You’re likely on this page because you’ve seen me speak recently and you want more information on something I mentioned. If what you’re looking for isn’t on this page then reach out to me directly and I’ll be happy to help.
Contact me
- Book a free 25 minute consultation, to discuss how I can help you or your organization.
- Schedule a coaching call.
- Email me at mbowler@GargoyleSoftware.com
- Connect with me on LinkedIn.
- Follow me on Mastodon or the Fediverse.
- More about me…
Topics I frequently speak on
Anxiety & Psychological Safety
- Exploring the Anti-Anxiety Toolkit. A collection of tips from neuroscience and psychology for releasing anxiety, along with an older recording of me giving the session
- Polyvagal Theory: Understanding safety An introduction to Polyvagal Theory, which I reference in the session.
- My presentation on the Neuroscience of Psychological Safety
- The SAFETY model in more depth
- An interview with Mike on ensemble (mob programming). In the second part, we get into the SAFETY model and how that relates to the ensemble.
- Google’s Project Aristotle where they identified psychological safety as being the single biggest contributing factor towards team effectiveness.
- Polyvagal Theory: Understanding safety An introduction to Polyvagal Theory, which I reference in the session.
- What really happens in our brains when our survival mechanism is triggered. Explained with a real bear encounter.
Autonomy
- Understanding why giving our people autonomy is so important.
Clean language - A language pattern for deeper conversations
- Introduction to clean language. Also the handout that I use when teaching this.
- The power of words, a different look at how words direct attention.
How we think - Systems 1 & 2
- Article describing systems 1 and 2. Also the questionnaire titled “Are you a fast decision maker?” that I use to introduce the topic.
Kanban
- Kanban is simple but not always obvious.
- The Kanban Guide and my visual one-pager of the same, that I think is an easier starting point.
- What happens when the team says “We tried kanban and it didn’t work”?
- How do we improve the standup?
Learning
- Dopamine and Learning
- Learning with LEGO
- Understanding cognitive Load
- Generating aha moments; understanding the default mode network.
Metrics, including probabilistic forecasting
- Data quality
- Forecasting projects with reference class forecasting
- Getting good metrics out of Jira with JiraMetrics
- Not that I recommend calling the Jira API’s yourself, here are notes I made about those API’s
Motivation
- The Self-Determination Theory motivation model
- What if my people are “not motivated to do anything”? A look at lack of motivation.
- What if “my people aren’t participating”? A look at why people may not be stepping up.
Retrospectives
- Retrospective magic : Tips and tricks from neuroscience and psychology to make your retros better.
- Moose on the Table : Retro using LEGO Serious Play®.
- Six Thinking Hats : Retro using DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats approach
Slicing work
Technical Practices
- Ensemble work, also called mob programming or software teaming. Probably the single most effective tool in my toolbelt.
- Test Driven Development (TDD)
- Although people often think that TDD is a testing activity, it’s really about design.
- TDD examples in Java, Go, Ruby, and Elixir.
- Technical debt and productivity
- Teaching technical practices in LEGO
- The business case for the technical practices.
Blogs - Where I write content
I also write about a lot of other things beyond what’s above. Check out my blogs:
| Blog | Description | |
|---|---|---|
 |
Unconscious Agile | The intersection of unconscious behaviour and agile. Covers neuroscience, psychology, hypnosis and many other things. |
 |
Agile Technical Excellence | A variety of technical topics from TDD to ensemble programming and more. |
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Improving Flow | Primarily kanban focused content although it touches on anything you need in your process. |
Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| jirametrics | Pulls data out of Jira and generates reports. The reports that Jira natively provides are almost useless and this tool gives you actionable reports that you can use to guide your decisions. |
| HtmlUnit | A “GUI-less browser” to help with testing. Note that while I no longer support this, I was the original author. It’s used as the underlying “browser” by different Open Source tools like WebDriver, Arquillian Drone, Serenity BDD, WETATOR, jenkins-test-harness, Selenium Foundation, Spring Testing, JWebUnit, and JSFUnit |
| mob.sh | Required collaboration tool for remote mobbing / ensemble work. Not my work, but highly recommended. |
Other
- People often ask for book recommendations so I maintain two lists.
- One on unconscious behaviour including neuroscience, psychology, hypnosis and other things.
- One on general agile topics.
- If you’re looking for interviews with Mike, see this list
- If you’re in or around the Okanagan Valley of BC (Canada) then check out the Okanagan Agile group.