Jiri’s Notepad

This book review is a part of the series on architects’ ’soft’ skills.

Working the Shadow Side was the one of the first books covering the area which I call ’soft skills’ and that Gerard Egan calls the ’shadow side’. As an aside, it was one of the books from the Bredemeyer’s list, which I really liked. (Note: If you like the rest of their stuff, don’t let my last week side comment discourage you. I have now noticed the book list is now updated with other books that are worth looking at).

In contrast to the other books I reviewed, it is more of a management book that provides a densly-packed overview of the key ’shadow side’ aspects such as basic attitudes, skills and strategies for building a productive organisational culture, dealing with various personal styles and making the company social system and politics work for you.

Personally, I credit this book for helping me grow from a role of a subject matter expert to a consultant in the beginning of my carreer. I remember that when I at the time I was reading the book, I had a short assignment to develop a systems security policy for a large international law services firm. Influenced by the book, I have decided to put some if its ideas to use: I have specifically decided to rearrange the activities, dedicating only one third of my time box to developing the policy, with majority of time spent on communicating, understanding the stakeholders and getting their agreement. The end result was was successful assignment a happy client. But what really pleased me was that people actually actively used the policy, which is not something you automatically expect in the world where most security policies gather dust on shelves.

In a way, Working the Shadow Side provides a practical anti-dote to another favourite book of mine - Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook. Where Adams shows the funny (and often times ugly) side of the reality, Egan describes it with understanding and compassion and provides ideas on how to deal with it with sensitivity and tact, getting the most out of it for the common good.

I would highly recommend the book to anyone who is moving from a purely technical profession into a management or consulting role, and I am convinced that even experienced folks will find it refreshing and original. Why don’t you actually flip through the book excerpts and see for yourself?