Most presentations to leaders don’t lead to decisions. They’re overloaded with slides, but they don’t result in action or support.

In this episode of the Humanizing Work Show, Peter and Richard share a proven formula for presenting to leadership that gets results. Learn how to:

• Do the right pre-work so your proposal aligns with what leaders care about

• Craft a clear, practical request

• Use the “Therefore / But” pattern to tell a persuasive story

• Follow through so decisions actually stick

Show notes and transcript: https://www.humanizingwork.com/how-to-present-to-leaders-and-get-results/

Vibe coding prototypes can feel magical. With just a few prompts, an AI builds a working app you can click around and test. But when something looks real, it’s easy to fall into common product traps.

In this episode of the Humanizing Work Show, Peter shares his positive experience vibe coding a drag-and-drop helper app for a NY Times word game, while Richard highlights the hidden risks. Together they explore how confirmation bias, anchoring, sunk cost fallacy, precision/accuracy bias, and optimism bias sneak in when prototypes start looking like products.

The big lesson: don’t use vibe coding to prove your idea — use it to learn.

If you want help learning how to validate ideas systematically — with or without AI — join us in an upcoming CSPO or A-CSPO workshop at Humanizing Work.

Show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.humanizingwork.com/vibe-coding-prototypes-advice/

Share your challenges or episode ideas: mailbag@humanizingwork.com

Connect with us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork

Story points are everywhere in agile teams, but too often they’re misunderstood and frustrating. In this episode, we explain how story points really work as a form of Reference Class Forecasting and show you how to use them the right way.

You’ll learn:

• Why story points often fail teams

• The simple move that makes them accurate and useful

• How to handle common questions about estimation

Whether you’re a product owner, scrum master, or team lead, this episode will help you move past the frustration and get real value from story points.

Show notes, links, and transcript for this episode: https://www.humanizingwork.com/how-to-fix-story-point-estimation/

Estimating feels responsible and concrete, but decades of research and real-world examples show it’s systematically wrong. In this episode, we share Kahneman’s work on the planning fallacy, Flyvbjerg’s analysis of megaprojects, and our own stories of estimation gone sideways. Then we show how reference class forecasting—using past outcomes instead of guesses—creates better plans, restores trust, and helps leaders place smarter bets. Forecasting is also a central move in our Complexity Aware Planning, Estimation, and Delivery (CAPED) framework, giving organizations a reliable way to plan while managing complexity.

Show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.humanizingwork.com/estimating-bad-forecasting-good-episode/
Email us with your thoughts: mailbag@humanizingwork.com
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork

Feedback makes decisions better, but only if it stays in the zone of healthy debate. In this episode of the Humanizing Work Show, we share three practical strategies to keep feedback from tipping into unhelpful argument—and how to recover fast when it does.

You’ll hear real stories of feedback gone wrong, including our own, and how using these tools—decision ownership clarity, the Humanizing Work Feedback Process, and safe-to-try experiments—helped us turn conflict back into progress.

Show notes, links, and transcript for this episode: https://www.humanizingwork.com/debate-to-decision-episode/

Going from “good enough” to “great” takes more than time on task — it takes deliberate practice.
In this episode, we explore the research behind deliberate practice, bust the myths around the “10,000 hour rule,” and show how to apply these principles to product work and team improvement. You’ll learn how to design work that builds skill, creates better outcomes, and keeps you motivated through the discomfort of growth.

• Show notes, links and transcript for this episode: https://www.humanizingwork.com/deliberate-practice-episode/
• Share your challenge or episode idea: mailbag@humanizingwork.com
• Connect with us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork

What if PI Planning didn’t just need tweaks—it needed a reframe?

In this episode, we dig into the painful reality many teams face with SAFe’s PI Planning. We revisit its origin in Toyota’s “obeya” rooms, unpack how the intent was lost, and offer a better approach rooted in complexity science.

Enter CAPED—a four-phase framework that guides teams through Strategic Planning, Active Planning, Analytical Planning, and then Execution. By sequencing planning this way, teams address uncertainty early, collaborate where it matters most, and avoid locking in the wrong plan too soon.

If PI Planning isn’t working for you, this episode offers a path to something that will.

• Register for the upcoming CAPED webinar: https://www.humanizingwork.com/events/breaking-free-from-the-planning-pendulum/
• Share a challenge or idea: mailbag@humanizingwork.com
• Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork
• View the Show Notes and Transcript on the Episode Page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/pi-planning-episode/

Many companies try to attract talent with flashy perks, parties, and ping-pong tables—but what if calm and supportive beats "cool" every time? This week, Peter and Richard reveal why a calm culture is the hidden key to long-term productivity and employee satisfaction. They cover how to foster intrinsic motivation, eliminate unnecessary stress, and design a workplace where real, sustainable work happens consistently.