Our Agile Tales

Once upon a time, in an agile land, we navigate corporate levels and political waters to transform the business to be adaptable to this forever changing world. We are excited to share with you our agile journey. Enjoy our tales as we weave our stories together, sometimes with others, on our podcasts.

Our Agile Tales is a business podcast hosted by Mun-Wai Chung & JF Unson, with 117 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Mun-Wai Chung & JF Unson hosts Our Agile Tales, a business show with 117 episodes published.

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  Episode #12

  [Episode 12] Joy and HR - Lessons for Creating an Intentionally Joyful Culture

  Sep 29, 202627 minS13

  Welcome to our Agile Tales as we continue our conversations with Rich Sheridan , founder, CEO, and chief storyteller at Menlo Innovations . Aside from founding and leading Menlo Innovations, Rich is also the author of the best-selling books Joy Inc. and Chief Joy Officer , which argue that joy is essential to productivity and profitability in the workplace. Rich recounts his journey from early programming success and a rapid rise to VP to feeling despondent amid chaotic, late, over-budget software delivery, which sparked a search for better ways to organize people. In this episode, Rich explains Menlo’s “no code ownership” approach through mandatory pair programming, frequent pair rotation every five business days, and shared stewardship that makes code easier for anyone to maintain and improves quality over time. He discusses measuring “work done well together” by the absence of emergencies, noting Menlo has had only two emergencies in 23 years despite building mission-critical systems like organ transplant software and clinical monitoring tools. Sheridan outlines intentional culture practices including a sustainable 40-hour week (with 32-hour options), a mission to “end human suffering as it relates to technology,” radical transparency, and a paper-based planning process using handwritten, foldable story cards and weekly capacity sheets that clearly define both planned work and what won’t be done, preventing “just one more thing” scope creep. 00:00 Welcome to Our Agile Tales 01:45 No Code Ownership 03:47 Pairing Builds Quality 07:30 Work With Pride 08:09 Measuring No Emergencies 11:57 Intentional Culture Practices 13:49 Sustainable Pace Rules 14:58 Paper Planning Game 19:52 Tradeoffs Not Scope Creep 22:30 Changing Fear-Based Culture 26:12 Wrap Up And Next Episode About Rich Sheridan Rich Sheridan is the CEO and Chief Storyteller at Menlo Innovations and the best-selling author of Joy Inc. and Chief Joy Officer . He has spent years traveling across four continents and nearly 20 countries, helping organizations rethink not just how they work but also what it feels like to be part of them. His core message is simple: joy isn’t optional—it’s essential to productivity, profitability, and real team energy. Rich’s ideas have been featured in Forbes , Inc. , NPR, and Harvard Business Review . What sets him apart is that he’s been living these principles for over 20 years at Menlo, the company he co-founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan—now known worldwide for its uniquely joyful culture. Follow Rich Sheridan at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/menloprez You can check out Menlo Innovations' tours and workshops at: https://menloinnovations.com/tours-and-workshops Music: https://www.purple-planet.com Visit us at https://www.ouragiletales.com/about

