This episode of the TTL podcast features Douglas Squirrel, an expert in making tech teams insanely profitable. The discussion delves into David Snowden's Cynefin framework and the concept of entangled trios for navigating complex situations by leveraging diverse perspectives. Mon-Chaio, Andy, and Squirrel cover various tactics for tech leadership, including encouraging exploration within product design and the importance of external communication for generating novel ideas. By drawing parallels with historical explorations like Lewis and Clark's expedition and examining modern examples like Roblox and LEGO, the episode elucidates ways in which tech leaders can foster an environment of innovation and experimentation within their teams.

Squirrel​ has been coding for forty years and has led software teams for twenty. He uses the power of conversations to create dramatic productivity gains in technology organisations of all sizes. Squirrel’s experience includes growing software teams as a CTO in startups from fintech to biotech to music, and everything in between; consulting on product improvement at over 200 organisations in the UK, US, Australia, Africa, and Europe; and coaching a wide variety of leaders in improving their conversations, aligning to business goals, and creating productive conflict. He lives in Frogholt, England, in a timber-framed cottage built in the year 1450.

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The lack of exceptional leadership in tech companies is far from ideal, and this issue is exacerbated by the widespread presence of poor leaders. The situation becomes particularly troubling when these inadequate leaders believe they are competent or even exceptional.

Join Andy and Mon-Chaio in their conversation as they explore the reasons behind the prevalence of ineffective leaders, how current perceptions of leadership contribute to this imbalance, and the ways in which we, as leaders of individuals and organizations, can contribute to changing this trend.

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A short vacationcast from Andy about taking time away to decompress, find a different view on things, and enjoy the company of others (somtimes).

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 This episode marks the third and final part of a series focusing on remote work, where Andy and Mon-Chaio delve into tactics that you can use when working with remote teams. Specific topics include maintaining company values and culture through computer-mediated interactions, the role of rituals and symbols like custom emojis and the importance of maintaining weak relations for innovation and career development. Additionally, the episode emphasizes transparency, manager roles in fostering connections, and the necessity of in-person interactions for remote teams. The conversation is rich with tactics, including promoting asynchronous communication, ensuring information transparency, and the critical role of trust and weak ties in remote team dynamics.

Transcript: https://thettlpodcast.com/2024/04/08/s2e14-tactics-for-remote-work-remote-work-series-part-3-of-3/

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 In this second part of a three-part series of the TTL podcast, Mon-Chaio and Andy dive into what research has to say about remote working. They explore various aspects including the impact of remote work on mental health, performance, synchronous vs. asynchronous communication, and team cohesion. Highlighting a study published in Nature titled 'Virtual Communication Curbs Creative Idea Generation', they discuss how virtual settings can limit creative idea generation compared to in-person settings due to narrowed visual fields and cognitive focus. However, they note that virtual communication might have a small positive effect on selecting the best idea from a generated pool. The conversation also touches on the importance of high synchronicity in media for effective team convergence and conveyance, and the effects of remote work on coworker relationships and productivity.

Transcript: https://thettlpodcast.com/2024/04/01/s2e13-research-on-remote-work-remote-work-series-part-2-of-3/

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In part one of this three part series, Andy and Mon-Chaio tell stories of remote work, both from their own experiences as well as those they've heard from their colleagues and the public at large. From those stories, they try to find themes to help answer a burning question: four years in, how are engineering organizations and their people adapting to remote work?

 Have you had performance reviews where you thought, "What is the point of this?"

 Mon-Chaio and Andy examine the concepts and implications of performance management systems. They swap experiences and insights on the challenges and inefficacies of performance management practices and cover the inconclusive evidence of their effectiveness. Mon-Chaio raises alternative perspectives on employee performance, including Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB), and Andy brings up the difference between relational and transactional approaches. The conversation also touches on expectancy and reinforcement theories, questioning their applicability in motivating employee performance.

Find out what they think you can do to have better performance management in your team.

Transcript: https://thettlpodcast.com/2024/03/18/s2e11-performance-management-what-is-it-good-for/

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A core foundation of business, online communities, and social networks is the concept of Dunbar's Number: the suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. But recently there have been critiques in the scientific community as to the validity of the theory behind the number, as well as the number itself.

In this episode, Andy and Mon-Chaio delve into the research around Dunbar's Number, both Dunbar's original papers as well as the recently published critiques. They explore the possibility that Dunbar's Number does not exist and, if true, what it means for all the business theory for technical organizations built on top of this concept.

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 In this episode of the TTL podcast, Andy and Mon-Chaio delve into the importance of technical skills and mindset in leadership roles, particularly as individuals transition from technical to management positions. Their discussions are anchored by research findings, such as an article hypothesizing technical competence loss in Boeing's leadership contributing to quality issues, and an HBR article highlighting that 24 of the 100 best-performing CEOs have engineering degrees. Mon-Chaio and Andy argue that while the technical execution may become less critical at higher leadership levels, a technical mindset plays a crucial role in problem-solving and decision-making. They also look at some job postings to dissect expectations on technical leaders, suggesting that a mix of technical understanding and leadership capabilities is essential.

Please like, subscribe, and share your thoughts on how a technical background influences leadership effectiveness.

Transcript: https://thettlpodcast.com/2024/03/05/s2e9-do-leaders-have-to-be-technical/

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Mon-Chaio summarizes some common red flags that surface during a company's technical due diligence investigation.

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