Category: Improvement

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Agile & Lean

What is and what is not, in the simple words and thoughts of a lifelong learner, creative professional and an incorrigible ‘failer‘ (not failure!).

Agile:

1. Able to move quickly and easily.  Synonyms: nimble, lithe, supple, limber, acrobatic, fleet-footed, light-footed, light on one’s feet;

2. Relating to or denoting a method of project management, used especially for software development, that is characterized by the division of tasks into short phases of work and frequent reassessment and adaptation of plans.

Lean:

verb

1. Be in or move into a sloping position. Synonyms: slant, incline, bend, tilt, be at an angle, slope, tip, list

noun

1. A deviation from the perpendicular; an inclination.

Some people believe that businesses are lean or agile, or that teams are lean or agile.  The truth is that we assign these individual traits to collections.  Only living, sentient beings can be agile or lean.  You must be able to plan, do, check and adjust (PDCA  or Demming Method) your behaviors and actions based on learnings from previous outcomes!

If a collection is described as lean or agile they must have more people in the organization that have these traits than people who do not, or the leadership(empirical) who have an overwhelming impact on the others, is strongly aligned to these traits.

Two quick examples:

Microsoft with Steve Ballmer as the leader was not considered ‘Innovative’ even though they had products that were.

Microsoft under Satya Nadella is considered innovative and they have many products and services that are innovative and agile. In fact, some tech blogs are now saying Microsoft is moving too fast with Windows 10!

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/empirical

With this established as a baseline, I now feel comfortable explaining how and why I embrace Agile and Lean, as well as how it ties into the Lego world, to me!

Lego Serious Play is about learning by doing (Kinesthetic Learning), it is by it’s very nature empirical, in other words, you move forward by learning and doing.  It is experiential learning!  The power of this type of learning is nothing short of incredible.

The graphic below is an excellent articulation of the nature of experiential learning and the ability to learn, grow and make better decision, more effective planning/strategy and execution.  I look forward to dialogue in this group!

Kinesthetic Learning is applying knowledge, from the image above, outside of it’s boundary to try to apply it to new things.  Simple examples, a ‘cordless’ phone used to mean a phone with a local receiver and base station.  That boundary was moved into a new paradigm.  Solving the first problem, lead to the second solution, what we call a cell phone today.  You could easy apply the same model to mobile computing!

Thanks!

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Work in Progress (WIP)

WIP is an important concept in Lean and Agile.

By definition, WIP is: a form of inventory, usually unfinished goods which still require further work, processing, assembly and or inspection. This type of inventory is usually found within steps or sub-processes of a production process. Only raw materials which have commenced to move through their value adding processes can be classified as WIP.  Raw materials which have still not been worked with are still classified as raw materials. Work in progress is usually the major type of inventory in a one bin or two bin system.

Why #WIP is Important
Work in progress is considered a type of waste just like inventory, as it ties up cash for a certain period of time which could be generating higher returns elsewhere in the organization. In a large manufacturing facility even small amounts of #WIP can add up to a large sums of capital locked up in this type of inventory.

In the #agile world this means simply, #WIP limits delivery of Value, something critical to successful agile teams.

The presence of unnecessary work in progress can also be an indicator of an unreliable supply chain, lack of proper production planning, excessive manual labor required in the production process, production line balancing or supply chain which are causing unnecessary delays and build-up of work in progress inventory. This may warrant further analysis. An efficient productive system should only pull materials through when needed , without the need for much #WIP. This is the concept of Just in Time and is what ultimately led to the utilization of #KANBAN Systems (Kanban Boards)

In the #agile world, this is realized in a number of ways, but essentially it comes down to Spent Costs, which further dissuades teams from focusing on value and instead has them focus on non-economic drivers. This is also an inhibitor to moving quickly to MORE valuable work because people and resources are over utilized on non-value realized work.

In the agile world this is critically important to ensuring teams complete their work within a time box (Sprint, Iteration, Increment, Release).  In order to ensure that the team consistently delivers value and has good Flow, the teams Focus on a few stories at a time, they limit #WIP

Work in progress also presents a business risk to the company because #WIP will usually be stored on the factory floor, close to machinery, plant and equipment and also mobile equipment traffic areas.

