Accelerating Good Decisions: Using Kanban for Distributed Cognition

Accelerating Good
Decisions:
Kanban for Distributed
Cognition
Trent Hone
@Honer_CUT
#agile2017
Trent Hone | @Honer_CUT excella.com | @excellaco

Trent Hone
Agile Coach with
Excella Consulting
20+ years development
experience
Award-Winning Historian
Complexity Theorist

Kanban Systems
Create an Environment of
Distributed Cognition that Accelerates
Effective Decision-Making
What does this mean?
And how do we do it?
Our Topic

History Informs the Present
Prussian “Great General Staff”
Effective decision-making in
conditions of uncertainty
Franco-Prussian War: 1870-71

The U.S. Navy’s inability to
Effectively coordinate forces in
Confused, fast-paced battles
The Historical Problem

Pearl Harbor – December 1941

Prewar Developments
Evolutionary improvement
Effective learning system
Embrace of “Mission Command”
OODA – Observe, Orient, Decide, Act

OODA
Act
Observe
Orient
Decide

Carrier Battles – Early 1942

The Pacific in 1942

Guadalcanal – August 1942

Henderson Field

Prewar: Daylight

Very Different at Night

Radar

Real Radar Displays

The Problem
Captains lose track of the situation
Task forces break down
Coordination proves impossible
But… the information is there

Our difficulty making sense of
Complex and challenging
Knowledge Work
The Current Problem

Knowledge Work
Invisible
Coordination:
Necessary
Difficult
We loose track of the work

Knowledge Work
But… the information is
there
And... the solution is not
“put it in a tool”

Create a System of
Distributed Cognition to
Make sense of complex and
Challenging environments
The Historical Solution

What was done?

What was done?
The Combat
Information Center

Combat Information Center

Combat Information Center
Made the Invisible Visible
New Roles Distributed
Cognitive Load
Allowed Rapid Sense-Making
through Visualization

CIC Results
“At no time was there confusion
or lack of knowledge.”
“Battle… better than most drills.”
“Track charts... superimposed
one over the other.”

System with cognitive capabilities
Greater than the collection
Of individuals that operate
in the system
Distributed Cognition

“The Chinese Room”
John Searle
Inputs
Rules (Responses)
Outputs

Distributed Cognition
Human Systems are cultural
systems
Rules are implicit until we make
them explicit
Rules and Symbols are the tools
for creating distributed cognition

Benefits
Make sense of the current
situation
Lower individual cognitive
burden
Enable self-organization
Foster decentralized
decision-making
Act
Observe
Orient
Decide

A management method for:
1. Directly improving service delivery
2. Catalyzing Improvements
3. Evolving a business to be
“fit for purpose”
The Kanban Method

Kanban Practices
Visualize
Limit Work-in-Progress (WIP)
Manage Flow
Make Policies Explicit
Implement Feedback Loops
Improve Collaboratively, Evolve
Experimentally

Making sense of complex and
Challenging Knowledge Work
Distributed Cognition with Kanban

The ability to quickly and consistently
make the best choice for
the current situation
Distributed Cognition with Kanban

Kanban Seder

Making Policies Explicit
Duration
Description
Completion
Time
Start
TimeAdditional Details

Creating a Pull System
Visualization & WIP Limits
Creates a Pull System
Clear Signals
What action to take
When to take it

Options Ready Define Implement Validate Done
3 5 34
Kanban System
Doing Done Doing Done

Classes of Service
Explicit policies around the
handling of work
Treating work differently based on:
Urgency
Risk
Source of Request
Etc…

Typical Classes of Service
Expedite (ASAP)
Fixed Date
Standard
Intangible

Fixed Date (or Time)
Duration
Completion
Time
Start
Time

3 5 34
Classes of Service
= Standard
= Intangible
= Fixed Date
= Expedite

Capacity Allocation
Explicit policies governing the
handling of risk
Often tied to Classes of Service
Becomes a Decision Framework

3 5 34
Classes of Service with Capacity Allocation
= Standard
= Intangible
= Fixed Date
= Expedite
4
8
3
+1

Will this Scale?

Summary
Distributed Cognition is real
Allows faster, better decisions
Enables self-organization
Helps mitigate risk
It is enabled through:
Effective visualization
Explicit policies

You can do
this too!
Leverage a Kanban System:
Tighter OODA Loop
Better Decisions
Continually Improving Fitness
Book Reference:
Learning War: The Evolution of Fighting
Doctrine in the U.S. Navy, 1898-1945 (2018)

Accelerating Good Decisions: Using Kanban for Distributed Cognition

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