Troubleshooting Agile

Squirrel tweets about isolated data-science teams, and Jeffrey tells stories of close collaboration between engineers and data scientists, even pairing! SHOW LINKS: - Squirrel's tweet: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1411980591617163267 - DataOps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DataOps - Patrick Debois: http://www.jedi.be/ - Transcript: https://agileconversations.com/blog/datasciops/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Squirrel and Jeffrey shock a leader they're coaching by telling him to aim to increase complaints. It turns out that Amy Edmondson, ALCOA, and Toyota all agree with this seemingly counterintuitive advice. SHOW LINKS: - Amy Edmondson, Teaming: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7023600-teaming - Andon light: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_light - Toyota Kata: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mrother/Homepage.html - Paul O’Neill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_H._O%27Neill - Idealcast episode 7: The Topography of Problems and the Importance of Distributed Problem Solving (Part 2) : https://itrevolution.com/the-idealcast-episode-7/ - Invite to the Agile Conversations Slack: https://join.slack.com/t/agile-conversations/shared_invite/zt-nuw1f84n-62CQworE~PpuR7WOUCZp4g --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Our old friend Chris Clearfield explains how he helps leaders identify and fix overwhelmingly complicated organisational problems. SHOW LINKS: - Chris’s workshop: https://pages.chrisclearfield.com/webinar/?sc_ref=55TfdIkc52FEI1EH - Chris’s email, site, and podcast: [email protected] , https://www.chrisclearfield.com/ , https://www.chrisclearfield.com/podcast - Meltdown: https://www.meltdownbook.net/ - Previous episode with Chris: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/meltdown-part-i - Cynefin framework: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Jeffrey and Squirrel show you how to use "paradoxical agenda-setting" to help ensure a team or organisation is really committed—or to find out why commitment would be a very bad idea! - Invite to the Agile Conversations Slack: https://join.slack.com/t/agile-conversations/shared_invite/zt-nuw1f84n-62CQworE~PpuR7WOUCZp4g - Paradoxical Agenda-Setting: https://feelinggood.com/tag/paradoxical-agenda-setting/ - Chris Clearfield: https://www.chrisclearfield.com/podcast - The Uncanny Valley of a Functional Organization: https://stratechery.com/2013/the-uncanny-valley-of-a-functional-organization/ - Collaboration Theater: https://twitter.com/Grundlefleck/status/1398282369577230336 --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Squirrel tells the story of an exec who operates at warp speed and leaves his director of technology behind in his wake. How can we best handle these rapid-fire questions and instant decisions? We have concrete suggestions for being productive and successful when your style doesn't match that of a stakeholder. SHOW LINKS: - Burying the lede: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bury_the_lede --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Squirrel tells the story of a conversation that took a sudden difficult turn, and we discuss methods like the Disarming Technique for handling surprises like this effectively. SHOW LINKS: - Roger Schwarz, Eight Behaviours for Smarter Teams: https://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.pdf - David Burns, the Disarming Technique: https://feelinggood.com/2017/12/11/066-five-secrets-training-the-disarming-technique/ - Finnish Agile Circle: https://www.meetup.com/Agile-Finland-Helsinki-Coaching-Circle/ - London Organisational Learning Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/London-Action-Science-Meetup/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.

A listener asks us about why social hierarchy and popularity norms matter so much in team discussions. We riff on a number of ideas this inspires including the Tyranny of Structurelessness and the Core Protocols. - Tyranny of Structurelessness article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tyranny_of_Structurelessness - Project Aristotle (Google study): https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html?smid=pl-share - Core Protocols: https://liveingreatness.com/files/core-protocols-3.03.html - Liberating Structures: https://www.liberatingstructures.com - Six Thinking Hats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats - Google Re:Work: https://rework.withgoogle.com/ - Schwarz, Skilled Facilitator: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221980.The_Skilled_Facilitator ---- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

At #citcon Virtual 2021, Andy Parker makes the case that Fredrick Taylor, whom we sometimes like to bash as the father of the feature factory, created the foundation of our work as software teams. - CITCON: https://citconf.com/ - Fredrick Taylor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Winslow_Taylor - Previous Fredrick Taylor episode: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/blog/in-praise-of-taylor/ - Productive Workplaces Revisited: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1268463.Productive_Workplaces_Revisited - Cynefin framework: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Our friends at CITCON help us think about why we feel like we're covering the same agile lessons over and over, like breaking epics down into very small stories. An analogy to teaching long division turns out to be surprisingly helpful. - CITCON: https://citconf.com/ - Moore, Crossing the Chasm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Chasm - Chris Matts, community of needs: https://snowbirdcollaboratory.org/community-of-needs/ - Alistair Cockburn: https://alistair.cockburn.us/ Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