The video below provides a good understanding of optimizing a system for flow, rather than applying traditional management thinking since often the system has a number of sub optimal processes or work units. We want adjustments and value to be understood in terms of the entire system used to deliver the value. This type of thinking is commonly referred to as #Systems Thinking and there are a number of management models and books on the topic.

In my next post I will talk about a corollary to #WIP called #batch size.

Until then, enjoy this video!

Jacksonville, FL·Posted Oct 17, 2018
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No challenge is too large for the mind or the will of men!

Every day when we come to the office we tend to get bogged down in the minutia of the day.  Email, Instant Messages and Phone calls take our time in between meetings.  We stay busy and work extra to keep up with the daily barrage of information.

 

Yesterday was June 6, and it was the D-Day anniversary, one of the greatest challenges ever faced by mankind, the liberation of Europe from a heavily fortified enemy by the Allied Forces.  The History channel summarizes it this way:

During World War II (1939-1945), the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. Prior to D-Day, the Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target. By late August 1944, all of northern France had been liberated, and by the following spring the Allies had defeated the Germans. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe.

 

In context our daily challenges certainly seem small, but they are not inconsequential to us!  They are the problems we have to deal with every day!

 

If you have never read the book by Stephen Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, it is certainly worth a read, even if you read the cliff notes version.

 

One of the key paradigms he talks about in the book is effective time management via prioritization.  He uses a simple grid (shown below) to demonstrate how we can get caught up in the output but not focus on the outcome.  This is a key difference in the agile mindset.  Teams need to be focused on the outcome, not necessarily the output.  To that end we must focus a great deal of time and energy on limiting our Work in Process and focusing on delivering the things that bring the MOST value first, and the things that bring little value may get done later.  This shift in focus is very difficult to execute in the enterprise workplace because it is often hard to know what is most valuable and what is the current priority.  Most of us tend to rely on our leadership to keep us focused on priorities.  Sometimes that causes us to not deliver value, or to switch tasks frequently.  In other words, we create outputs instead of outcomes.

Quadrants of priority work

Since this takes some time to master, you might try this in your personal life first to get comfortable with the thinking and effort it takes to use this approach.  You might find that cleaning the garage gets put off in order to read that book that helps you manage your time better!

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Knowledge and Knowledge Management

There is a lot of talk about Communities of Practice (CoP).  You may have already heard about something called a Center of Excellence (CoE).

While the 2 entities have common goals and objectives and generally support improvement throughout the organization, they are targeted towards different groups and ways of interacting.

As background, it is important to look at how knowledge is gained, and how organization knowledge is gained and ultimately shared and managed.  For the individual, a sample knowledge model might look as follows:

The DIKW model:

In this model, there is a representation of how an individual gains knowledge through a process of acquiring data and maturing it. This is a common model and provides a good basis for the value of Training and Continual Learning.  Noting that application of Data and Information is critical to acquiring the Knowledge/Wisdom Level.

If you want to learn all about the DIKW model, there is an excellent paper in the Journal of Information Science, entitled ‘The wisdom hierarchy: representations of the DIKW hierarchy’ (PDF) and written by Jennifer Rowley of the Bangor Business School.

Organizations acquire knowledge differently.  Typically through the acquisition of people or expansion of the existing workforce’s knowledge bands.

This brings us back to an earlier discussion about Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. In order to facilitate the knowledge growth in an organization the following CoP’s might be established:

    • Product Owner CoP
    • ScrumMaster CoP
    • Leadership CoP

Some background on CoP vs CoE:

Centers of Excellence (CoE)

SUPPORT: For their area of focus, CoE’s should offer support to the business lines. This may be through services needed, or providing subject matter experts.

GUIDANCE: Standards, methodologies, tools and knowledge repositories are typical approaches to filling this need.

SHARED LEARNING: Training and certifications, skill assessments, team building and formalized roles are all ways to encourage shared learning.

