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Can you save a broken co-founder partnership over Slack? In this week's episode of Troubleshooting Agile, Squirrel and Jeffrey get into "couples counseling for co-founders." Join us to learn why the act of mapping out strategy in person builds trust, creates shared vocabulary, and beats low-bandwidth remote tools every time. Links: - Alistair Cockburn on communication modalities (see figure 3-14): https://web.archive.org/web/20140329231939/http://alistair.cockburn.us/ASD+book+extract:+%22Communicating,+cooperating+teams%22 -------------------------------------------------- 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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/

Is your codebase turning into a 500-day perpetual stew? In this episode, Squirrel and Jeffrey dish the dirt on SOUP (Software of Unknown Provenance) and why AI is about to trigger a total tsunami of unexplainable code in your enterprise. Tune in for our tips on how to survive it. Links: - SOUP: https://meddeviceguide.com/blog/soup-software-unknown-provenance-iec-62304-guide - Perpetual stew: https://www.youtube.com/@ZAQ_Makes/shorts - Open AI proof dump: https://tech-insider.org/openai-withdraws-3-math-papers-722-dump-2026/ - Software supply chain attack: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_chain_attack -------------------------------------------------- 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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/

Are your company meetings and offsites optimized for zero risk, or for actual value? In this week’s episode, Jeffrey is joined by returning guest, Misha Glouberman, to unpack why traditional conferences default to boring lectures, and how you can design gatherings that actually build collaborative relationships. Links: - Actually Good Conferences: https://www.actuallygoodconferences.com/ - Progress Conference: https://rootsofprogress.org/conference - Works In Progress Ad: https://www.actuallygoodconferences.com/wip-ad-text -------------------------------------------------- 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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/

Is your tech team falling for the illusion of control? In this week’s episode, we sit down (again!) with authors of “Signals and Levers,” Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi to talk about the events that led up to writing their book. Tune in to the third of our three-part episode where we cover 30-minute exercises you can run TODAY, from listening to non-dashboard "signals" to dissecting organizational illusions. Links: - Signals & Levers: https://signalsandlevers.com/ - Elisabeth Hendrickson previous appearance: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/office-politics-and-toxic-behaviors - Tilted Slider Episode: https://agileconversations.com/blog/dont-add-more-metrics/ -------------------------------------------------- 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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/

Are you trying to fix "bad estimates" when you actually have a broken system? In this week’s episode, we sit down (again!) with authors of “Signals and Levers,” Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi to talk about the events that led up to writing their book. Tune in to the second of our three-part episode where we discuss Shewhart charts, cycle time, and why aiming directly for predictability always backfires. Links: - Signals & Levers: https://signalsandlevers.com/ - Elisabeth Hendrickson previous appearance: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/office-politics-and-toxic-behaviors - Tilted Slider Episode: https://agileconversations.com/blog/dont-add-more-metrics/ -------------------------------------------------- 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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/

A pretty whiteboard diagram can’t control your software delivery system! In this week’s episode, we sit down with authors of “Signals and Levers,” Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi to talk about the events that led up to writing their book. Tune in to the first of our three-part series where we discuss why complex tech orgs aren't linear machines, why measuring AI with vanity metrics backfires, and how to treat changes as real experiments. Links: - Signals & Levers: https://signalsandlevers.com/ - Elisabeth Hendrickson previous appearance: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/office-politics-and-toxic-behaviors - Tilted Slider Episode: https://agileconversations.com/blog/dont-add-more-metrics/ -------------------------------------------------- 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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/

Ever felt like you’re the only person in a meeting moving at the "right" speed? Well everyone else is probably thinking that too! On this episode, Squirrel uses his example of driving on one of England’s many one-lane roads to make the point of fast and slow communication. Join us to learn his ice-cream incentivised “secret word” strategy to get teams being curious again! -------------------------------------------------- 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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/

