It’s easy to miss the point of Kanban and agile unless you understand some of the context in which it exists. This talk is a brief tour around Systems Thinking, Complexity Theory, Agile Practices, Change Management , Continuous improvement, and Cognitive Neuroscience to explain why Kanban and Agile practices work, and in some cases don’t work.

1. …all the pieces matter
dan brown
@kanbandan

2. dan brown @kanbandan
…all the pieces matter

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I was walking through the garden
(watching my step) …

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History
• Does anyone know when agile started?
• 2001?
• How about 1948?

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Systems Thinking
• W. Edwards Deming
• Taiichi Ohno
• The 95 / 5 rule
• “It’s the System, stupid!”
– John Seddon

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Complexity Theory
• From Stacey…

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Cynefin
• …to Snowden

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Complexity
• Making sense of what we are trying to do
• Allows us to plan for success
• Allows us to be comfortable in changing contexts

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Motivation
• Dan Pink
– Drive
– The surprising truth about motivation
• Mastery
• Autonomy
• Purpose

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Henrik Kniberg

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• Top down doesn’t work
• Bottom up doesn’t work
• Inside out doesn’t work
• Outside in doesn’t work
• Everyone has to work together
• Kaizen Culture
• Top down
• Bottom up
• Inside out
• Outside in
Culture

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Cognitive Neuroscience
• If we do Cognitive work, maybe we should
know more about how our brains work…
• 7±2
• Pairing / Swarming
• “Homo Sapiens is extinct, we are now
Homo Narans – the story telling ape”

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Multi-tasking
• Hands up if you ever mentioned Multi-
tasking on your CV?
• How about in a Job Description?
• Sorry to bring bad news…
– You can’t.
– Really, your brain cannot multi-task
• Task switching is probably the most
expensive activity at Barclays

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Let’s WIP up some Flow
• Work should flow through our system
• Traffic should flow through our roads…
• What can we do when it doesn’t?

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Psychology
• If we do Cognitive work,
maybe we should know more
about how our brains
behave…
• Thinking Fast and Slow
– System 1 and system 2
– Cognitive Biases
– The Belief Barrier

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Maths
(oh yes, I went there)
• Simple maths can give you better
forecasts than estimates
• You don’t need to understand it from first
principles for it to work

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Summary
• Agile & Lean Kanban can work just fine if
you don’t understand the context
• But they have a better chance if you do
• Questions

19. …all the pieces matter
dan brown
@kanbandan