Complex creative knowledge worker environments require adaptive management solutions such as the Kanban Method. The psychology and sociology of people involved means that prescriptive solutions to process definitions and organizational performance will meet with resistance and the outcomes are unreliable.

1. Individually Smart,
Collectively Stupid
Lean Agile Scotland
Edinburgh
September 2012
David J. Anderson
David J. Anderson & Associates, Inc.
dja@djaa.com
Twitter @agilemanager

2. Division 3 is attracting a lot more interest this
season!
It’s not rational,
man!
2001
Agile Manifesto
Adam Smith
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

3. So was sending Rangers to Division 3, an act of
collective stupidity?
An act of spiteful schadenfreude
(taking pleasure from the misfortunes of others).
Is it irrational economically, serving no other
purpose
than providing that feel good factor from gloating
over the football results every weekend for the
next 3 years?
I don't think so!
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

4. What’s happening to Rangers is tribal & emotional!
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

5. Stack …

To understand how to be collectively smart,
we must understand tribal, social behavior.
Tribal behavior in the workplace can affect
performance and make us look collectively
stupid.

but more about tribes later...
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

6. Delays
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

7. Collective stupidity manifests in poor
flow efficiency
delay
work
time
The first Kanban implementation at Microsoft exhibited 8% flow
efficiency initially.
My personal experience is 5% - 15% before any improvement initiative
is started
Lean
Agile
Scotland
Hakan Forss, a consultant from Sweden reports clients typically exhibit
< 5% flow efficiency
@agilemanager

8. Flow Efficiency in manufacturing industries can
be >70% often >90%
Manufacturing workers appear to be
collectively smart!
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

9. Why is it important to improve Flow Efficiency
and eliminate delay?
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

10. Little’s Law
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

11. Little’s Law
Completion Rate
=
WIP
Lead Time
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

12. Easily validated by visual inspection of a
cumulative flow diagram
Avg. Lead Time
Time
Inventory
Started
Designed
Coded
Complete
30
-M
ar
23
-M
ar
16
-M
ar
9M
ar
2M
ar
eb
Avg. Comp Rate
Lean
Agile
Scotland
24
-F
eb
WIP
17
-F
eb
240
220
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
10
-F
Features
Device Management Ike II Cumulative Flow
@agilemanager

13. Little’s Law
…we increase this
…to maintain this,…
Completion Rate
WIP
=
Lead Time
As this increases,…
We observe that as lead times increases due to delay, we tend to
increase WIP in order to have a steady flow of delivery.
We keep starting stuff!
More WIP tends to cause longer leads times due to multi-tasking and
quality issues.
Vicious cycle can spiral out of control!
Lean
Agile
Scotland
We start more stuff!
@agilemanager

14. In 2005, HP printer firmware division in Boise,
Idaho discovered they had 4.5 years of WIP!!!
This was invisible until they plotted a CFD based
on data from their development tracking system
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

15. Induced Work
the longer the delay to
fix a defect, the longer it
takes to fix
Defect
rate
time
Lean
Agile
Scotland
The longer the delays in designing
something the more likelihood of
defects. This has been observed to
be non-linear.
@agilemanager

16. Eventually, these effects combine to slow the
delivery rate to a trickle while large quantities
of work remain in progress
Lean
Agile
Scotland
And finally we stop starting stuff!
But we still can't finish our work-in-progress
@agilemanager

17. Cost of Delay
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

18. Long lead times add risk and cost. The future is
uncertain and faster delivery gives us greater
certainty of the utility of what we delivering. Note
the use of the word "utility" from economics and
not "value". Utility isn't always a tangible
monetary value. It merely implies usefulness that
didn't previously exist.
The longer it takes to deliver something the less
certain we can be about its utility. There is an
opportunity cost of delay - the risk adjusted utility
of what we are building.
So faster delivery gives us more certainty and is
likely to deliver greater utility.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

19. Stack…


1. Tribal Behavior isn't rational (as Adam
Smith defined it)
2. If we are to be collectively smart we must
address causes of delay
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

20. Lean
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

21. How does Lean improve Flow Efficiency?

Optimize the whole!

Use a Systems Thinking approach!

