Business leaders are always on the hunt for that life-changing book – the one that deepens their understanding of the workplace and provides an inspiring roadmap for the way forward. But with thousands of highly-praised books to choose from, it’s difficult to know which ones are retreading the same old ground and which contain truly groundbreaking insights.
If you can relate, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve put together a list of books that will reward any IT leader with hundreds of new ideas and strategies to drive growth and improve experience.
Whether you’re looking for innovative management strategies, expert insights into emerging technologies, or creative methods for developing your digital workplace, these six books offer a wealth of timely and actionable information.
Without further ado, let’s get into the list!
1. Doing Agile Right: Transformation without Chaos
The rapidly changing workplace and the speed of digital transformation have made agility an essential trait of successful businesses. But although “agility” has become a popular industry buzzword, many business leaders are unable to actually implement agile strategies. They fail to transcend the daily roadblocks their organizations face – like the siloed data and slow processes that prevent nimble innovation.
That’s why Doing Agile Right: Transformation without Chaos is a must-read for any business leader, regardless of industry. Bain & Company thought leaders Darrell Rigby, Sarah Elk, and Steve Berez leave no stone unturned in their analysis of “agile”. They dispel common myths, explain the balance between optimization and innovation, and provide a foolproof roadmap for creating and sustaining an agile workplace.
2. The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
It’s impossible to count the number of books of books on the market that offer management tips. But most of these books focus on big-picture advice for managing people in the workplace – they contain useful information, but are often too general for IT leaders to take much from.
The Manager’s Path is a different story. Author Camille Fournier is a tech lead turned CTO, and in this book she offers a practical guide for managers in the tech industry. Backed by extensive firsthand experience, Fournier examines the specific obstacles that tech leaders face as they mentor employees, build teams of technical experts, and develop their own technical skills while helping others.
If you’re a manager trying to navigate the new challenges of the digital workspace, look no further.
3. Artificial Intelligence: 101 Things You Must Know Today About Our Future
Artificial intelligence isn’t just transforming the workplace – it’s transforming every aspect of our lives. Whether you’re an IT leader or just curious about our collective future, now is the time to learn all you can about AI.
This comprehensive guide is a great place to start. Across ten chapters filled with more than 80 visual presentations, author Lasse Rouhiainen covers AI from every angle – including how it’s changing businesses processes, the job market, day-to-day communication, and much more.
4. The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World
Here’s another timely and thought-provoking book about AI and machine learning – one recommended by high-profile business leaders like Bill Gates.
The Master Algorithm uses the philosophy of data-ism to explore the machine learning technology that powers the world’s biggest companies, from Google to Amazon. By examining how far machine learning has come, author Pedro Domingos looks to a future where businesses, science, and all of society will be driven by “the ultimate learning algorithm: one capable of discovering any knowledge from data, and do anything we want, before we even ask.”
If you want to understand where the business world and the world at large are heading, The Master Algorithm provides a compelling blueprint.
5. The Workplace You Need Now: Shaping Spaces for the Future of Work
Every business leader has spent the last two years examining the ways the workplace has changed. Now the question is: what does the workplace of the future look like?
Here’s a book that will help you answer that question and many more. The Workplace You Need Now is an urgent and practical guide to building a successful digital or hybrid workplace. Written by three work environment executives, this book offers invaluable tips for designing a flexible workspace that will:
- Support integrated physical/remote workflows and processes.
- Incorporate emerging initiatives around health, wellness, and environmental sustainability.
- Retain employees and actively attract future talent.
6. The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives
As part of the Exponential Technology series, The Future is Faster Than You Think is another vital resource for anyone who wants to understand the impact of rapid technological disruption. It covers everything from AI to virtual reality to blockchain, focusing on the global impact of these innovations in the workplace and at home.
The expertise of its two authors is what makes this book so unique and essential. Peter Diamandis has an extensive background as a space-entrepreneur, while Steven Kotler is one of the world’s leading experts on the topic of human performance.
These two perspectives combine to paint a prescient and engaging picture of the future – one backed by deep knowledge of emerging technologies and a humanistic understanding of how these technologies impact our lives.
