Swearing, nudity, and other vulnerable positions. by John Le Drew

Speaker John Le Drew
Swearing, nudity, and other vulnerable positions.
  • talk
  • 45
  • 60
  • 90
  • 120 minutes
  • coaching
  • management

Over 3 months John recorded over 60 hours of interviews and spoke to some of the most respected people in the industry to produce an audio documentary that attempts to answer the question “What is safety? And why is it important anyway?”


  • What is safety and what does it look and feel like?

  • Is trust essential to high performing teams?

  • Is vulnerability at the core of a creative team?

  • How can leaders can help foster (or hinder) safety?

This talk has grown as John created the new podcast The Agile Path. The first season on this podcast (which will launch in Jan 17) is about safety in teams. John has interviewed world renowned specialists in the field; Christopher Avery, David Marquet, Jerry Weinberg, Esther Derby, Johanna Rothman, Woody Zuill and many more in over 60 hours of audio. This has been a fascinating deep dive learning experience for John and he hopes to explore these insights with the audience.

Learning Outcomes

  • Understand what the definition of safety is.
  • Understand how psychological safety interacts with other concepts such as trust, conflict and vulnerability.
  • Understand the commons signs of unsafety in a team.
  • Understand the effect of leaders on team safety.
  • Understand how important vulnerability is to teams.



The exact timeline of the session is still evolving (I am using the opportunity to deliver it at a number of local meetups to map out the structure of the session. I will clarify the details over the coming weeks.

1. Introduction to the central concepts, a Q+A session to explore the attendees experience of safety on their teams.
2. Discussion of the Google Aristotle project and their initial findings.
3. Introduction to improvisation and core concepts.
4. Warm up exercise, Mirroring, the group work in pairs to mirror one another's facial expressions and hand / arm movements, without speaking.
5. First improvisation exercise to create a safe collaborative environment. This is a highly interactive session based on the improv game "String of Pearls".
6. Discussion of how the session worked and how we might apply this to our teams. - Engagement, autonomy, collaboration, synergy.
7. Second improvisation exercise to explore conflict.
8. Discussion of the role of conflict in a safe team and how we might apply this to our teams. - Safe conflict / disagreement
9. Tips for building safety in your teams and key things to look out for.
10. Summary and closing.

Constraints and Class Arrangement

This is a very interactive session and will have participants on their feet a lot throughout. Ideally there will be plenty of space to stand and move about. There needs to be space for a maximum of about 10 people to be stood at the front. While this is the ideal, speak to me if you have concerns and we can come up with a session that works with the space available.

Session History

Over my technical career I have given a number of talks at technical conferences in the UK and Europe, and have also facilitated Unconferences. I also speak regularly through the course of my work to my clients teams.I have also been invited to speak at a number of local Agile Meetup groups (where the talk / workshop Swearing, Nudity and Other Vulnerable Positions has received positive feedback).

There is a link to me delivering the talk for the first time (so it has evolved a little since then) here: https://www.meetup.com/Lean-Agile-Manchester/events/236800330/

There is no video, but you can see the feedback from the sessions:
Agile in Leeds - https://www.meetup.com/Agile-in-Leeds/events/234377674/
Lean Agile Birmingham - https://www.meetup.com/Lean-Agile-Birmingham/events/236801353/

Last Updated 23 Feb 15:49