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  Episode #11

  [Episode 11] Joy and HR - Lessons for Creating an Intentionally Joyful Culture

  Sep 15, 202624 minS13

  Welcome to our Agile Tales as we continue our conversations with Rich Sheridan , founder, CEO, and chief storyteller at Menlo Innovations . Aside from founding and leading Menlo Innovations, Rich is also the author of the best-selling books Joy Inc. and Chief Joy Officer , which argue that joy is essential to productivity and profitability in the workplace. Rich recounts his journey from early programming success and a rapid rise to VP to feeling despondent amid chaotic, late, over-budget software delivery, which sparked a search for better ways to organize people. This episode kicks off with Rich explaining how to build trust with executives by remembering they are human and translating technical concerns into their business language. He illustrates this point with a story about winning his CEO’s support for a major transformation after he framed it in terms of business survival. He describes practices for sustaining an intentional, joyful culture, emphasizing laughter as an indicator of psychological safety, the need to account for the weight of positional authority, and the value of trusted colleagues who can directly challenge leadership. Rich shares Menlo cultural norms and phrases like “Rich is uncomfortable” and “it’s James’s fault” to prevent inappropriate behavior and blame, highlights an offsite where employees surfaced dozens of norms, and underscores relationships, collaboration, and pairing (inspired by Kent Beck’s Extreme Programming) as central to creating workplaces people love. 00:00 Welcome to Our Agile Tales 01:42 Earning Executive Trust 02:10 Speak Their Language 06:41 Culture Signals Laughter 08:22 Power Dynamics and Safety 10:33 Catchphrases That Stick 12:45 Reinforcing Norms Offsite 15:38 Why Laughter Matters 17:22 Relationships Through Pairing 17:44 Extreme Interview Energy 20:49 Kent Beck and XP Roots 24:02 Closing and Next Episode About Rich Sheridan Rich Sheridan is the CEO and Chief Storyteller at Menlo Innovations and the best-selling author of Joy Inc. and Chief Joy Officer . He has spent years traveling across four continents and nearly 20 countries, helping organizations rethink not just how they work but also what it feels like to be part of them. His core message is simple: joy isn’t optional—it’s essential to productivity, profitability, and real team energy. Rich’s ideas have been featured in Forbes , Inc. , NPR, and Harvard Business Review . What sets him apart is that he’s been living these principles for over 20 years at Menlo, the company he co-founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan—now known worldwide for its uniquely joyful culture. Follow Rich Sheridan at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/menloprez You can check out Menlo Innovations' tours and workshops at: https://menloinnovations.com/tours-and-workshops Music: https://www.purple-planet.com Visit us at https://www.ouragiletales.com/about

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #10

  [Episode 10] Joy and HR - Lessons for Creating an Intentionally Joyful Culture

  Sep 1, 202630 minS13

  Welcome to our Agile Tales as we continue our conversations with Rich Sheridan , founder, CEO, and chief storyteller at Menlo Innovations . Aside from founding and leading Menlo Innovations, Rich is also the author of the best-selling books Joy Inc. and Chief Joy Officer , which argue that joy is essential to productivity and profitability in the workplace. Rich recounts his journey from early programming success and a rapid rise to VP to feeling despondent amid chaotic, late, over-budget software delivery, which sparked a search for better ways to organize people. The episode of Agile Tales continues a long-running conversation with Rich Sheridan. Rich discusses how Menlo’s pairing practices can include neurodivergent team members, noting they’ve employed people on the spectrum and that social skills develop through practice rather than isolation; he argues many “cantankerous” behaviors are created by silent, cubicle-based environments and should be addressed with structures for respectful conflict, drawing on Crucial Conversations and a kindergarten “solution circle” model, while still expecting basic human decency. He explains executive influence through visible signals, humility, and accepting feedback, then describes fostering autonomy via “run the experiment,” minimizing meetings, and using shorthand cultural phrases like “black butterflies” to challenge assumptions and reduce fear-driven resistance. 00:00 Welcome to Our Agile Tales 01:40 Neurodivergence and Pairing 04:45 Isolation Creates Friction 08:20 Solution Circle Skills 11:49 Respect and System Design 16:52 Leading by Signals 21:32 Run the Experiment 27:27 Black Butterflies Story 29:49 Closing and Next Episode About Rich Sheridan Rich Sheridan is the CEO and Chief Storyteller at Menlo Innovations and the best-selling author of Joy Inc. and Chief Joy Officer . He has spent years traveling across four continents and nearly 20 countries, helping organizations rethink not just how they work but also what it feels like to be part of them. His core message is simple: joy isn’t optional—it’s essential to productivity, profitability, and real team energy. Rich’s ideas have been featured in Forbes , Inc. , NPR, and Harvard Business Review . What sets him apart is that he’s been living these principles for over 20 years at Menlo, the company he co-founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan—now known worldwide for its uniquely joyful culture. Follow Rich Sheridan at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/menloprez You can check out Menlo Innovations' tours and workshops at: https://menloinnovations.com/tours-and-workshops Music: https://www.purple-planet.com Visit us at https://www.ouragiletales.com/about