We describe some data scientists we know who are stuck in a tricky bind - why won't others in their organisation listen to their insights? This is the "Last Mile" problem of data science, for which we recommend (surprise!) building relationships through better conversations. - Last Mile problem of Data Science: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/07/23/solving-the-last-mile-problem-for-data-science-project-success/ - Devops Enterprise Forum: https://itrevolution.com/forum-paper-downloads/ - High Agency: https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1276956836856393728?lang=en Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

"We'll keep an eye on it". "It's on our backlog." "It's on our tech debt list". These are all examples of voodoo charms, reassuring phrases that make you feel better but don't create real change. We suggest several ways to overcome the real fear behind your use of the voodoo charm. SHOW LINKS: - public pronouncements don’t work: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/culturing-science/new-years-resolution/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Squirrel tells a dramatic story about preparing for a meeting under huge pressure, and we discuss how valuable it is to have a solid relationship to build on when negotiating over something as important as survival of your startup. SHOW LINKS: - Your first 30 Days as an Agile Manager: https://xebia.com/academy/en/training/first-30-days-agile-manager --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Vasco Duarte, master of Scrum, issues a call to arms for all scrum masters: you have nothing to lose but your estimates and feature factories! Noted Scrum sceptic Squirrel questions Vasco vigorously on what Scrum Masters do and discovers that Vasco's view of the role is very different from the traditional one. SHOW LINKS: - Vasco: http://softwaredevelopmenttoday.com/ , https://scrum-master-toolbox.org/ - Scrum Master Summit: https://scrummastersummit.org - No Estimates book: https://oikosofyseries.com/no-estimates-book-order --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.

Vasco Duarte, master of Scrum, issues a call to arms for all scrum masters: you have nothing to lose but your estimates and feature factories! Noted Scrum sceptic Squirrel questions Vasco vigorously on what Scrum Masters do and discovers that Vasco's view of the role is very different from the traditional one. SHOW LINKS: - Vasco: http://softwaredevelopmenttoday.com/ , https://scrum-master-toolbox.org/ - Scrum Master Summit: https://scrummastersummit.org - No Estimates book: https://oikosofyseries.com/no-estimates-book-order --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.

Alan Weiss has written over 60 books on consulting and advocates a no-holds-barred approach, "the martial arts of language", to business problems. He eats difficult conversations for breakfast! We find out why language controls business, how us engineers can drive strategy by emphasizing results and not technology , and what tough love is and why it's so effective. SHOW LINKS: - Alan Weiss: https://alanweiss.com - Business as a Second Language workshop: https://alanweiss.com/growth-experiences/bsl/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

In the second of a two-part series, Johan Abildskov of Eficode has a conversation with Jeffrey and Squirrel about tools for using conversations to implement agile and DevOps methods, including Test-Driven Development for People (aka the Ladder of Inference). SHOW LINKS: - Eficode: https://www.eficode.com/ - TDD for People: https://www.douglassquirrel.com/how-i-work.html --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

In the first of a two-part series, Johan Abildskov of Eficode has a conversation with Jeffrey and Squirrel about culture, transparency, curiosity, and how to use all three to adopt DevOps methods successfully. Special addition: a video version of today's podcast! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6c8qIJUdwo SHOW LINKS: - Eficode: https://www.eficode.com/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

We discuss two very different stories about leaders that communicate a cultural message pithily and clearly, and reflect on why these stories were effective and how all of us can communicate culture in this way. SHOW LINKS: - Steve Jobs aquarium story: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/10/in-praise-of-bad-steve/246242/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

If your boss isn't helping like you think she should, maybe she's not from Mars, but actually trying to give you more autonomy. We reflect on this in light of real-world coaching stories. SHOW LINKS: - Situational Leadership: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_leadership_theory --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

