Episodes

  • Two Ways to Set Off Sparks

    Two Ways to Set Off Sparks
    Jan 22 2025
    Does asking for the “dumbest” solutions stimulate the most creative ideas? Join Squirrel and Jeffrey as they answer two listener questions on the theme of boosting creativity, including why you might wear a funny hat to your team warm-up, in this week’s episode of Troubleshooting Agile. Links: - Core Protocols Checkin: https://thecoreprotocols.org/protocols/checkin - Dave Snowden on Changing Clothes: https://medium.com/@brixen/dave-snowden-how-leaders-change-culture-though-small-actions-766cd2bf5128 - Niko Niko chart: https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/niko-niko/ -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick joined forces at TIM Group in 2013, where they studied and practised the art of management through difficult conversations. Over a decade later, they remain united in their passion for growing profitable organisations through better communication. Squirrel is an advisor, author, keynote speaker, coach, and consultant, and he's helped over 300 companies of all sizes make huge, profitable improvements in their culture, skills, and processes. You can find out more about his work here: douglassquirrel.com/index.html Jeffrey is Vice President of Engineering at ION Analytics, Organiser at CITCON, the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference, and is an accomplished author and speaker. You can connect with him here: www.linkedin.com/in/jfredrick/
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    16 mins
  • Psychologically Safe AND Smashing It

    Psychologically Safe AND Smashing It
    Jan 15 2025
    Balancing psychological safety and high standards is crucial for high performance in your tech team. Join Squirrel and Jefferey for a discussion on this, plus the misconceptions around perks and productivity, in this week’s episode of Troubleshooting Agile LINKS - Safety vs standards article: https://www.leadingsapiens.com/psychological-safety-vs-high-standards/ - Challenge article: https://www.nobelcoaching.com/tag/challenge/ - Flow book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66354.Flow - Brian Marick: http://www.exampler.com/ease-and-joy.html -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick joined forces at TIM Group in 2013, where they studied and practised the art of management through difficult conversations. Over a decade later, they remain united in their passion for growing profitable organisations through better communication. Squirrel is an advisor, author, keynote speaker, coach, and consultant, and he's helped over 300 companies of all sizes make huge, profitable improvements in their culture, skills, and processes. You can find out more about his work here: douglassquirrel.com/index.html Jeffrey is Vice President of Engineering at ION Analytics, Organiser at CITCON, the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference, and is an accomplished author and speaker. You can connect with him here: www.linkedin.com/in/jfredrick/
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    25 mins
  • Accelerating the Crisis

    Accelerating the Crisis
    Jan 8 2025
    Can you drive change in your organisation by accelerating crises? In this episode, Squirrel and Jeffrey discuss Deming’s philosophy and explore how visibility and awareness of issues can bring about necessary change. LINKS - Deming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming - Panel discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu7JMAQggfo - Information radiators: https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/information-radiators/ -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick joined forces at TIM Group in 2013, where they studied and practised the art of management through difficult conversations. Over a decade later, they remain united in their passion for growing profitable organisations through better communication. Squirrel is an advisor, author, keynote speaker, coach, and consultant, and he's helped over 300 companies of all sizes make huge, profitable improvements in their culture, skills, and processes. You can find out more about his work here: douglassquirrel.com/index.html Jeffrey is Vice President of Engineering at ION Analytics, Organiser at CITCON, the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference, and is an accomplished author and speaker. You can connect with him here: www.linkedin.com/in/jfredrick/
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    14 mins
  • Easing In

    Easing In
    Dec 24 2024
    Is your plan to avoid conflict making things worse? In this episode, Squirrel and Jeffrey discuss the Paul and Ted Case Study, the concept of 'easing in,' and what leaders should do instead, on this episode of Troubleshooting Agile. LINKS - Eight Behaviors for Smarter Teams: https://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.pdf -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick joined forces at TIM Group in 2013, where they studied and practised the art of management through difficult conversations. Over a decade later, they remain united in their passion for growing profitable organisations through better communication. Squirrel is an advisor, author, keynote speaker, coach, and consultant, and he's helped over 300 companies of all sizes make huge, profitable improvements in their culture, skills, and processes. You can find out more about his work here: douglassquirrel.com/index.html Jeffrey is Vice President of Engineering at ION Analytics, Organiser at CITCON, the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference, and is an accomplished author and speaker. You can connect with him here: www.linkedin.com/in/jfredrick/
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    12 mins
  • Documenting Failure