To understand this, let’s meet some well
known Scottish systems thinkers…
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

22. Graeme Obree
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

23. Alex Ferguson
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

24. So Lean typically employs a system thinking
designer like Graeme Obree or Alex Ferguson.
The designer designs a new system to optimize
the whole and eliminate the waste.
But how well does this scale?
Obree is a craftsman working empirically on a
small scale with few or any collaborators
Ferguson is arguably a (benevolent) dictator of a
small to medium sized enterprise
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

25. Lean text books will tell you to "map the valuestream." In knowledge work, we tend to use an
older term "workflow" as the metaphor of a
stream implies a single direction and knowledge
work flows tend to be complex and involve loops.
So we should "Map the Workflow".
This gives us a definition of our current
process.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

26. How does Lean improve Flow Efficiency?

Optimize the whole!

Use a Systems Thinking approach!

Identify wasteful, delaying activities and
eliminate them
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

27. For knowledge work, this means identifying all the
delays and in turn the causes of delay, and then
designing them out of our future process.
So Lean employs a system thinking designer to
design out causes of delay and define our new
process.
The Lean consultant will then plan and manage
the transition from the old process to the new
process.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

28. So let's take a look at how an experienced and
successful coach introduced a number of famous
Scots to their new future state process…
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

29. [Video clip from Damned United]
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

30. The team may not always accept the proposed
new process definition (or the designers opinion)!
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

31. Stack…



1. Tribal Behavior isn't rational (as Adam
Smith defined it)
2. If we are to be collectively smart we must
address causes of delay
3. People (often) resist defined & managed
change for emotional reasons
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

32. Self-organization
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

33. So, if people will resist being told what to do, or
perhaps our grand system designer can't get it
right all of the time, …
the Agile community argues that we should allow
individuals to self-organize to produce the best
outcome - it's written into the Principles behind
the Agile Manifesto.
The father of self-organization is, of course, a
Scotsman...
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

34. Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

35. Smith believed that all we required was to
construct a set of rational incentives to guide
individual behavior and markets would selforganize around optimal, efficient solutions.
Loosely regulated markets would produce the
optimal system outcome as each individual would
act in his/her own best interests.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

36. Renee Descartes
If we were to
optimize the whole,
all we needed to
do was optimize
the parts by asking
each to act
rationally.
Donaldson Brown
Lean
Agile
Scotland
Fredrick Taylor
Couple this with Cartesian
decomposition and it was
inevitable that the ScottishFrench version of the
Renaissance would deliver us
to Taylorism and the invention
of another great Scotsman,
Donaldson Brown,
CFO at GM, cost
accounting.
@agilemanager

37. Unfortunately, it is this line of thinking that caused
the need for a Lean revolution.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

38. In recent times, the Internet has enabled and
encouraged self-organization on a massive scale.
But the best of these, such as the open source
software development communities like Linux, do
not survive without a benevolent dictator. The
Invisible Hand is indeed very visible and attached
to a human leader.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

39. We might conclude from this that selforganization of large systems of humans is
challenging.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

40. The alternative to
Smith's Invisible Hand
was
constructed by an
Englishman - Thomas
Hobbes and his
Leviathan
Lean
Agile
Scotland
The concept is simple the people cannot be
trusted to act rationally
(ethically or morally)
and hence
must be controlled
through command and
the rule of law.
@agilemanager

41. It was an English
version of the
Renaissance that
gave us socialist 5
year plans and
command and control
structures in
corporations - albeit a
Frenchman, Henri
Fayol, who
documented it as an
approach to
management around
the turn of the 20th
Century.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
Henri Fayol
@agilemanager

42. Now in the 21st Century, we are aware that both
of these extremes don't work. The command and
control Leviathan with its designed outcomes and
5 year master plans have been shown to fail us.
Equally, we suffer at the Invisible Hand that
supposedly guided the markets to act rationally
and optimize the outcome.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

43. Men (and women)
don't act rationally.
Modern knowledge
workers will not be
commanded and
controlled.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
And those that would
command and control
are often working with
flawed plans and
designs built on
incomplete models
and false
assumptions.
@agilemanager

44. Stack…




1. Tribal Behavior isn't rational (as Adam
Smith defined it)
2. If we are to be collectively smart we must
address causes of delay
3. People (often) resist defined & managed
change for emotional reasons
4. After 250 years of the Leviathan & the
Invisible Hand, we need a new philosophy to
guide the organization of human activity in the
21st Century
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

45. Complexity
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

46. So why didn’t Mark Cavendish win Gold at the
Olympics?...
Mark Cavendish
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

47. [video clip of Mark Cavendish]
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

