Troubleshooting Agile

Jeffrey tells the story of his team writing code that gives incorrect but still useful results, and we reflect on why it can be hard to choose to "pay to learn". SHOW LINKS: - Thinking, Fast and Slow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow - Worse is Better: https://dreamsongs.com/WorseIsBetter.html --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

Squirrel helps teams split their work into tiny "slices" they can release daily or weekly, and finds that the biggest obstacle is all the things that developers think they know about users, many of which they have to first unlearn. SHOW LINKS: - Original tweet: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1435602671306674176 - Falsehoods programmers believe about names: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ - Elephant carpaccio: https://alistair.cockburn.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Elephant-Carpaccio-exercise-instructions.pdf - Will Rogers: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/11/18/know-trouble/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

Squirrel tells stories of clients whose attempt to ringfence developers on certain tasks ended badly, and we explore why hiding from a difficult conversation with "dedicated" engineers doesn't work. SHOW LINKS: - Original tweet: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1435602662796537861 - https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/solving-the-problem-of-siloed-it-in-organizations/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

We discuss making radical change in an organisation by violating its norms in use and producing productive conflict. SHOW LINKS: - How Should the Company Decide?: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/how-should-the-company-decide --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

We consider the dynamics—or perhaps statics!—of an organisation that is stuck running the same agile processes or following an unchanging strategy, even though it isn't providing any improvement, and consider why an organisation might get stuck in this way. SHOW LINKS: - Double-Loop Learning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-loop_learning --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

We discuss why daily delivery via "elephant carpaccio"—already challenging for engineers—is doubly difficult for designers, and what to do about it. SHOW LINKS: - Elephant Carpaccio: https://alistair.cockburn.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Elephant-Carpaccio-exercise-instructions.pdf --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

A listener asks how to find a great company to work for, and Jeffrey and Squirrel share a few opinionated, biased heuristics for discovering great environments to work in. SHOW LINKS: - CITCON conferences: https://citconf.com/ - DevopsDays: https://devopsdays.org/ - DOES conference: https://events.itrevolution.com - Joel Test: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/08/09/the-joel-test-12-steps-to-better-code/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

Squirrel and Jeffrey trade stories about coaching people who feel trapped by a decision seemingly outside their control—and how a recursive question can help unlock more options and a better result. SHOW LINKS: - Unilateral control: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/how-to-fail-by-acting-unilaterally-part-i - Mutual learning: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/mutual-learning-model-part-one - Eight behaviors: https://cdn.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.pdf - Drive by Daniel Pink: https://www.danpink.com/books/drive/ --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

Continuing our discussion of codewords as a signal of intimacy, we look at how team cohesion changes as a team grows or shrinks, and how you can anticipate this and retain positive cultural elements as your team evolves. SHOW LINKS: - Alistair Cockburn communication graph: p. 6 of https://alistair.cockburn.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/A-concise-theory-of-software-development-in-pictures.pdf - Missing Affordances of Remote Work episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/missing-affordances-for-remote-working --- Our new book, Agile Conversations, is out now! See https://agileconversations.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 info@agileconversations.com

Squirrel explains how a telephone emoji helped a coaching client and we discover how codewords help build trust. SHOW LINKS: - Code words tweet: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1421016370850971650 - Alistair Cockburn communication graph: p. 6 of https://alistair.cockburn.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/A-concise-theory-of-software-development-in-pictures.pdf - Schwarz, Eight Behaviours for Smarter Teams: https://cdn.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.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 info@conversationaltransformation.com

If you're already struggling to hit targets, don't add more! Recommendations for improving performance without overcomplication. SHOW LINKS: - Tilted slider: p. 139 of https://itrevolution.com/agile-conversations/ - Metrics tweet: https://twitter.com/douglassquirrel/status/1418149716584501254 --- 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 info@conversationaltransformation.com

Squirrel rants about matrix management and then Jeffrey calms him down by describing self-managing team structures that work better. They agree that multiplying responsibilities and separating them from the place where the work happens is a bad idea. SHOW LINKS: - How Shirt / What Shirt episode: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/the-two-shirt-solution-for-agile-chaos --- 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 info@conversationaltransformation.com

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/ --- 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 info@conversationaltransformation.com

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 h

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: chris@chrisclearfield.com , 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 info@conversationaltransformation.com

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 info@conversationaltransformation.com

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 info@conversationaltransformation.com

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 he

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 info@conversationaltransformation.com