    Documenting Failure
    Dec 16 2024
    Do you document and analyse failure? In this episode, Squirrel and Jeffrey draw inspiration from Donald Knuth's detailed study of his own software mistakes to give you the lowdown on learning from past mistakes, including meaningful postmortems and retrospectives. LINKS: - Knuth's paper: https://yurichev.com/mirrors/knuth1989.pdf - Foundation Failures: https://www.abebooks.com/Foundation-Failures-Szechy-C-Concrete-Publications/20924178050/bd -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick joined forces at TIM Group in 2013, where they studied and practised the art of management through difficult conversations. Over a decade later, they remain united in their passion for growing profitable organisations through better communication. Squirrel is an advisor, author, keynote speaker, coach, and consultant, and he's helped over 300 companies of all sizes make huge, profitable improvements in their culture, skills, and processes. You can find out more about his work here: douglassquirrel.com/index.html Jeffrey is Vice President of Engineering at ION Analytics, Organiser at CITCON, the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference, and is an accomplished author and speaker. You can connect with him here: www.linkedin.com/in/jfredrick/
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    8 mins
  • Software That Doesn't Make Sense

    Software That Doesn't Make Sense
    Dec 12 2024
    What do you do when you inherit a 20 year old codebase? In this episode, Squirrel and Jeffrey look at an extreme example of legacy software and discuss why it's important to understand past contexts as well as address modern discrepancies. Links: - Brian's Archaeology Tips: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-tips-software-archeologists-brian-reich-n0ase - Ask Why, But Never Answer: https://blog.jbrains.ca/permalink/ask-why-but-never-answer - Macintosh's Backward Capacitor: https://www.downtowndougbrown.com/2024/11/the-capacitor-that-apple-soldered-incorrectly-at-the-factory/ -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick joined forces at TIM Group in 2013, where they studied and practised the art of management through difficult conversations. Over a decade later, they remain united in their passion for growing profitable organisations through better communication. Squirrel is an advisor, author, keynote speaker, coach, and consultant, and he's helped over 300 companies of all sizes make huge, profitable improvements in their culture, skills, and processes. You can find out more about his work here: douglassquirrel.com/index.html Jeffrey is Vice President of Engineering at ION Analytics, Organiser at CITCON, the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference, and is an accomplished author and speaker. You can connect with him here: www.linkedin.com/in/jfredrick/
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    14 mins
  • Software Archaeology

    Software Archaeology
    Dec 4 2024
    How do you make sure that critical information is preserved over time? Tune in to learn about “reverse smuggling,” lost TV shows, outdated video game formats, and Ron Landley's Petrochemical archaeology, in this week’s episode of Troubleshooting Agile. Links: - Grant's article; - Petrochemical archaeology from Ron Landley: https://landley.net/history/mirror/institutional_memory.html - Dr. Who archaeology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_missing_episodes -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick joined forces at TIM Group in 2013, where they studied and practised the art of management through difficult conversations. Over a decade later, they remain united in their passion for growing profitable organisations through better communication. Squirrel is an advisor, author, keynote speaker, coach, and consultant, and he's helped over 300 companies of all sizes make huge, profitable improvements in their culture, skills, and processes. You can find out more about his work here: douglassquirrel.com/index.html Jeffrey is Vice President of Engineering at ION Analytics, Organiser at CITCON, the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference, and is an accomplished author and speaker. You can connect with him here: www.linkedin.com/in/jfredrick/
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    16 mins
  • Gun to Your Head

    Gun to Your Head
    Nov 26 2024
    Can extreme constraints help you think of radically different solutions? In this week’s episode, Jeffrey and Squirrel explore what happens when you point a figurative gun at your team, inspired by Grant Slatton's provocative article 'Algorithms We Develop Software By’ Links: - Grant's article; https://grantslatton.com/software-pathfinding#algorithms-we-develop-software-by - Thinking, Fast and Slow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow - Toyota Kata: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Kata - Independence Day: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/three-incendiary-questions-douglas-squirrel-seqre/ - Feature thinning: https://agileconversations.com/blog/ford-not-ferrari-feature-thinning-and-roi/ - Oblique Strategies cards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblique_Strategies -------------------------------------------------- You'll find free videos and practice material, plus our book Agile Conversations, at agileconversations.com And we'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show: email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick joined forces at TIM Group in 2013, where they studied and practised the art of management through difficult conversations. Over a decade later, they remain united in their passion for growing profitable organisations through better communication. Squirrel is an advisor, author, keynote speaker, coach, and consultant, and he's helped over 300 companies of all sizes make huge, profitable improvements in their culture, skills, and processes. You can find out more about his work here: douglassquirrel.com/index.html Jeffrey is Vice President of Engineering at ION Analytics, Organiser at CITCON, the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference, and is an accomplished author and speaker. You can connect with him here: www.linkedin.com/in/jfredrick/
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    17 mins