48. The point of this story is that the obvious script
based on observed team capabilities didn't play
out because of the psychology of the people
involved and pre-race events that changed
perception. Had Cavendish not won the final
stage of the Tour De France so convincingly, he
may indeed be the Olympic champion today.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

49. The British, the Germans and the Australians
were "all-in" with their strategy of a sprint finish
with their top sprinter taking the Gold. They
lacked adaptability and despite this lack of
adaptability they also lacked the ability to
collaborate in order for their strategy to have a
chance. They were collectively stupid and
sprinted for 17th place to save face.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

50. Risk
(or, the future is uncertain)
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

51. Risk is the idea that
things may not
work out exactly as
we would like them
to. If we wanted to
measure risk it is
the chance and the
magnitude of an
actual outcome
being different from
our intended
outcome.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
Managing risk is the science of minimizing the
difference between a desired outcome and an
actual outcome
@agilemanager

52. The British, Australian and German cycling teams
failed to manage their risk appropriately. The
complexity of the situation meant that effective
risk management required collaboration that did
not emerge.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
If we ran the race over again, the outcome would
be different, as the starting psychological starting
conditions would be different.
@agilemanager

53. Stack…





Lean
Agile
Scotland
1. Tribal Behavior isn't rational (as Adam
Smith defined it)
2. If we are to be collectively smart we must
address causes of delay
3. People (often) resist defined & managed
change for emotional reasons
4. After 250 years of the Leviathan & the
Invisible Hand, we need a new philosophy to
guide the organization of human activity in the
21st Century
5. Human collaboration creates complexity
from psychological and sociological
influences. Results will change based on the
starting conditions, all other things being
equal
@agilemanager

54. Risk in Knowledge Work
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

55. Unlike manufacturing industry, we often don't
know exactly what benefit will be derived from a
piece of software. It is almost impossible to
determine what a feature or function might be
worth. Individually, one might be worthless, but
combined with others it will have some utility but
precisely how much? This can generally only be
determined retrospectively.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

56. As a result, we can't know with certainty which
ideas for features and functions will produce the
greatest utility. Our reaction to this is to hedge our
bets by working on more than one at a time.
Hence, due to the nature of knowledge work,
multi-tasking is inevitable. It is the economically
smart thing to do.
It turns out, some multi-tasking isn't stupid at
all, it's smart. Multi-tasking helps us mitigate risk.
Multi-tasking buys us options. Options have value
in the face of uncertainty.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

57. But multi-tasking means things take longer, and
longer is likely to affect quality, and incur a cost of
delay. So there is a conflict!
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

58. This should immediately make you think there is
an optimization problem here. What is the
optimum amount of multi-tasking (or additional
work-in-progress) to mitigate the uncertainty of
the future while providing the shortest possible
lead times to maximize the utility of the work-inprogress?
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

59. The truth is there is unlikely to be a recipe for this.
The answer will be situational and context
specific. As we can only have perfect knowledge
from hindsight, the nature of this problem, means
it is unlikely we can design a process to produce
an optimal outcome.
The GB Cycling team showed us this dramatically
during the Olympics.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

60. Instead we want our system to be adaptive and
for it to evolve to produce the fittest possible
process given current circumstances. And should
circumstances change, for that evolutionary
capability to be inherent to our system so that it
can adapt again and again, optimizing the whole
around the current economic challenges of our
business and the risks we are managing.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

61. Stack…





Lean
Agile
Scotland

1. Tribal Behavior isn't rational (as Adam Smith defined
it)
2. If we are to be collectively smart we must address
causes of delay
3. People (often) resist defined & managed change for
emotional reasons
4. After 250 years of the Leviathan & the Invisible
Hand, we need a new philosophy to guide the
organization of human activity in the 21st Century
5. Human collaboration creates complexity from
psychological and sociological influences. Results will
change based on the starting conditions, all other
things being equal
6. To cope adequately with complexity and risk we
need a system that is adaptive and has an inherent
evolutionary capability
@agilemanager

62. Introduction to Kanban
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

63. Kanban systems model workflow and limit WIP at each
step, signaling available capacity, effectively creating a pull
system for work orders. First used at Microsoft in 2005
Lean
Agile
Scotland
White boards were introduced in 2007 to visualize
workflow, signal capacity and show work orders flowing
through the system
@agilemanager

64. Boards typically visualize a workflow as columns (input) left
to (output) right
WIP Limit – regulates
work at each stage in
the process
Pull
Flow – from Engineering
Ready to Release Ready
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

