Summary: Jerry Weinberg has written a lot of books and articles that have influenced and taught generations of people in the IT world. Some of whom have written brief essays, collated in this volume, which exhort the reader to read the books of Gerald Weinberg and Virginia Satir.

I have many books on my “I really must read that list”. So many in fact, that I don’t buy them all. I rely to a great extent on my library, synchronicity and coincidence to feed my reading habit. Fortunately I received an offer to borrow this book. I did borrow it, but could I justify buying it? …

( amazon.co.uk | amazon.com )

I had hoped prior to reading the book that I would learn:

1. a little more about Jerry Weinberg
2. some nuggets of wisdom from those with direct physical interaction with Jerry
3. what parts of Jerry’s body of work that other’s have taken most value from
4. more about Jerry’s learning path – what subjects has he studied, who he has learned from, the important stages in his learning… etc.

And I did get some of that from this book, but I’ll have to wait for an autobiography or biography to really learn the later. And given that the book consists of essays from people that have worked and studied with Jerry Weinberg it should hardly come as a surprise that they didn’t provide answers to number 4.

So what did they provide?

A small mixed bag of essays. At only 141 pages I blasted through my first reading of this in under an hour. Leaving plenty of time for re-readings, prior to, and during the writing of this review.

Reading the reviews on amazon.com I can see that some of the readers gained value from essays that I gained nothing from. Suggesting to me that I should not write those essays off, and that the book probably has something to offer everyone.

Fiona Charles contributes the preface and describes her interactions with Jerry and finishes the preface by describing the book as a ‘gift of time’ to Jerry, from his ‘students, friends, colleagues, and his publisher, an offering in celebration of his seventy-fifth birthday’. Touching, but I had concerns that all the contributors might have taken their brief as writing an essay for Jerry rather than the general reader.

Robert Glass provides a brief personal reflection on Jerry Weinberg’s influence on him. Reading like a thank you essay to Jerry himself it acts as an advert to read Weinberg’s writing – specifically “The Psychology of Computer Programming”, “Quality Software Management” (4 book series) and “Weinberg on Writing”.

As a tester I gained the most value of the book from the next essay from James Bach. This targeted number 2 on my hopes list, the best essay in the book for me, and provided:

• some examples of how Jerry approached a testing exercise that James gives to testers that study with him,
• a conversation on ‘acceptance’ which most testers eventually learn on their own but having it written down will help those that haven’t (or those that forget from time to time),
• a description of 3 of Weinberg’s written work and their relevance to software testing: “An introduction to general systems thinking”, “Experiments in Problem Solving”, “Natural Selection as Applied to Computers and Programs” (hard to find, but reprinted in “Program Evolution – processes of software change” by Lehman and Belady) .

James certainly makes a compelling case that software testers (in particular) can gain value from studying Weinberg’s works, and I hope that many of them do.

Michael Bolton follows with an essay elaborating on Weinberg’s use of “compared to what?” and an examination of ambiguity and 'relative’ relationships and the “knowledge that things can be different”. Another useful essay in the book for the working tester.

Next up, comes an interview with Jean McLendon by Sherry Heinze which provides some biographical insight into Jerry and Dani Weinberg and their involvement with Virginia Satir and the Change Shop.

Sue Peterson then provides a discussion of the talismanic processes and survival rules that Weinberg outlines in “More Secrets of Consulting”. Also a discussion of a (I presume therapy-derived) question that Weinberg uses “What did you see or hear that makes you …?” and an encouragement to take control of your own reactions and work on yourself.

Esther Derby then provides information on Congruent Feedback that she has learned from Jerry Weinberg and Virginia Satir. Congruent Feedback characterised as feedback which “balances the needs and concerns of the person offering feedback (the self), the person receiving the feedback (the other) and the context” with the aim of improving “working relationships or the work itself”. Describe “the impact of the other person’s behaviour on me”, using “observable facts, not evaluation about the other person”, and the impact on “our working relationship”, then make a request for “joint problem-solving, or negotiation, or it may involve asking for a specific action”. The essay also provides information on planning for feedback, over selling, and back-leading. So a brief useful essay on uncomfortable conversations.

