Agile Conversations: Transform Your Conversations, Transform Your Culture

by Douglas Squirrel, Jeffrey Fredrick

Overview

"This is an important book. I am glad that Jeffrey and Squirrel have written it, and I look forward to having a stack to ‘lend’ (read: give) out." —Alistair Cockburn, coauthor of the Agile Manifesto 

Today, software organizations are transforming the way work gets done through practices like Agile, Lean, and DevOps. But as commonly implemented as these methods are, many transformations still fail, largely because the organization misses a critical step: culture and how people communicate.

Agile Conversations brings an updated, practical, step-by-step guide to using the power of conversation to build effective, high-performing teams to achieve truly Agile results. To advance your organization's transformation, learn how to have productive conversations that overcome cognitive bias and fear.

Consultants Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick show readers how to utilize the Five Conversations to help teams build trust, alleviate fear, answer the “whys,” define commitments, and hold everyone accountable. These five conversations give teams everything they need to reach peak performance, and they are exactly what's missing from too many teams today.

Stop focusing just on processes and practices that leave your organization stuck with culture-less rituals. Instead, unleash the unique human power of conversation.

"Learn to ask the hard questions, leave your bias at the door, and improve your own communication with this practical guide." —Patrick Debois, coauthor of The DevOps Handbook

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781942788973
Publisher:	IT Revolution
Publication date:	05/12/2020
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Douglas Squirrel has been coding for 40 years and has led software teams for 15 of them. He is an executive coach and consulting CTO in London, making use of his extensive experience growing teams and advising startup founders and senior managers. His previous roles included founding CTO at TIM Group and VP Engineering at e-commerce startup Secretsales. He has consulted with a wide variety of London startups including Geckoboard, Lostmy.name, DueDil, Kano, and MarketInvoice.

Jeffrey Fredrick is an internationally recognized expert in software development and has over 25 years' experience covering both sides of the business/technology divide. An early adopter of XP and Agile practices, Jeffrey has been a conference speaker in the US, Europe, India and Japan. Through his work on the pioneering open-source project CruiseControl, and through his role as co-organizer of the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference (CITCON), he has had a global impact on software development. Jeffrey's Silicon Valley experience includes roles as Vice President of Product Management, Vice President of Engineering, and Chief Evangelist. He has also worked as an independent consultant on topics including corporate strategy, product management, marketing, and interaction design. Jeffrey is currently Chief Technology Officer and Head of Product & Marketing in London at TIM, an Acuris Company. He also runs the London Organisational Learning Meetup and is a CTO mentor through CTO Craft.

Table of Contents

Introduction

A Word from the Authors

How this Book is Organized

The Many Ways to Read this Book

Part I

Chapter 1: Escaping the Software Factory

Laboring in the Software Factory

Agile: People-Driven Development

Lean Software: Empower the Team

DevOps: Operators are People Too

Detour into the Feature Factory

Sidebar: The Cynefin Framework

Chapter 2: Conversations: Humanity's Secret Weapon

Our Special Power

Improving and Learning from Your Conversations

Sidebar: Types of Conversations

The Four Rs

Conversational Analysis

Analyzing a Conversation: Reflect, Revise, and Role Play

Sidebar: Conversation Scoring: A Quick Breakdown

Example Conversations

Conclusion: Over to You

Part II

Introduction

Chapter 3: The Trust Conversation

Trust Comes First

Nell's Trust Story

Preparing: Be Vulnerable

Preparing: Be Predictable

The Conversation: TDD for People

Nell's Trust Story Continued

Example Trust Conversations

Case Study: Trust Saves the Day

Applying the Trust Conversation

Chapter 4: The Fear Conversation

Fear—The Default Feeling

Tara's Fear Story

Preparing: Normalization of Deviance

Preparing: Coherence Busting

The Conversation: The Fear Chart

Tara's Fear Story Continued

Example Fear Conversations

Case Study: Overcoming Fear

Applying the Fear Conversation

Chapter 5: The Why Conversation

Don't Start with Why

Bobby's Why Story

Preparing: Interests not Positions, Advocacy Plus Inquiry

Preparing: Joint Design

The Conversation: Building a Why

Bobby's Why Story Continued

Example Why Conversations

Case Study: Stuck on Why

Applying the Why Conversation

Chapter 6: The Commitment Conversation

Compliance vs. Commitment

Mandy's Commitment Story

Preparing: Agree on Meaning

Preparing: The Walking Skeleton

Sidebar: The Tilted Slider

The Conversation: Making a Commitment

Mandy's Commitment Story Continued

Example Commitment Conversations

Case Study: Context for Commitment

Applying the Commitment Conversation

Chapter 7: The Accountability Conversation

Who's Accountable

Nicole's Accountability Story

Preparing: Theory X and Theory Y

Preparing: Directed Opportunism

Sidebar: Medieval Accountability

The Conversation: Radiating Intent

Nicole's Accountability Story Continued

Example Accountability Conversations

Case Study: Resurrecting the Deal

Applying the Accountability Conversation[

Conclusion: How to Keep Learning

Further Reading & Resources

References

Notes

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

It takes conviction and skill to change company culture. Agile Conversations provides the road map to summon your courage and avoid the hazards on your path to success!A masterpiece for any CEO wanting to build a collaborative, cooperative organization!

Brent Delehey

This is a very wise and yet readable book. The authors have hit the nail on the head by focusing on better conversations as the way to translate theory into organizational improvement. Their conversational examples really bring their prescriptions to life. They are clearly practitioners, but with a thorough grounding in theory as well.