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #9

  [Episode 9] Joy and HR - Lessons for Creating an Intentionally Joyful Culture

  Aug 18, 202629 minS13

  Welcome to our Agile Tales as we continue our conversations with Rich Sheridan , founder, CEO, and chief storyteller at Menlo Innovations . Aside from founding and leading Menlo Innovations, Rich is also the author of the best-selling books Joy Inc. and Chief Joy Officer , which argue that joy is essential to productivity and profitability in the workplace. Rich recounts his journey from early programming success and a rapid rise to VP to feeling despondent amid chaotic, late, over-budget software delivery, which sparked a search for better ways to organize people. In this episode, Rich contrasts default culture with intentional culture, warning that values confined to posters and CEO “rah-rah” speeches breed cynicism unless reinforced through recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, feedback, promotion, and firing practices. He emphasizes “alignment” among outside perception, inside reality, and the leader’s heart, noting misalignment creates organizational drag and even motivates companies to game culture awards. Using Menlo examples—public tours, pair-based work, an “extreme interview,” one-day and three-week trials, and peer-based “prosperity reviews”—he shows how clear signals and truth-telling sustain culture, including allowing negative Glassdoor feedback and using it for reflection. 00:00 Welcome to Our Agile Tales 01:40 Management Training Gap 02:57 Podcast Legacy and Impact 05:42 Default vs Intentional Culture 09:28 Alignment Heart Reality Perception 13:15 Tours and Truth in Action 19:15 Hiring Extreme Interview Signals 21:15 Peer Reviews and Mentorship Culture 24:36 Glassdoor Free Speech and Feedback 28:18 Closing and Next Episode About Rich Sheridan Rich Sheridan is the CEO and Chief Storyteller at Menlo Innovations and the best-selling author of Joy Inc. and Chief Joy Officer . He has spent years traveling across four continents and nearly 20 countries, helping organizations rethink not just how they work but also what it feels like to be part of them. His core message is simple: joy isn’t optional—it’s essential to productivity, profitability, and real team energy. Rich’s ideas have been featured in Forbes , Inc. , NPR, and Harvard Business Review . What sets him apart is that he’s been living these principles for over 20 years at Menlo, the company he co-founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan—now known worldwide for its uniquely joyful culture. Follow Rich Sheridan at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/menloprez You can check out Menlo Innovations' tours and workshops at: https://menloinnovations.com/tours-and-workshops Music: https://www.purple-planet.com Visit us at https://www.ouragiletales.com/about

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #8

  [Episode 8] Joy and HR - Lessons for Creating an Intentionally Joyful Culture

  Aug 4, 202631 minS13

  Welcome to our Agile Tales as we continue our conversations with Rich Sheridan , founder, CEO, and chief storyteller at Menlo Innovations . Aside from founding and leading Menlo Innovations, Rich is also the author of the best-selling books Joy Inc. and Chief Joy Officer , which argue that joy is essential to productivity and profitability in the workplace. Rich recounts his journey from early programming success and a rapid rise to VP to feeling despondent amid chaotic, late, over-budget software delivery, which sparked a search for better ways to organize people. In this episode, Rich argues that scaling requires adaptation and that large organizations are effectively collections of smaller teams, best changed through experiments rather than mandates, citing Nationwide’s adoption of Menlo-inspired practices. He explains why Menlo has remained around 50 people, noting financial constraints without investors or debt, and the need to grow responsibly without harming culture, while adding leadership and managerial processes after consecutive strong years. He contrasts “default culture,” which emerges from tolerated behaviors and often becomes complaint-driven, with “intentional culture,” reinforced through storytelling and embedded in HR practices. He critiques hero-based organizations as burnout-prone and sustained by recognition rewards, and describes changing manager behavior by replacing those rewards and breaking learned leadership patterns. 00:00 Welcome to Our Agile Tales? 01:40 Can Joy Scale? 04:02 Growing Past Fifty 07:21 Default Versus Intentional Culture 08:30 Stories That Shape Culture 13:28 Hero Cultures Explained 17:23 Pressure Reveals Values 22:28 Changing Hero Rewards 26:40 Why Managers Repeat Hero-based Patterns 28:06 Rich's Turning Point 30:08 Closing And Next Time About Rich Sheridan Rich Sheridan is the CEO and Chief Storyteller at Menlo Innovations and the best-selling author of Joy Inc. and Chief Joy Officer . He has spent years traveling across four continents and nearly 20 countries, helping organizations rethink not just how they work but also what it feels like to be part of them. His core message is simple: joy isn’t optional—it’s essential to productivity, profitability, and real team energy. Rich’s ideas have been featured in Forbes , Inc. , NPR, and Harvard Business Review . What sets him apart is that he’s been living these principles for over 20 years at Menlo, the company he co-founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan—now known worldwide for its uniquely joyful culture. Follow Rich Sheridan at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/menloprez You can check out Menlo Innovations' tours and workshops at: https://menloinnovations.com/tours-and-workshops Music: https://www.purple-planet.com Visit us at https://www.ouragiletales.com/about

  ListenShow Notes

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