MEASUREMENTS: CoEs should be able to demonstrate they are delivering the valued results that justified their creation through the use of output metrics.

GOVERNANCE: Allocating limited resources (money, people, etc.) across all their possible use is an important function of CoEs. They should ensure organizations invest in the most valuable projects and create economies of scale for their service offering. In addition, coordination across other corporate interests is needed to enable the CoE to deliver value.

Communities of Practice (CoP)

SUPPORT – provision of a network of experts from both inside the organization and from outside

GUIDANCE – a CoP can be entrusted to devise and document best practices, standards, methodologies, tools, bodies of knowledge

SHARED LEARNING – Except for actually creating formalized roles in a company hierarchy, a CoP does all the same things as a CoE under this heading, plus provides mentorship, apprenticeships, and access to external informal and formal trade groups.

MEASUREMENTS – besides providing measurements of efficacy, a CoP typically describes what measures are appropriate for the proper execution of the domain of expertise or trade

GOVERNANCE – in this one dimension a CoP differs greatly from a CoE and instead of managing resources, a CoP strives to refine and improve the domain of expertise itself. A central function of the CoP is to improve the domain itself rather than simply managing its deployment. A CoE for project management seeks to improve the deployment of project managers and the like in furtherance of operational targets, whereas a CoP would seek to improve the entire field and practice of project management itself.

These distinctions will serve you well as you plan to improve and harness your organization, and leading transformations into a future of unleashed talent to build your solutions.

In a future article, I will add some additional information to help you further these ideas.

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What makes agile, Agile?

The early founders of the ‘agile movement’ we’re just people who had been involved in solution development and just spent time thinking about how they could do their jobs better.  They spoke plainly and tried to use basic concepts that could guide their decision making and be repeatable.

Often in our daily lives we will tend to try to make ourselves look ‘smart’, ‘sophisticated’, ‘technical’, ‘innovative’ and so on.  usually to do this, we end up sounding like a lawyer or a professor from university.

On a recent trip, I had a chance to speak to farmers from another country.  In the US, we tend to see farming as a science now.  We use chemicals and computers and computer modeling.

As I spoke with these farmers they told me of how important weather was to them, and their planning.  The weather, or bad weather, could risk crops, animals and harvests as well as have negative and ripple effects on other planning.  In fact, they spent so much time telling me about the weather it was easy to see this information was extremely important to them and they would not risk getting it from a trusted source.

Interestingly, as the weather report came on the radio in the shop I was in, I noticed no one paid attention to the radio broadcast.  I found this really odd, as a tourist I was very interested in the weather too, and while I strained to hear and understand what was being said, they went about their business.

I asked the shop operator if he could help me by explaining some of the terms used in describing the weather better.  The operator, in a heavy accent, said ‘Nye’, if you want the weather accurately don’t listen to that ‘Uni’ TV guy, call up the postman.

Without a translator, I felt lost.  Why would I ask the man who delivered the mail about  the weather?  Did he get some special piece of information possibly controlled by the government to ensure mail delivery?  Was this kept secret from people who’s lives and livelihoods depended on it?  Why weren’t these farmers annoyed and alarmed?  It was very confusing.

As I returned to the tour bus I asked the local guide about this odd conversation.  The following is how it was explained to me, without the heavy accents and as little folklore as I can use!!

The local farmers had for years complained about the weather reports in the area.  They had become so frustrated with the accuracy that they even tried to remove the weatherman on the ‘telly’. He used to ouch science and words to make simple things complex and accuracy and precision were lost as he tried to impress with his explanation of ‘how’ weather was forming rather than getting the predictions correct and timely.  This problem lead to the ‘need’ for someone to step in and solve this problem.  Enter the ‘Postman’

Every day, after dropping the mail, a local man would go home and consult several pieces of information and create a file for the next day.  The file predicted sunrise and sunset, chances of rain, El Niña, La Niña  etc, winds and interestingly the tides, and predicted time times, as well as previously reported reports for the dates and accuracy of the reports.  Lastly of course was the high and low temps.

