Maxellites? Whatever they are ... I'm one too. For years I've enjoyed learning from John Maxwell. I've read so much of his works over so long a period that I can no longer remember when or how I discovered him. Of his works, The 15 Invaluable Laws remains a favorite. In it, Maxwell offers simple, practical advice on pursuing intentional growth. This is the second time I've read this book, and I dearly wish I'd been more dogged and disciplined about putting his laws into practice when I first encountered them. Note to self: consider making this your New Year's resolution.

#2: Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters by Ryan Singer

I usually put distance between re-readings: after my first time through a book, I'll wait at least a couple of years before cracking it open again. With Shape Up, I waited all of 30 seconds before telling myself, "You need to re-read this book you just finished, right now." And then I did. An inside-baseball book written by and for people at software companies, it offers fresh takes on key questions software companies face:

• How do we decide which projects or initiatives to take on?
• How do we sufficiently shape them for successful implementation?
• How do we meaningfully communicate how far along we are in implementation?

Near the beginning of the book, the author gleefully claims Base Camp, the company whose processes are the basis for Shape Up, "isn't agile" (unless you're familiar with the specialized meaning of the term "agile" in software-development circles, you can safely skip the rest of this entry). I don't fully agree, but I take his point. Base Camp follows an approach that intentionally flouts some standard conventions of scrum, the most widely adopted agile approach.

If your company practices scrum, or any other agile approach, and you can't shake the nagging suspicion there might be another, potentially better way, Shape Up is recommended reading. If you can't imagine any alternative to scrum, Shape Up is required reading.

#1: Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

As I began December, I figured my year's "top reads" were set; Shape Up looked to be my top pick, and the rest of the top 5 seemed solid. Then, in the closing days of the yearlong race, I read a book that blew past all others, bringing Shape Up up short, like a lead marathon runner overtaken in the last hundred yards of the race by a sure-footed sprinter.

Shoe Dog is easily my top read for 2019 and perhaps the most engaging, engrossing, and enjoyable business book I've ever read. It's an amazing story ... amazingly told. Shoe Dog follows the rise of Nike co-founder Phil Knight, from his early days of selling Japanese track shoes out of his parents' house (the, ahem, world headquarters of Knight's Blue Ribbon Sports) to Nike's successful IPO in 1980. The iconic brand we know as Nike came to be through lucky breaks, messianic zeal, stretched truths, and—above all—the fierce loyalty and commitment shown by a gloriously quirky band of "chronic unemployables."

A story too good to be true, Shoe Dog is the rare book that I couldn't wait to finish reading so I could begin singing its praises. Upon finishing, as an early Christmas present to myself, I bought a new pair of Nikes—seemed fitting.

What Next?

On tap for 2020 are Dare to Lead and The Culture Code. Next year I might also nudge myself to read Nudge or Work Rules! Perhaps Tribe of Mentors, Smartcuts, or Escape Velocity (Moore's Crossing the Chasm was required reading at a company where I used to work) will also make the far side of my reading list by year's end. I may even dip into a classic, such as The Market Driven Organization or Business Adventures: 12 Classic Tales from Wall Street.

Anything you'd recommend ... or recommend I avoid? Please speak up in the comments. And, above all, keep reading and keep reaching!