A reader asks whether following the "bad idea" advice from last episode can lead to an unrecoverable local maximum, sentencing the team to endless patches and obscure bugs. Squirrel and Jeffrey have different takes on this based on their ancient greybeard stories. SHOW LINKS: - The Power of a Bad Idea episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/the-power-of-a-bad-idea - Local maximum: https://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/functions-maxima-minima.html - The Strangler Fig Application: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/StranglerFigApplication.html --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Drawing lessons from Squirrel's driving test experiences, we explore why making a cultural or process change that's intentionally suboptimal can be surprisingly valuable. SHOW LINKS: - Driving Lessons episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/driving-lessons - Cynefin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework - Kaizen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen - Toyota Kata: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Kata --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

We start with a listener question on roles in an agile team, but quickly divert to Squirrel's "driftwood theory" of hiring and role specification, which turns out to be based on effective conversations and flexible problem solving (what a surprise!) SHOW LINKS: - We're the Aliens episode: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/blog/we're-the-aliens-three-ways-to-seek-safety/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

How giving work to your boss positions you as the driving force, not the bottleneck—and more methods and mindset shifts to change the perception "gee, that tech team sure is slow". SHOW LINKS: - Squirrel's workshop on “Decoding Tech Talk”: https://www.douglassquirrel.com/resources.html - Nudge book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudge_(book) - Radiate Intent, Elizabeth Ayer: https://medium.com/@ElizAyer/dont-ask-forgiveness-radiate-intent-d36fd22393a3 - Art of Action, Stephen Bungay: https://www.stephenbungay.com/Books.ink --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

We discover that we've given opposing advice about asking "Why" questions—including in our chapter on the Why Conversation! It turns out that a big factor in the success or failure of a "why" is your intent, and that (as usual) greater transparency can avoid misunderstandings and help you find new options. SHOW LINKS: - Never Split the Difference: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26156469-never-split-the-difference - Yes, And - https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/blog/yes-and/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Jeffrey tells us stories about three ways agile teams deal with uncertainty: seeking cover by looking to a single source of truth, or seeking similar cover by following a process, or seeking true psychological safety through conversations. We analyse why the first two often don't work and why the third is so threatening to adopt. SHOW LINKS: - Psychological safety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8 - Argyris on defensive routines: http://www.clevelandconsultinggroup.com/articles/theories-in-action.php - Apollo 13 scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry55--J4_VQ - Westrum cultures: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1765804/pdf/v013p0ii22.pdf --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

The fabulous Johanna Rothman, author of 18 books on tech and management, joins us for part II to describe what modern management is and how empathy, safety, and purpose can motivate and inspire your agile team. SHOW LINKS: - Johanna: jrothman.com , createadaptablelife.com - Behind Closed Doors: https://www.jrothman.com/books/behind-closed-doors-secrets-of-great-management/ - Modern Management Made Easy: https://leanpub.com/b/modernmanagementmadeeasy - Bob Sutton on friction: https://www.bobsutton.net/friction-project/ - Lindsay Holmwood on management as a career change: https://fractio.nl/2014/09/19/not-a-promotion-a-career-change/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

The fabulous Johanna Rothman, author of 18 books on tech and management, joins us to describe what modern management is and how empathy, safety, and purpose can motivate and inspire your agile team. SHOW LINKS: - Johanna: jrothman.com , createadaptablelife.com - Behind Closed Doors: https://www.jrothman.com/books/behind-closed-doors-secrets-of-great-management/ - Modern Management Made Easy: https://leanpub.com/b/modernmanagementmadeeasy - Bob Sutton on friction: https://www.bobsutton.net/friction-project/ - Lindsay Holmwood on management as a career change: https://fractio.nl/2014/09/19/not-a-promotion-a-career-change/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

After last week's episode on ahas in 2020, we describe what we're planning to do to help people do the work, move faster, and be productive. SHOW LINKS - 2020 Ahas episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/our-biggest-a-has-of-2020 - London Organisational Learning Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/London-Action-Science-Meetup/ - Episode on Conversational Dojos: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/conversational-dojos - Round Tuit: https://www.quantumenterprises.co.uk/roundtuit/traditional_round_tuits.htm Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

