A brisk take on cutting through workplace small talk to get straight to the facts. They explore how ‘noisy politeness’ like long Slack greetings bogs teams down. Practical scenes include phone-first onboarding, incident reporting with clear technical context, and using concise feedback to speed improvement. The episode discusses when and how to invite direct communication as a team norm.
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insights INSIGHT
Skip Noisy Politeness And Get To The Point
Crocker's Rule is essentially one rule: skip noisy politeness and get to the point.
Douglas Squirrel illustrates this with a 20-second social preface example that adds no useful information to a conversation.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Onboard Consultants By Teaching The Squirrel Phone
Douglas Squirrel teaches new consultants to use a phone directly rather than sending many preliminary messages.
He calls this his 'squirrel phone' onboarding: just push the buttons and talk, avoiding emails and texts first.
insights INSIGHT
Receiver Responsibility Is Central To Crocker's Rules
Operating Crocker's Rules is a discipline where the receiver accepts direct truth and manages their own reaction.
Jeffrey Fredrick frames it as taking responsibility for your own mind so originators needn't dress up messages to avoid offense.
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Is "noisy politeness" slowing your tech team down? In this episode, Squirrel and Jeffrey discuss Crocker’s Rules, which is essentially just the one rule - get to the point. Join us to learn how you and your colleagues can skip the social overhead and get to the data that actually matters.
LINKS:
- Crocker's Rules: http://sl4.org/crocker.html
- Sergei Parajanov's article about the rules: https://lr0.org/blog/p/crocker/
- One Minute Manager: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_Minute_Manager
- CITCON:AI in Helsinki: https://citconf.com/helsinki2026/
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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 info@agileconversations.com
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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/
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