65. Tickets on the board are “committed”
Backlog items remain “options”
Kanban systems defer commitment & enable dynamic
prioritization when “pull” is signaled
5
4
Analysis
Input
Queue In Prog Done
3
4
Development
Dev
Ready In Prog Done
Commitment point
2
Build
Ready
Test
Release
Ready
Stage
Prod.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
Flow
2
@agilemanager

66. Tickets on the board are committed. Items in the
backlog are merely options
5
4
Analysis
Input
Queue In Prog Done
3
4
Development
Dev
Ready In Prog Done
2
Build
Ready
Test
Release
Ready
Stage
Prod.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
Pink tickets show blocking issues
2
@agilemanager

67. Pull criteria policies encourage a focus on quality
& progress with imperfect information
5
4
Analysis
Input
Queue In Prog Done
4
Development
Dev
Ready In Prog Done
Policies
~~~~~~
~~~~
2
2
Build
Ready
Test
Policies
~~~~~~
~~~~
Release
Ready
Stage
Policies
~~~~~~
~~~~
Prod.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
Policies
~~~~~~
~~~~
3
@agilemanager

68. Cost of delay function sketches provide
a qualitative taxonomy to delineate
classes of risk
Function
impact
Expedite – white; critical and immediate cost of
delay; can exceed other kanban limit (bumps
other work); 1st priority - limit 1
time
impact
Fixed date – orange; cost of delay goes up
significantly after deadline; Start early enough &
dynamically prioritize to insure on-time delivery
impact
time
time
time
Standard - yellow; cost of delay is shallow but
accelerates before leveling out; provide a
reasonable lead-time expectation
Intangible – blue; cost of delay is not incurred
until significantly later; important but lowest
priority
Lean
Agile
Scotland
impact
Colour
@agilemanager

69. Allocate capacity across classes of service
mapped against demand
5
4
Analysis
Input
Queue In Prog Done
3
4
Development
Dev
Ready In Prog Done
2
Build
Ready
2 = 20 total
Test
Release
Ready
Allocation
+1 = +5%
10 = 50%
6 = 30%
Lean
Agile
Scotland
4 = 20%
@agilemanager

70. Benefits of a Kanban System

There are predictable benefits from the
merely complicated, mechanical nature of the
system...





Deferred Commitment
Reduced & more predictable lead times
Improved quality from removing overburdening
Improved quality due to focus
Controlled quality due to explicit policies
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

71. The Kanban Method

What I didn’t predict was that kanban
systems, coupled with visualization would
create a positive tension catalyzing process
evolution
Seeing (lack of) flow, understanding system
level effects, enabled improvements in small
evolutionary steps

While kanban systems dealt with merely
complicated system dynamics, they enabled
an evolutionary response to complex
problems
Lean
Agile
Scotland

@agilemanager

72. Definition of
The Kanban Method
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

73. Foundational Principles
1.
2.
3.
4.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
Start with what you do now
Agree to pursue incremental,
evolutionary change
Initially, respect current roles,
responsibilities & job titles
Encourage acts of leadership at
all levels in your organization
@agilemanager

74. Lean
Agile
Scotland
Kanban in Action tried to visually capture the principles
@agilemanager

75. Core practices to enable evolutionary capability
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
Visualize
Limit Work-in-Progress
Manage Flow
Make Policies Explicit
Implement Feedback Loops
Improve Collaboratively
(using models & scientific
method)
@agilemanager

76. System Thinking Approach to Introducing Kanban
Understand Sources of Dissatisfaction
1.


From viewpoint of internal & external stakeholders
Source of variability that cause dissatisfaction
Demand and Capability Analysis
2.

(Ideally) By work item type & class of service
Risk Analysis
3.

Identify dimensions to manage & taxonomies
Model Workflow
4.