We describe our big ahas of a weird and somehow still educational year, including insights on productivity, deliberate practise, and speed of change. SHOW LINKS - Software Factory to Feature Factory episode: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/blog/software-factory-to-feature-factory/ - London Organisational Learning Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/London-Action-Science-Meetup/ - Blog post on Conversational Dojos: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/blog/conversational-dojos/ Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Squirrel and Jeffrey deconstruct the defensive reasoning behind planning 110% of velocity in each sprint. Hidden conversations and assumptions abound, including the perception that this is normal, that the team will do more as a result, and that we know what 110% is in the first place. SHOW LINKS: - Slack book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123715.Slack Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Squirrel tells the story of a client who was asked an impossible question about agile team productivity, and we explore why such impossible questions are actually valuable and worth investigating with curiosity. SHOW LINKS: - Kobayashi Maru: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Maru - Mu: http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/m/mu.html https://wiki.c2.com/?MuAnswer --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

A listener asks us to explain the link between "normalisation of deviance" and fear. Using examples like an agile team dropping its retrospectives, or NASA launching the Space Shuttle in too-cold conditions, we illustrate how being afraid can drive a group away from its espoused norms and toward dangerous alternatives, and conversely how you can use examples of "normalised deviance" to find and mitigate hidden fears. SHOW LINKS: - Idealcast with Gene Kim: https://itrevolution.com/the-idealcast-episode-14/ - Mitigating fears through expressing emotion on an oil rig: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/17/482203447/invisibilia-how-learning-to-be-vulnerable-can-make-life-safer - The Fear Conversation chapter discussion: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/blog/fear-the-original-sin-of-unproductive-conversations/ - Previous episode on normalisation of deviance: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/overcoming-normalisation-of-deviance --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Squirrel tells the story of an agile team faced with seemingly irresistible demands, and describes how switching to the "Yes, And" stance (originating from improvisational theatre) helped them find a solution that worked for everyone. SHOW LINKS: - "Yes, And" in improv and brainstorming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes,_and… - CTO Craft: How to Talk with Your CEO and Other Mysteries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwg-x5X3450 - Dr. Burns's Disarming Technique: https://feelinggood.com/tag/disarming-technique/ - Our MIT Sloan Management Review article on the Walled Garden: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/solving-the-problem-of-siloed-it-in-organizations/ - Nonviolent communication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication - Six thinking hats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

We look at two elements - Collaboration and Reflection - of the Heart of Agile approach developed by our friend Alistair Cockburn, and illustrate how conscious and attentive listening and reflection on emotions make a big difference for agile teams. SHOW LINKS: - Motherhood and Apple Pie: https://hotidioms.com/2012/02/21/motherhood-and-apple-pie/ - Collaboration Cards: https://www.collaborationcards.com , https://web.archive.org/web/20170621140230/http://alistair.cockburn.us/Collaboration+Cards - Collaboration Cards article: http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/702523/26767147/1451886700677/201601-Cockburn.pdf?token=oTGZ9syVsnh4d%2BtW8ggVolCglEM%3D - Collaboration Cards course: https://www.heartofagile.academy/courses/using-collaboration-cards - Shu Ha Ri: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/ShuHaRi.html - Thanks for the Feedback: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18114120-thanks-for-the-feedback - Previous episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/alistair-cockburn-heart-of-the-heart-of-agile --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

We look at two elements - Collaboration and Reflection - of the Heart of Agile approach developed by our friend Alistair Cockburn, and illustrate how conscious and attentive listening and reflection on emotions make a big difference for agile teams. SHOW LINKS: - Heart of Agile tweet: https://twitter.com/TotherAlistair/status/1312407646364991489 - Alistair Cockburn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alistair_Cockburn - Conversational Dojo kit: https://itrevolution.com/build-agile-conversations-with-conversational-dojo-webinar/ - Active Listening: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_listening - London NVC Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Nonviolent-Communication-NVC-London/ - London Organisational Learning Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/London-Action-Science-Meetup/ - Ladder of Inference: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/a-sense-of-security-gained-lost - Above the Line: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/walking-the-line-emotional-unawareness --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

