Gene: Are we really that bad at talking to one another, and why do you think that is? Squirrel & Jeffrey: Actually, we are really skillful at having conversations! We are proficient at concealing our real thoughts, saving face for ourselves and others, and avoiding awkward questions. Unfortunately this defensive approach undermines learning and cooperation, and so produces results quite different than what we intend. This combination of effortless behavior and the wrong outcomes is … [Read more...]
You Need More Conflict, Not Less
By Agile Conversations authors Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick. When teams first adopt Agile, Lean, or DevOps practices, they often think that they’ll have less conflict with the new methodology. “We’ll stop fighting over deadlines because we’ll estimate the work first,” they say, or “Work in Progress limits will mean we don’t get overloaded.” Surprise! The estimates and limits and tests usually lead to more clashes, not fewer—and this is a good thing, because the conflicts give us … [Read more...]
Love Letter to Conferences (And What Makes Some Truly Amazing)
TL;DR: I share everything I’ve learned about what makes my favorite conference experiences so great and meaningful, and try to understand which elements are universal, applying to both physical and virtual events, and which ones can be changed. I share the experiences of having run an incredible three-day virtual event for 50 people, and share why I’m now incredibly confident that we’ll be able to replicate the magic of the best conferences at the upcoming Virtual DevOps Enterprise Summit—our … [Read more...]
Strengthen Your Conversations Skills with Remote Work
BY AGILE CONVERSATIONS AUTHORS DOUGLAS SQUIRREL AND JEFFREY FREDRICK Collaboration is built on skills, and you can build those skills through deliberate practice. This growth mindset view is particularly useful in our world of suddenly enforced remote working. Remote collaboration is more demanding and unfamiliar to a lot of people who are experiencing it for the first time. Responding to these new challenges with a fixed mindset, taking the view that remote working is just hard and … [Read more...]
Announcing my new podcast, The Idealcast with Gene Kim
Hello, everyone — I’m so pleased to announce the launch of my podcast, The Idealcast! On The Idealcast, I interview people I admire and have learned the most from, on topics I’m most passionate about — and you can learn with me. Each episode is typically around 90 minutes, where I ask some of the best experts in our community things I’ve wondered about for years. I am currently on a quest to understand the relationship between leadership, how organizations work, and how they can either create … [Read more...]
Take The Slow Lane To Build Trust
By Agile Conversations authors Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick Congratulations—you’ve decided to improve trust with someone at work. It could be the project manager who sets deadlines without consulting you, or that customer who’s complaining endlessly that you don’t deliver sufficient quality, or the star salesperson who sells features the company can’t deliver. Whoever it is and whatever the symptoms of the lack of trust, the first rule is—SLOW DOWN. When we talk to clients about … [Read more...]
A Note from the Authors of Agile Conversations
Hello friends! After years of research, learning, and practice, we’re so glad that we can finally bring you Agile Conversations. It started for us in a small study group, seeking to improve our own communication skills. Encouraged by our initial success, we began working with others. Now, after working with more than 100 companies and thousands of individuals, we’re confident these skills can radically and rapidly change the dynamics in an organization. Along the way we’ve seen far too many … [Read more...]
Balanced Flowchart Exercise
By Dominica Degrandis The balanced flowchart exercise is a companion to Chapter 3.1 of Making Work Visible: Exposing Time Theft to Optimize Work & Flow. This exercise includes four useful metrics—all on one sheet—to help people see metric trends over time and understand how to become more predictable. TIME: 45–60 minutes PURPOSE: To discover what lead time, throughput, change failure rate (CFR), and probabilistic percentiles are by performing themby hand, and to learn what each … [Read more...]
Conversations: Humanity’s Secret Weapon
Adapted from the upcoming Agile Conversations by Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick. Our Special Power In his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari explores what has allowed humans to become the dominant species on the planet. His answer is that we have a special kind of communication, unique among animals. Many animals can communicate the idea “Run away from the lion!” through barks, chirps, or movement. Building on top of that, the development of human and … [Read more...]
Remote-First Team Interactions
Brought to you by Team Topologies authors Matthew Skelton and Manual Pais. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=281&v=iQ6JfBt_rc4&feature=emb_logo Remote-first work has suddenly become the "new normal" for many companies around the world. There is plenty of advice out there on how individual teams can bond and work effectively remotely, but there is little that addresses remote interactions between different teams that need to collaborate remotely as part of the same value … [Read more...]