Are you suffering from bug blindness? This week, we dive into Dan Luu's article on how entire teams grow blind to obvious software bugs, Squirrel shares how their brilliant QA broke their system with a simple negative number, and Jeffrey ponders the reality that bug blindness isn't an accident; it's a cultural choice you make upstream. Links: - Dan Luu: https://danluu.com/bug-blind/ - Steve Jobs on MobileMe: https://daringfireball.net/2025/03/something_is_rotten_in_the_state_of_cupertino - Bill Gates on Movie Maker: https://www.techemails.com/p/bill-gates-tries-to-install-movie-maker -------------------------------------------------- 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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/

Are your teams quietly cheating your software controls to get their actual job done? In this episode of Troubleshooting Agile, Jeffrey and Squirrel tackle the "normalization of deviance," rogue AI agents sharing cheat sheets, and why human (and bot) workarounds reveal your real systemic problems. Links: - Dianne Vaughn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalization_of_deviance - Open AI / HuggingFace incident: https://thezvi.substack.com/p/huggingface-attack-postmortem-fleshing -------------------------------------------------- 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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/

Do you want to be right or do you want to be helpful? Choose carefully, because insisting on being "right" usually just makes you poor! On this week’s episode, Squirrel and Jeffrey tackle the classic consultancy challenge: dealing with boneheaded clients. Join us to learn how to use the LEAP method (Listen, Empathize, Agree, Partner) to find common ground, ship workable results and keep your consultancy clients playing you! Links: - “I’m Right, You’re Wrong, Now What?” (The LEAP Method) by Dr Xavier Amador’s https://www.xavieramador.com/books - “I am Not Sick, I Don't Need Help!” by Dr Xavier Amador: https://www.xavieramador.com/books - LEAP Institute: https://leapinstitute.org/ -------------------------------------------------- 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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/

Terrified of taking on your first management role? Don't be. Join us on the week’s episode to learn how you can avoid the biggest trap that new leaders get into, why you need to keep your team moving rather than doing the work for them, and hear our essential reading list for new managers, with your hosts, Squirrel and Jeffrey. Links: - Behind Closed Doors: https://www.jrothman.com/books/behind-closed-doors-secrets-of-great-management/ - High Output Management: https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884 - 8 Behaviors: https://www.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/917018/Eight-Behaviors-for-Smarter-Teams-2.pdf - Situational Leadership: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situational_leadership_theory - Modern Management Made Easy: https://www.jrothman.com/books/modern-management-made-easy-a-three-volume-set/ -------------------------------------------------- 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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/

Is it ever okay to manipulate your colleagues? On this episode, Squirrel and Jeffrey discuss Verbal Aikido - a defensive technique borrowed from a Supermax prison doctor. Join us to discover how to redirect manipulative office requests using strategic questions without crossing the line into toxic control. Links: - Verbal Aikido: https://www.jailmedicine.com/verbal-aikido-a-guest-column-by-dr-bill-wright/ - Previous episode on Motivational Interviewing: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/motivational-interviewing [Transcript: https://agileconversations.com/blog/motivational-interviewing/] - Previous episode on Active Listening: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/active-listening-for-remote-working [Transcript: https://agileconversations.com/blog/active-listening-for-remote-working] -------------------------------------------------- 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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/

ChatGPT is (a little too) good at having difficult conversations, but use it with caution! On this episode of Troubleshooting Agile, we revisit a previous conversation, first recorded at the beginning of 2024, where Squirrel and Jeffrey share their thoughts on how you can use AI language models to learn how to have difficult conversations with colleagues and disappoint them helpfully. Links: Roger Schwarz's Ted and Paula conversation: in cdn.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf…arter-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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/

Are your top leaders arguing over basic status data? In this episode, Squirrel and Jeffrey discuss the executive trap of arguing over facts that can be easily settled. Join us to learn why you should be agreeing on a “single source of lies” not chasing a "single source of truth." -------------------------------------------------- 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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/

Are you committing massive resources before testing reality? In this episode, Squirrel is joined by guest, technical program manager, Krunal Patel, who explains how he developed an exciting new car feature in less than a third of the time of a typical waterfall cycle, using cheap prototyping and rapid feedback loops. Join us to learn how you can use “soft-tooling” for your software. Links: Krunal Patel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krunalpatel1860/ -------------------------------------------------- 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 [email protected] -------------------------------------------------- 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/