REVIEW: Douglas Squirrel/Jeffrey Fredrick — Agile Conversations (BOOK)

Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick’s new book is Agile Conversations: Transform Your Conversations, Transform Your Culture. Seems simple, right? But it’s anything but. This is not your typical, how-to guide when it comes to leadership and business advice. “Whatever approach you take to reading the book, it is worth emphasizing that understanding is simply not enough; you build the skills by practicing.

URL: https://agileconversations.com/agile-conversation-book/

There is no other way,” Squirrel and Fredrick write, also stating: “There is no shortage of books that tell you how to diagnose cultural problems, offering detailed case studies and stories, diagnostic tests, lots of practices to follow, exhortations to collaborate, and tools to use. But few say anything meaningful about how you actually cure those problems — how to make changes and what to do when you’re stuck.”

While the book highlights specifics where said corporate communication techniques most readily come into play, part of Squirrel and Fredrick’s genius is highlighting the universality of where these values come from. At the end of the day, the personal is the professional, tact is good practice. “Great results follow when you learn that a conversation is about more than just talking; it is a skilled activity.

There is more to a conversation than what you can see and hear. In addition to what is said out loud, there is what has been left unsaid — the thoughts and feelings behind our spoken and unspoken words,” they write. “As we become more skillful at conversations, we become more aware of what we think and feel, and why we think and feel the way we do. Therefore, we become better at sharing that information with others. We also become more aware that we don’t have telepathy — that we don’t actually know what information our conversational partners have-so we get better at asking questions and listening to the answers. These skills are so fundamental, and so neglected, that when we get better at them, our conversations become radically more productive and our culture becomes much more collaborative.”

AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Agile-Conversations-Transform-Your-Culture/dp/1942788975

By highlighting the universality of these kinds of values, Squirrel and Fredrick make their implementation that much less of work, and much more just following basic human instinct. After all, as any good piece of nonfiction belonging in the category of leadership advice shows, what really is being advocated for isn’t some complex kind of business arrangement, or deal. It’s a dose of pragmatic altruism being implemented into workplace practice.

An idea that if the entirety of the workforce thrives, the company itself in pursuit of its goals fully thrives. It’s a marriage of personalized values, and professional drive — in some ways proving the two were mutually embedded to begin with. “If you have the appetite, you can develop the skills that allow you to embrace the painful, candid communication that creates an environment in which teams flourish. At no point will developing these skills be easy… We look forward to you joining us in learning, developing, and implementing the conversational skills that get you there,” Squirrel and Fredrick proclaim.

Colin Jordan