Willem van den Ende describes some models from Virginia Satir – triads, five freedoms, congruence model, and how they relate to Groupthink. I recommend subscribing to his blog.

The Five Freedoms

The freedom to:

• “see and hear what is hear, instead of what should be, was, or will be”
• “say what you feel and think instead of what you should”
• “feel what you feel, instead of what you ought”
• “ask for what you want, instead of always waiting for permission,”
• “take risks on your own behalf, instead of choosing to be only ‘secure’ and not rocking the boat”

Judah Mogilensky describes how maturity levels relate to behavioural patterns which might help people analyse the context of their organisations differently.

Naomi Karten contributes an essay on experiential learning, as used on the problem solving leadership workshop, involving simulations and debriefs which provides an interesting insight into the type of training that Jerry does, and provides a high level overview of the process to anyone wanting to train in this way.

James Bullock also provides an essay on the problem solving leadership workshop, describing the “Becoming a Technical Leader” book, and aikido.

Tim Lister provides a Weinberg reading list and a story about systems thinking and consultants.

Joanna Rothman contributes an essay on writing processes based on writing workshops conducted by Jerry, lessons learned and I assume “Weinberg on Writing”.

Jonathan Kohl contributes an essay which contains a recommended set of reading and enthuses about learning from Jerry’s written work and how it has influenced a massive amount of people in the IT community.

Dani Weinberg contributes a loving and brief autobiographical essay on their work and time together.

Bent Adserson provides a small self-therapy section with the theme of ‘time’, and the value of ‘giving’ time to yourself and others.

In retrospect it seems like a lot of the topics presented derived from Virginia Satir, I’m sure Jerry added nuances to them during the teaching but in the distilled versions we get they don’t come across. I got a tease of what working with Jerry feels like, but in the short descriptions here, we only get a tiny glimpse of the working process. The book does provide benefit in and of itself, and you can probably tell from the summaries above which essays I took most value from. The volume primarily acts as a justifiably enthusiastic introduction and advertisement for Jerry’s written work, training work, and for Virginia Satir’s writing.

I also found it hard to identify the target audience of the book. Some of the essays seemed aimed at Jerry himself, rather than the general reader.

If you haven’t read much of Gerald M. Weinberg’s writings then I think it provides a good introduction and helps answer the question of “which Weinberg book should I read?” because the author of the essay you most relate to will describe the Weinberg books that they got a lot of value from.

While I did gain value from the book, and I don’t regret the time I spent reading and reviewing it, I think Dorset House have overpriced the book. I’m sure that if you have read a lot of Weinberg’s books then, like me, you will certainly want to read it to learn a bit more about what it feels like to work with Jerry and may well decide you have to buy it for that reason.

So having borrowed it, and read it, will I buy it? Sadly, I probably won’t. If I want to read it again, then I’ll adopt my current technical book strategy and order it through the library.

I will however read the Weinberg books I haven’t read, re-read the ones I have, and re-read the Virginia Satir books on my bookshelf.

Regardless of whether you choose to buy this book or not, I thoroughly recommend the following strategy:

• buy and read as many Weinberg books as you can – you’ll just have to create your own reading list (easy – everything you can get your hands on).
• buy and read the most obvious Satir books “The Satir Model”, “The New Peoplemaking”. I also recommend the under-rated and out-of-print-but-easy-to-come-by “Changing with families” (by Bandler, Grinder and Satir).

 

Related Reading:

• Virginia Satir wikipedia entry
• Gerald Weinberg wikipedia entry
• Gerald Weinberg home
• A Tribute to the most marvelous Virginia Satir – quotes and list of 5 freedoms
• Virginia Satir blog aggregator
• AYE review in Crosstalk
• Virginia Satir Videos
• Weinberg on “The Writer’s life” video
• read other reviews at amazon.co.uk
• read other reviews at amazon.com