We are joined by the wise and thoughtful Misha Glouberman, who organises Internet cocktail parties and better, more human-friendly meetings for organisations and teams—and the two turn out to have a lot in common. SHOW LINKS: - Misha: http://www.mishaglouberman.com - Trampoline Hall: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/trampoline-hall/id1190668782?mt=2 - Internet Cocktail Party Instructions: https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-run-a-zoom-cocktail-party-and-have-better-classes-conferences-and-meetings-too-dc2c5b58f8be - Gather.town: https://gather.town/ - CITCON: https://citconf.com --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Squirrel is gobsmacked by user stories that appear to be about aliens, who want "intuitive interfaces" and "modern technology", where customers from Earth want "fun with my kids" or "relief from boredom". Jeffrey reminds us that such stories can lead to conversations that tease out the emotions and the human stories behind the words. Both agree that once we revise our stories to create empathy, we also allow the team to discover amazing new ways to solve problems. SHOW LINKS: - Personas: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/personas-why-and-how-you-should-use-them - User stories as conversation promises: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_story - Feature factory: https://medium.com/hackernoon/12-signs-youre-working-in-a-feature-factory-44a5b938d6a2 - User Stories Gone Wrong: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/blog/user-stories-gone-wrong/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Jessica Katz is an agile coach who uses curiosity and conversational skills to help agile teams perform better. She explains why you need to liberate the elephant in the room, how you can do that through nonviolent communication, and how one person saying "good morning" unlocked better performance for a whole team. SHOW LINKS: - Jessica Katz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeskatz/ https://liberatedelephant.com/events/2020/10 - Agile Ireland talk: https://www.agileleanireland.org - “Creating Boundaries, Practicing Curiosity, and Making Requests” - Gallup poll: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/284180/factors-driving-record-high-employee-engagement.aspx - B Corporation: https://bcorporation.net/ - Dare to Lead: https://daretolead.brenebrown.com/ - Nonviolent Communication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Jeffrey is inspired by Jon Smart and the DOES Virtual conference to discuss homeostasis as a source of resistance to change, and Squirrel tells a client story about curiosity as a way to help a complex system adapt. SHOW LINKS: - DOES Virtual "Las Vegas": https://events.itrevolution.com/virtual/ - Jon Smart: https://itrevolution.com/sooner-safer-happier/ - Complex Adaptive Systems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_adaptive_system - Paradoxical Agenda-Setting: https://feelinggood.com/tag/paradoxical-agenda-setting/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Following last week's praise of Taylorism, a suitable approach for making complicated problems simple, this week we look at a similar revolution in democratising innovation and creating a learning organisation—by uncovering hidden complexity and removing status as a barrier to discovery of error. SHOW LINKS: Team of Teams: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22529127-team-of-teams - Cynefin framework: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework - Art of Action: https://www.stephenbungay.com/Books.ink - High Velocity Edge: http://www.thehighvelocityedge.com/ - Don’t be a Zombie Organisation: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dont-be-a-zombie-organiza_b_3306513 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6kqnQZuIHg - Normalization of Deviance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalization_of_deviance - Status as obstacle to learning: https://pedestrianobservations.com/2020/09/19/learning-worst-industry-practices/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Frederick Taylor gets a bad rap - even from us, as we had a lot to say in Agile Conversations about how his methods have been misapplied in "software factories". But in the right circumstances, his ideas about repeatable, simple processes have a lot of value, and can lead directly to valuable automation opportunities. We describe examples including how continuous integration developed from an arcane art to a routine process along Taylorist lines. SHOW LINKS: - Taylorism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management - Cynefin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework - Team of Teams: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22529127-team-of-teams - IdealCast: https://itrevolution.com/the-idealcast-episode-11/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Both of us learned to improve our conversations through regular practise with others - and today we describe how you can do that too, by organising a Conversational Dojo using our (free!) kits and videos. SHOW LINKS: - Free Dojo kit: https://itrevolution.com/conversational-dojo-kit-free-download/ - Conference talk on conversational dojos: https://events.itrevolution.com/virtual-programming/ - London Organizational Learning meetup: https://www.meetup.com/London-Action-Science-Meetup/ - Action Design: https://actiondesign.com/ - Shu Ha Ri: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/ShuHaRi.html --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

One of Squirrel's clients finds herself "harping on" a particular point in her technical team, and is frustrated that behaviour doesn't change. Squirrel and Jeffrey discuss how this and other "tells" indicate that you're stuck and how to come up with a pre-planned action to address these that will help you be curious and get to improved performance. SHOW LINKS: - Self-sealing: https://pages.uoregon.edu/mgall/designmemo%233.htm - Bozo bit: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/the-bozo-bit-and-duelling-ladders --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Reacting to an insightful comment from Elisabeth Hendrickson, Squirrel and Jeffrey have a minor tussle over how to interpret the idea of "reflecting and adapting". They eventually agree that adapting works, but only if your definition of "team" is broad enough. SHOW LINKS: Idealcast with Gene Kim and Elisabeth Hendrickson: https://itrevolution.com/idealcast/idealcast-episode-3/ Elisabeth Hendrickson: https://twitter.com/testobsessed Single Loop vs Double Loop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-loop_learning CITCON: https://citconf.com/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