Rich Koppel

I've spent much of my career trying to establish a system for improving collaboration within and across software teams and yet always achieved mixed results. Agile Conversations is the book I wish I had read many years ago! Jeffrey and Squirrel have brought together their many years of experience to create this accessible and practical guide. It's a must read for executives, technical managers, and technical staff who want their teams to be more productive, and better at responding to change.

Mark Coleman

This book provides practical patterns on how to take on difficult conversations in a very deliberate way, making it just as actionable as an engineering guide. It contains plenty of recognizable stories and valuable references. It is one big invitation to start practicing and get better at working with the least predictable but most powerful element of your organization: your people.

Tom Jans

I have come to the determination that the first and foremost rule in successfully transforming a group of people of any ilk—corporation or social group—is by helping the individuals each see and understand the change as it pertains to them and help them align with the reasons for the change. Both of these aspects are more easily said than done. Agile Conversations is an indispensable tool to help parties make and accept change. Think of it as your new change management textbook for change big (Kotter sized) or small (a single process within a value stream).

Matt Gelbawks

This book's techniques will make you better at conversations, both in and out of the workplace.

Jake McCrary

While coaching high-performance teams to become more effective, I often focus on alignment of purpose. Squirrel and Frederick's book gives me names for the tools that I knew and introduces some that I didn't. It also offers me a quantitative way to measure and improve my own effectiveness.

Antony Marcano

It's one of the industry's dirty little secrets that most of our ‘technology' problems are actually people problems. In Agile Conversations, Jeffrey and Squirrel assert that solving these problems is made possible by having better conversations, presenting their advice in a manner which fellow technologists will find reassuringly structured and categorized.

Jon Topper

In Agile Conversations, Jeffrey and Squirrel pinpoint one of the key tenets of the Agile mindset, which is that constructive, structured, and in-depth communication is the key to creating a productive, happy work environment. Not only do they help expose this truth, they also hand you a suite of tools and processes to tangibly improve the conversations you have. Vital reading for anyone in a leadership role or interested in improving their work culture in general.

Andy Skipper

Jeffrey and Squirrel have developed a framework that enables me to upgrade communication in my teams. Their book, while acknowledging how demanding it can be to take on the task of improving culture within your company, gives clear and empathetic guidelines for making real progress. An engineer's guide to hacking conversations! When Agile seems like just another process to follow, read this book.

Remmelt Pit

Agile Conversations provides much needed guidance on how to have the key discussions that form the foundation for strong and resilient working relationships, as well as a toolbox full of techniques for troubleshooting when conversations go awry. Full of practical, real-world examples, this book is a must read for anyone who has ever been frustrated or puzzled by interactions at work.

Elizabeth Hendrickson

Squirrel and Jeffrey's keen writing and battle-tested techniques make this book a must-read for modern engineering leaders looking to thrive amid the explosion of complexity that we all face.

Chris Clearfield

This is an important book. I am glad that Jeffrey and Squirrel have written it, and I look forward to having a stack to ‘lend' (read: give) out.

Alistair Cockburn

Agile Conversations is a must-read for anyone willing to bring [their] organization to a higher level. Improved conversations allow for curiosity and transparency, which enables collaboration and learning, which in turn brings the right culture for high performance. Jeffrey and Squirrel take you on this fantastic journey of improving the conversations you have on a daily basis, both inside and outside the organization.

Thierry de Pauw

Conversation is a skill that we learn before we're consciously aware of what learning is. As a result, we may assume that we're competent at communicating based on successful outcomes. Squirrel and Frederick's book outlines actionable ways that we can measure our competence and improve our skill. This is a must-read for any manager, and beneficial for everyone working in a software environment.

Andy Palmer

The biggest challenges to effectively scaling startups is poor alignment and communication. Jeffrey and Squirrel have written a hands-on and practical manual for addressing issues of trust, fear, and commitment to tackle these problems head-on—I cannot recommend this book enough—read it and get your team on track today.

Jon Bradford

Organizations want us to be proficient in teamwork and communication, but we are often expected to develop these complex skills on our own, through trial and error, with all the potential minefields. This book is an extremely helpful and practical guide on how to read between your own lines, and make it safe for others to reveal the fears between theirs.

Rebecca Williams

This book provides an engineer's approach to monitoring, troubleshooting and debugging conversations. Squirrel and Jeffrey always come across as incredibly mindful listeners and thoughtful discussion partners, and now I know why. Heuristics such as the Question Fraction are amazing—at the same time simple and memorable and incredibly insightful. Read this book to turn your communication skills into superpowers.

Gojko Adzic

For people from the technical walk of life, soft skills can sometimes be frustratingly ephemeral. The practical exercises in this book give a solid base to explore the development of empathy and understanding as a concrete work and life skill.

Wouter Lagerweij

The number of conversations at a party doesn't make it a better party; the quality of the conversations does. Many books have been written about improving process and product in companies. I'm so glad this book finally addresses the people aspect: Learn to ask the hard questions, leave your bias at the door, and improve your own communication with this practical guide. If it's hard, do it more often!

Patrick Debois

If you're looking for a practical framework and techniques that will help fix broken team communication and dysfunctional culture, then you should read Agile Conversations. Going beyond simple diagnosis, this handbook walks you through the Five Conversations you need to embrace in order to transform a broken culture into one that's healthy and high-performing.

Paul Joyce

I think of this highly practical and immediately applicable book as the lost instruction manual to the most powerful and effective Agile tool we don't even realize we have: Conversations. If you want to be successful with Agile, RTFM: Read This Fabulous Manual.

Alberto Savoia

Over many years, I saw Squirrel and Jeffrey upgrade their company from a culture where some people wouldn't talk to each other, to a model of open communication. Now they've written this book which describes part of that journey. Buy a copy to learn about their approach and encourage them to write up the rest.

Steve Freeman