Teach What You Know

A really interesting book I picked up a few months ago is called "Teach What You Know" by Steve Trautman. It is designed for technical experts who have to educate their peers while still getting their day job done. Sounds like me, since I am the only one at my office, am the chief architect for my product and the conduit for a lot of knowledge coming from other companies. It covers topics such as e-mail for efficiency (how to really get my attetion NOW or can it wait 24 hours), phone contact and meeting plans designed for efficiency, so that it doesn't take over your whole work schedule. Particularly useful was maintenance plans for different types of people, based on how easily they get stuck. There are separate chapters for remote communication, setting clear goals, explaining the "big picture" and even the basics of office life (air, food & water). For me, this was a great book, but I could only take it in small doses, just because it has a lot to say. The stories are great and certainly felt like home, esp. the story about Microsoft engineers getting a foreign team of engineers dumped on them for training. Tim