Understand the knowledge discovery process by type
Kanban System Design
Visualization
Roll out Plan
5.
6.
7.
Negotiation & shuttle diplomacy
This process tends
to be iterative
Lean
Agile
Scotland

@agilemanager

77. Philosophy Behind
The Kanban Method
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

78. People resist change for emotional reasons. If
resistance wasn't emotional, the logical,
reasoning part of the brain could be persuaded
with rational argument showing improved
economics or risk management.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

79. Emotional reasoning, in this sense, means the
older parts of our brain that process sensory
information and match patterns rather than the
more recent, in evolutionary terms, logical
reasoning part of our brains.
The mistake is to assume humans behave based
on logical reasoning. They don't when there is a
dissonance between the newer logical, thinking
part of our brain and our older, sensory,
emotional brain, the emotional part always wins.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

80. There is a psychological and sociological
component to resistance to change:
The psychology of the individual ego, self-image
and how they derive self-esteem.
The sociology of the workplace tribe, an
individuals position in the tribal hierarchy, how
they are respected and valued within the tribe,
and the tribes own self-image and how it derives
its tribal pride and sense of worth.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

81. When a change is perceived to threaten the
individual’s sense of self or the tribe then it will be
resisted.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

82. Kanban embraces the Zen influenced philosophy
of Bruce Lee. Kanban should be like water! It
should flow around the rock! The rock is
emotional resistance to change.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

83. Initial Kanban implementations should be
designed to avoid emotional resistance by
anticipating the self-image, and tribal
memberships of the individuals
involved. Kanban implementers predict how selfesteem and tribal worth are derived and avoid
changing mechanisms that are core to the
psychology and sociology of the individuals
involved in the change.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

84. The systems thinking approach to introducing
Kanban is designed to identify what can be
improved. The implementation should then be
designed to introduce only the changes that will
not meet with initial resistance while highlighting
and raising awareness of possible future
improvements.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

85. How many psychologists does it take to change a
lightbulb?
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

86. Kanban's visual, tactile and collaborative nature
acts to move the participants to conclude for
themselves that changes need to be made!
Lean
Agile
Scotland
The lightbulb decides to change itself!
@agilemanager

87. There are no teams or organizational structures
defined in Kanban. Keeping existing
organizational structures avoids emotional
resistance.
Changes to roles, team and organization
structures must be self-motivated. Roles and
organizational structures must evolve.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

88. It turns out that the initial implementation of the
kanban (pull) system can often be argued
logically because it does not invoke an emotional
reaction.
Kanban does not threaten the self-image of
individuals or the tribes they are members of.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

89. As a result many of the predictable benefits from
the mechanical side of implementing a kanban
system are easily realized.
Predictability improves
Lead times are reduced
Quality improves
But often it is not enough. To cope with the
uncertainties of demand and future risks, the
organization needs a capability to evolve.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

90. Kanban is not a software development lifecycle
or project management process. It is a method
for creating institutional evolutionary capability.
WIP limits and visualization and a focus on flow
provide the tension to catalyze discussion of
improvement. Hence the cartoon on the cover of
the book!
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

91. Conclusions
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

92. And so, to pop some things from our stack…

Kanban is an approach to institutional
evolutionary capability. This enables an
organization to better cope with complexity.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

93. And so, to pop some things from our stack…


Lean
Agile
Scotland
Kanban is an approach to institutional
evolutionary capability. This enables an
organization to better cope with complexity
Whether a new method or process will be
embraced and implemented successfully
depends a lot on the starting conditions, and
the psychological and sociological elements
in play - just like planning to win the Gold
medal in the Men's Road Race! As a result,
every implementation has to be unique and
the results from one implementation cannot
fully predict the outcome elsewhere
@agilemanager

94. And so, to pop some things from our stack…


Lean
Agile
Scotland
Whether a new method or process will be
embraced and implemented successfully
depends a lot on the starting conditions, and
the psychological and sociological elements
in play - just like planning to win the Gold
medal in the Men's Road Race! As a result,
every implementation has to be unique and
the results from one implementation cannot
fully predict the outcome elsewhere
The field of Behavioral Economics is
emerging to incorporate human psychology
(neuropsychology) and sociology into our
models for economic behavior
@agilemanager

95. And so, to pop some things from our stack…


The field of Behavioral Economics is
emerging to incorporate human psychology
(neuropsychology) and sociology into our
models for economic behavior
Defined and managed change on a large
scale doesn't work because the people
involved resist the changes. Change must be
self-motivated and the organization must be
willing to experiment, mutate and evolve to
cope with changes in the market and the
economic environment.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

96. And so, to pop some things from our stack…
Defined and managed change on a large scale doesn't work
because the people involved resist the changes. Change
must be self-motivated and the organization must be willing
to experiment, mutate and evolve to cope with changes in the
market and the economic environment.