A client tells Squirrel about a "horrible" meeting where his team accused him of pushing them to overwork and take shortcuts, but we discover it was actually a great breakthrough. Learning is the detection and correction of error, and in this case, Squirrel's client discovered a major cultural problem that he's now able to correct. We reflect on why feeling horrible can be a great indicator of valuable learning. SHOW LINKS: Burn up chart: https://www.modernanalyst.com/Careers/InterviewQuestions/tabid/128/ID/3433/What-is-a-Burn-Up-Chart-and-how-does-it-differ-from-a-Burn-Down-Chart.aspx Kathryn Schulz on being wrong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QleRgTBMX88 Theory X and Theory Y: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-we-cannot-learn-damn-thing-from-semco-toyota-niels-pflaeging/ Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

The Shoe Principle says that if you buy a pair of shoes, you have to get rid of one. We hadn't heard of it until a client brought it up as a way to introduce a new process without overloading the team. We see lots of places where agile teams could apply the Shoe Principle, including alerting systems that no one looks at or standups that have become rote and useless. Like Marie Kondo, we suggest asking whether each team activity "sparks joy", and if not, try parking it for a week to see if you really need it. SHOW LINKS: Marie Kondo: https://konmari.com Normalization of deviance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalization_of_deviance Agile Retrospectives book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/721338.Agile_Retrospectives --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Squirrel describes two shirts he makes for clients, the How Shirt and the What Shirt, that provide a brief and memorable description of the roles of a technical leader and a product leader respectively, reducing chaos and confusion in agile teams. You may not need job descriptions if four words on a shirt suffice, and as a bonus, the shirts can help your team define what they are doing and how they are working toward business goals—and importantly, what they are *not* doing. SHOW LINKS: - Negative space: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_space --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

We welcome agile thinker and experienced CTO Chris Parsons, whose blog Delivery Doubled makes the case that cookie-cutter agile approaches don't work. We discuss why out-of-the-box agile training doesn't work, whether we'll have figured out the "right" way to agile a few hundreds of years hence, and how one client discovered that everything Chris was teaching wouldn't work for them and what he and they did about it. Free webinar upcoming with Squirrel and Jeffrey on Monday 17th August - see https://itrevolution.com/conversational-dojo-webinar-sign-up/ SHOW LINKS: Chris Parsons, Delivery Doubled: https://deliverydoubled.com The Mundanity of Excellence: https://fermatslibrary.com/s/the-mundanity-of-excellence-an-ethnographic-report-on-stratification-and-olympic-swimmers Dan North, Accelerated Agile: https://dannorth.net/courses/accelerated-agile/ Martin Fowler State of Agile podcast episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/fowlers-state-of-agile-2018-part-one Squirrel/Jeffrey article on agile training: https://trainingindustry.com/blog/it-and-technical-training/agile-training-isnt-enough-the-key-is-conversations-not-rituals/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

Squirrel describes a client of his that is "thrashing"—trying to do so many different things that they aren't getting anything finished. We reflect on why this happens, including the idea that being busy feels good while increasing focus can mean disrupting comfortable routines. We suggest asking "why can't we finish this today?" as a forcing mechanism for discovering bottlenecks and alternative approaches. SHOW LINKS: - Theory of Constraints: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_constraints - Domenica DeGrandis, Making Work Visible: https://itrevolution.com/book/making-work-visible/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]

We're joined by Steve Berez, partner at Bain and co-author of Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos. Steve tells us some stories from his 30-year consulting career, illustrating missteps he's seen in digital transformations like "You Folks Do Agile" and "Agile as a Quick Fix". He advocates the metric of "team fun" as the best way to determine whether you're doing agile right. SHOW LINKS: - Steve's book and other material: https://www.bain.com/agile - Article on the Agile C-Suite: https://hbr.org/2020/05/the-agile-c-suite - Previous podcast episode mentioning Cargo Cult Agile: https://www.conversationaltransformation.com/posts/software-factory-to-feature-factory/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://conversationaltransformation.com where you can order your copy and get a free video when you join our mailing list! We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at [email protected]