Douglas Squirrel - Agile Conversations: Transform Your Conversations, Transform Your Culture

PRAISE FOR

Agile Conversations

I think of this highly practical and immediately applicable book as the lost instruction manual to the most powerful and effective Agile tool we dont even realize we have: Conversations. If you want to be successful with Agile, RTFM: Read This Fabulous Manual.

Alberto Savoia , Googles first Director of Engineering and Author of The Right It

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.

Elisabeth Hendrickson , Technology Executive and Author of Explore It!

Many books have been written about improving process and product in companies. Im 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 its hard, do it more often!

Patrick Debois , Founder of DevOpsDays and Co-Author of The DevOps Handbook

This book provides an engineers approach to monitoring, troubleshooting, and debugging conversations .... Heuristics such as the Question Fraction are amazingat the same time simple and memorable and incredibly insightful. Read this book to turn your communication skills into superpowers.

Gojko Adi , Author, and Partner at Neuri Consulting

Vital reading for anyone in a leadership role or interested in improving their work culture in general.

Andy Skipper , Chief Coach at CTO Craft

If youre 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 thats healthy and high-performing.

Paul Joyce , Founder and CEO, Geckoboard

Squirrel and Jeffreys 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 , Co-Author of Meltdown: What Plane Crashes, Oil Spills, and Dumb Business Decisions Can Teach Us About How to Succeed at Work and at Home

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.

Rich Koppel , Co-Founder and CEO of TIM Group

Its one of the industrys 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 , Founder & CEO, The Scale Factory

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 , Turnaround Specialist, CEO

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 , Software Engineer at QA Chef

25 NW 23rd Pl, Suite 6314
Portland, OR 97210

Copyright 2020 by Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick

All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,
write to Permissions, IT Revolution Press, LLC,
25 NW 23rd Pl, Suite 6314, Portland, OR 97210

First Edition

Printed in the United States of America

25 24 23 22 21 201 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Cover and book design by Devon Smith

Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication Data

Names: Squirrel, Douglas, author. | Fredrick, Jeffrey, author.

Title: Agile conversations : transform your conservations, transform your

culture / by Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick.

Description: First edition. | Portland, Oregon : IT Revolution, [2020] |

Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019045822 (print) | LCCN 2019045823 (ebook) |

ISBN 9781942788973 (paperback) | ISBN 9781942788669 (epub) |

ISBN 9781942788676 (kindle edition) | ISBN 9781942788683 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: Communication in management. | Teams in the workplace. |

Information technologymanagement.

Classification: LCC HD30.3 .S698 2020 (print) | LCC HD30.3 (ebook) |

DDC 658.4/5dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019045822

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019045823

ISBN: 978-1942788973

eBook ISBN: 978-1942788669

Kindle ISBN: 978-1942788676

Web PDF ISBN: 978-1942788683

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases or for informationon booking authors for an event, please visit our website at ITRevolution.com.

Names have been changed in example conversations and stories for privacy.

AGILE CONVERSATIONS

Figures and Tables

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

A Word from the Authors

A s a leader at your company, youve given the transformation your full support, and the organization has bought in. Youve had the consultants in, theyve trained the teams, and the process is in place. All thats missing are the promised results. Why arent things better?

As a contributoran engineer, product owner, Scrum Master, system admin, tech lead, tester, or any other doeryouve had the training, written the tickets, and gone to the meetings. Youve bought in and are ready to see improvements. All thats missing are the promised results. Why arent things better?

After years of study and many missteps, we have come to understand that the key to success is not only adopting practices but having the difficult conversation s that foster the right environment for those practices to work. You, your managers, and your teams are missing the right relationships, built only by having the right conversations. The good news is that you can begin a conversational transformation that builds the foundation for any other improvements you want to make, changing your conversations, improving your relationships, and finally getting results.

Weve seen it happen. Between us, weve consulted with over one hundred organizations across a range of subjects and at all levels. It has been our surprising experience that no matter whether we are talking with a CEO or the most junior developer, a managing director at a multinational bank or an operations engineer at an online retailer, a product owner or a project manager, a designer or a developer, in every case we hear, Why wont he do it better? Why wont she change? I cant make them. Im powerless.