We need a new philosophy to guide how we
organize for the 21st Century economy. The
dichotomy of the Invisible Hand versus the
Leviathan no longer serves us well. Selforganization requires leadership and a
guiding light by which to steer it. Controls
need to define clear boundaries and be neatly
aligned to the risks we are managing. Both
the True North that guides self-organization
and the rules that define the boundaries of
empowerment must be capable of evolving as
conditions change.
Lean
Agile
Scotland

@agilemanager

97. How to be Collectively Smart?
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

98. Waste has to be eliminated by a self-aware
system that mutates and evolves using models to
guide changes
gradually improving
shortening lead times
improving flow efficiency
minimizing cost of delay
and managing business risk better.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

99. The guiding light is faster delivery of work to
produce the better economic results at a
sustainable pace. We must visualize key risks
such as cost of delay, customers to be served
and the quantity and nature of their demand
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

100. An institutional capability to reflect and adapt
needs to be present and we need leadership that
is tolerant to failure and encourages
experimentation.
Our organization should be constantly adapting
and evolving. In doing so waste will be eliminated
– not through grand design & managed change
- but incrementally through evolutionary
adaptation
- self-motivated change, led from within and
implemented without resistance.
Lean
Agile
Scotland
@agilemanager

101. A Decade of Influences
Published June 2012
Lean
Agile
Scotland
115,000 words of
anecdotes explaining
my approach to leadership,
management & change
@agilemanager

102. Kanban Method Explained
Published April 2010
Lean
Agile
Scotland
A 72,000 word
intro to the topic
@agilemanager

103. Thank you!
Lean
Agile
Scotland
dja@djaa.com
http://djaa.com/
@agilemanager

104. http://leankanbanuniversity.com
http://www.limitedwipsociety.org
Yahoo! Groups: kanbandev
Yahoo! Groups: kanbanops

105. About…
David Anderson is a thought leader in
managing effective software teams. He leads
a consulting, training, publishing and event
planning business dedicated to developing,
promoting and implementing sustainable
evolutionary approaches for management of
knowledge workers.
He has 30 years experience in the high
technology industry starting with computer
games in the early 1980’s. He has led software
teams delivering superior productivity and
quality using innovative methods at large
companies such as Sprint and Motorola.
David is the author of three books. The latest is
Lessons in Agile Management – on the Road
to Kanban. 2010 saw publication of the best
selling Kanban – Successful Evolutionary
Change for your Technology Business.
http://leankanbanuniversity.com
Email: dja@djaa.com Twitter: agilemanager
Lean
Agile
Scotland
David is a founder of the Lean Kanban
University, a business dedicated to assuring
quality training in Lean and Kanban for
knowledge work throughout the world.
@agilemanager

106. German
published January, 2011
Lean
Agile
Scotland
Translation by
Arne Roock &
Henning Wolf
of IT-Agile
@agilemanager

107. Spanish
published May 2011
Lean
Agile
Scotland
Translated by
Masa K Maeda, PhD
@agilemanager

108. Kanban System Adoption Examples Globally
USA
McKesson
Vanguard
GoDaddy
Xbox
Motley Fool
CityGrid Media
Ultimate Software
Constant Contact
SEP
REI
Robert Bosch
Chile
LAN
Mainland EU
Ubuntu
Xing
BWin
Brazil ASR
BBVA
Petrobras
CESAR
Phidelils
O Globo
Israel
Amdocs
Answers.com
TypeMock
China & HK
Thomson-Reuters
Nike
Australia
Lonely Planet
Telstra
New Zealand
Ministry of
Social
Development
Lean
Agile
Scotland
Argentina
Huddle
ThomsonReuters
UK
BBC
IPC Media
Financial Times
Microsoft
Scandinavia
Unibet
Volvo
Skania
Spotify
Ericsson
@agilemanager

109. Kanban System Adoption by Industry

Media


Games


Vanguard, Motley Fool, Chase, ASR
Software & Telecoms

Amdocs, Ultimate, Constant Contact, Phidelis, SEP,
Huddle, CESAR, Ubuntu
Public Sector

Ministry of Defence (Denmark), Ministry of Social
Development (New Zealand)
Lean
Agile
Scotland

Includes Robert Bosch, Volvo, Skania, Petrobras,
Nike
Finance & Insurance


Mostly small studios includes video arcade thru
mobile games to online gambling such as Unibet &
Bwin
Manufacturing


Includes BBC, Sky, Lonely Planet, Time/Life, IPC,
Mobile.de, O Globo, Financial Times, NBC Universal,
Thomson-Reuters
@agilemanager