This is a list of books I have read over the years and found interesting and influential in understanding Operations, Business, and most importantly, People. Most of these books are not about Technical Operations or Computer Science, but about understanding complex systems, including how we think.

System Thinking

• Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows
• The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande (my review)

Human Thought and Bias

• On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (my review)
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Business Organization

• The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
• Beyond the Goal: Theory of Constraints (Audio) by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
• It’s Not Luck: Marketing, Production, and the Theory of Constraints by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
• The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
• Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale by Jez Humble
• The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Gene Kim
• Theories of Work: How We Design and Manage Work by David Joyce

Leading People

• Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders by L. David Marquet
• Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results by Mike Rother
• Becoming a Technical Leader: An Organic Problem-Solving Approach by Gerald M. Weinberg

Math

• How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business by Douglas W. Hubbard

Articles

• A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making David J. Snowden and Mary E. Boone
• The Andon Cord By John Willis
• Steve Yegge’s Platform Rant

If you’re looking for some more reading material, I suggest you head over to StevenMurawski.com and check out Steve’s DevOps reading list.