SeanT.Conrad.com

I’m almost finished with The Puritan Gift: Reclaiming the American Dream Amidst Global Financial Chaos by Kenneth and William Hopper, and I heartily recommend it to technology professionals or managers anywhere. It’s a study of the history of successful business practices or qualities that stem from the Massachusetts Bay Colony:

1. A conviction to create Heaven on Earth (or a limitless sense of optimism for progress)
2. Placing a high value on mechanical aptitude
3. Working for the benefit of the group, not the individual
4. The ability to marshal resources and organize on a massive scale

Along with those attributes, the Hoppers credit the Puritans for respecting ‘domain knowledge’ and listening to the folks on the factory floor. As someone who comes from an engineering background rather than a business management, I can see a lot of value in the lessons of the book. I also am learning a great deal about management practices that I never learned while coding.

The Hoppers don’t rest on their laurels with The Puritan Gift as a dry business history text book. The hook is the delightful way they intertwine wit and historic connections while telling the American tale. In fact, it reminds me of an episode of Connections.

The book was a gift from my in-laws and they even were able to snag an autograph from the author. Thank you so much for a great gift!

A friend just told me a version of an often heard story in tech. Her marketing company built a site without the ability to track key metrics of the ads. The tech people responded, “It wasn’t in the specs,” which may be technically accurate, but is not comforting or productive.

I think a lot of projects like that fail for a reason that can be described in this metaphor: The tech people make water, beef, and tomatoes in a pot. And if you ask them what they make, they say, “water, beef, and tomatoes in a pot.” The business people want stew.

You need to make sure that everyone on the team knows that you are making stew and that someone is responsible for ensuring that happens. Unfortunately, that person has to be tri-lingual, speaking marketing, tech, and English.