Antipatterns by Philip Laplante

I loved the idea of this book. Knowing what you don't know, as a starting point, often helps you know more. True story: many years ago I considered writing a dictionary of what things aren't, an anti-dictionary. Some words are simply too big or too ambiguous to get boxed in. What is "life" for example?

Similarly, recognizing dysfunction can help you operate more functionally. This book tries to categorize the ways a manager or an organization can be dysfunctional.

One strong point of the book is that the list of antipatterns is pretty thorough. Most of them are instantly recognizable, especially if you've worked in a few companies. Some you recognize, but might not have thought of before as problems, like Warm Bodies -- people who should actually be let go, but just get passed around from one ill-fitting job to another.

The section I liked the best was "Identification". If you answer yes to the questions in this section, you may be facing this antipattern. Many times, these questions were not obvious, and helped illuminate the antipattern.

For example,

Everybody likes John — but no one can figure out what he actually does.

is a subtle way of identifying a Warm Body. I knew the antipattern, and have seen people like that, but never thought that the two might be connected (and of course they aren't always).

In addition, the writing was very accessible, and the authors allowed their personality to show, which always makes a book more enjoyable.

Noticeably lacking was what to do when confronted with one of these antipatterns. If you find yourself behaving this way, the advice almost always boiled down to "stop doing it." Not too helpful. Frequently, if you find someone else doing it, the advice was to "try to ignore it" or "schedule around it" or "sit back and laugh about it". Not too helpful.

An even bigger oversight was a lack of examples and explanations of why these behaviors occur, and what, if any, positives arise from them. They did a great job with Rising Upstart -- a young, very eager achiever -- recognizing that this is both a benefit and something that needs to be handled carefully. But most of the time, the antipatterns were treated as an illness that only ogres and irrational people would fall victim to. If these behaviors are rampant, there must be underlying causes.

For example, Mushroom Management -- the problem of managers keeping everyone in the dark (mushrooms grow in the dark) -- was rightfully decried as breeding suspicion, sucking down morale, and being ineffective. Still, some analysis about why managers do this would contribute to a richer understanding of how to deal with it.

One underlying cause is that more communication is not always better. In this depressed economic time, constant communication about the latest management thoughts on layoffs would be counter-productive. Management might be keeping their mouths shut because sensitive decisions are being made. Given that, what is the best way to handle the situation? That becomes a more meaningful discussion.

This book will be most useful to people starting their careers or those who are just beginning to think about moving into management. Many of the antipatterns can be avoided, and identification is half the battle. As an introduction to what not to do, this is a great start.