This man was not university educated, but rather spent time improving his craft through basic plan, do, check and adjust cycles.  Over time, he had become a local celebrity.  His passion for accurate weather reports, and experimentation with his own beliefs about what impacted weather lead him to form his own set of experiences and learnings.  He didn’t allow what he had been taught to always direct his reports, but instead spent time continuing to learn and adapt this thinking.  The goal was not the report, the goal was improving his own accuracy, incrementally, over time.

As I listened to the story I thought how agile of this man.  He took his simple principles and followed them, and then applied the data he had to make his next set of predictions about the outcomes.  He then recorded the outcomes, made notes about how his predictions had come out, then add any adjustments he felt necessary, repeated the process.  Maybe that is really Agile, not agile.

What is your experience? Are you being asked and are you doing, the right thing, right?

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What is Servant Leadership?

Last weekend we saw the NFL coaching staff on the sidelines dressed in camouflage and other clothing that celebrated the military, in recognition of the sacrifices made by Veterans as well as to celebrate Veteran’s Day.

With the Veteran’s Day in mind, the focus this week is on servant leadership … there is no greater demonstration of servant leadership than the service to one’s own country.

What is servant leadership?

Skip Prichard notes that a Servant Leader is one who:

    • Values diverse opinions: A servant leader values everyone’s contributions and regularly seeks out opinions.  If you must parrot back the leader’s opinion, you are not in a servant-led organization
    • Cultivates a culture of trust: People don’t meet at the water cooler to gossip. Pocket vetoes are rejected.
    • Develops other leaders: It means teaching others to lead, providing opportunities for growth and demonstrating by example.  That means the leader is not always leading, but instead giving up power and deputizing others to lead.
    • Helps people with life issues: It’s important to offer opportunities for personal development beyond the job.
    • Encourages: The hallmark of a servant leader is encouragement.  And a true servant leader says, “Let’s go do it,” not, “You go do it.”
    • Sells instead of tells: A servant leader is the opposite of a dictator. It’s a style all about persuading, not commanding.
    • Thinks you, not me: There’s a selfless quality about a servant leader.  Someone who is thinking only, “How does this benefit me?” is disqualified.
    • Thinks long-term: A servant leader is thinking about the next generation, the next leader, the next opportunity. That means a tradeoff between what’s important today versus tomorrow, and making choices to benefit the future.
    • Acts with humility: The leader doesn’t wear a title as a way to show who’s in charge, doesn’t think he’s better than everyone else, and acts in a way to care for others.  She may, in fact, pick up the trash or clean up a table.  Setting an example of service, the servant leader understands that it is not about the leader, but about others.

In summary, servant leadership is about putting the needs of others first and helping people develop and perform to their highest potential. In the Agile world we look to the role of Scrum Master to be a beacon of servant leadership. The Scrum Master puts the team needs first and has the responsibility for protecting the team from external noise that may distract from the planned activities for value delivery while also fostering their growth and development.

Writer James Hunter explains how to become or hone your Servant Leadership approach in a book titled: The Servant Leadership Training Course.  In his book he states:

  • Servant leadership is a business philosophy that emphasizes the act of the leader, such as a manager or supervisor, focusing on the growth and development of their employees and ensuring their success. In doing so, the leader succeeds when their employees do. In a business team, servant leadership can not only help employees achieve and grow, but it can also benefit their leaders and the company as a whole.

He describes Leaders such as Ghandi, Dr. King, Mother Teresa and others. As you read the information below see if you agree that these people served others, and also led them. Then ask yourself if you do.
Hunter breaks Servant Leadership into three critical areas: Skill, Influence, Character

Leadership is the skill of influencing people to enthusiastically work towards goals identified as the common good, with character that inspires confidence!

    • Skill: A skill is something that can be learned or an acquired ability.
    • Influence: the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.
    • Character: Moral maturity. Your ability to do the ‘right thing, even when no one is looking’.

The United States Marine Corps defines leadership as:

    • The qualities of moral character, that enable a person to inspire and influence a group of people successfully.

If you are interested in learning more about how to become a better servant leader, or you think you are ready to help, please let us know!