Document in support of presentation made June 2 at Canadian Conference for Developmental Disabilities and Autism

1. PERSONAL
KANBAN
Presented at CCDDA
Sue Johnston
It’s Understood Communication

2. 2|
TableofContents
PersonalKanban
3 6 9
page page page
16 18 24
page page page
Intro
Two
Rules
What
is
PK?
Stages
How
it’s
Used
Wrap

3. Introduction
PersonalKanbanis
atoolthatletsyou
seeyourworkand
manageitsflow.
Ican’tpromiseit
willchangeyour
life.. .
butitmight.
Thisdocument
summarizesa
sessionIledatthe
Canadian
Conference on
Developmental
Disabilities and
Autism, June 2,
2015, inWinnipeg
Options Doing Done
Intro
Whatis
PK?
Two
Rules
Stages
Ways to
Use
Wrap

4. 4|
PersonalKanbanisa
CommunicationTool
PK tells a STORY
Personal kanban tells the story of your work and its value.
“Sticky notes on a whiteboard” sounds simple. Guess what? It
is. And it gets better. It’s easy, too.
PK creates CONVERSATION
Your personal kanban board creates opportunities to have
meaningful conversations with the people you’re working
with.
Fewofus havework
that’spredictable.
Ourworkis oftendriven
byinterruptions.
It’sworkpeopledon’t
reallyunderstand.
Andit’sworkthatfeels
likeitwillneverend.

5. 5|
PersonalKanban
helpsyouseeand
manageyourwork
On each chapter intro page, you’ll see a mini version of a
kanban board, designed to show you how the process works.
At its simplest, headings are ‘Options,’ ‘Doing’ and ‘Done.’
As you work through the booklet, we pull work from the
Options column and you’ll see the sticky notes move across
the three columns.
OPTIONS DOING DONE
Tasks that are
available for
you to do. You
pull from this
column when
you are ready.
Tasks you are
actually
working on at
any one time.
You limit their
number.
Tasks that are
completed.
You define
what ‘Done’
means.

6. What is
Personal
Kanban?
ABriefHistoryofKanban
StopStarting,StartFinishing
Options Doing Done
Intro
Whatis
PK?
Two
Rules
Stages
Ways to
Use
Wrap

7. 7|
ABriefHistoryof
PersonalKanban
The English translation of ‘kanban’
is ‘signal card.’ Small cards were
used to identify steps in the
manufacturing process.
When folks in software develop-
ment began to use ‘lean’ and
‘agile’ processes, they adopted
kanban.
Kanban was developed in post-war
Japan. With no time or material to
waste, Toyota needed more
efficient manufacturing processes.
The focus on pull, rather than
push, helps us avoid situations like
the famous I Love Lucy scene on
the assembly line at the chocolate
factory.
Jim Benson, a city planner,
developed a ‘personal’ version of
kanban to improve individual
work. And he wrote a book about
it.
The key to the kanban process is
that we pull work when we are
ready to do it. It’s not pushed on
us.
‘Kanban’ =
Signal card
P U L L
not
PUSH
‘Agile ‘ in
Software

8. 8|
StopStarting
StartFinishing
One of the reasons we often feel overwhelmed by our work is
that we keep starting new projects before we finish those we
already have on the go.
Personal Kanbanmakes everything you’re doing visible so you
can see what you’re working on.The very act of noticing what
you are doing helps you see what you can say, “Yes,” to.
Our work, home and social lives overlap and influence each
other. Having them visible at a glance helps us see the things
every new activity is competing with for our time, energy and
attention. It helps us make good choices about what to do next.
It’s tempting to take on a new project when we’re at a stuck
place. Knowing we can’t start the new thing till we finish
something already started helps us stay focussed and finish.
And that feeling of accomplishment – that little dopamine hit –
when we finish something is like “candy for the brain.”

9. Two Rules
Rule 1
Visibility
Goodchoices
Rule 2
Limits
Brainstuff
Zeigarnikeffect
Contextswitching
Options Doing Done
Intro
Whatis
PK?
Two
Rules
Stages
Ways to
Use
Wrap

10. 10|
JustTwoRules
MAKE YOUR
WORK VISIBLE
If you can view it, you can
do it. When you can see the
shape and nature of your
work, it’s easier to get your
brain around it.
The brain processes visual
information much faster than
words. Neuroscience is now
confirming that a picture is
worth 1,000 words.
LIMIT WORK IN
PROCESS (WIP)
Work can flow smoothly
when there’s ease in the
system. If you try to squeeze
in too much, everything
grinds to a halt.
Limiting the number of
things you’re working on at
once helps you get things
done. You stop starting and
start finishing.
1 2

11. 11|
Rule1.
Makeworkvisible
WHY?
When your work is visible, you can see:
• The shape of your work
• The bumps and bottlenecks
• Where you’ve been
• Where you’re going
• What you’ve done
• What’s left to doONE WAYONE WAY DETOUR
D - 1

12. 12|
Knowledge work uses one muscle . . .
• It likes a story
• It has visual bias – processes visual info fastest
• It seeks and recognizes patterns
• It likes certainty – wants to know what’s coming
• It needs completion (Zeigarnik effect)
• It cannot multitask (context switching penalty)
• That one muscle wants to involve the body
Rule2.
Limitworkinprogress
WHY?

13. 13|
In the 1920s, Russian psychologist Bluma
Zeigarnik discovered . . .
• There’s a tendency or “need” to complete a task, once
it’s started.
• Lack of closure from an unfinished task promotes
continued cognitive effort.
• This interferes with your ability to focus on what you
are currently doing.
• In other words, something you’ve started stays on
your mind until you deal with it. It ties up mental
energy and processing power, taking it away from
what you’re doing.
• More recent studies have confirmed Zeigarnik’s theory.
Task 1 Task 2 Task 3
TheZeigarnik
Effect
Unfinished Task

14. 14|
TheContext
SwitchingPenalty
Switching from one project to another
forces our brains to set up a new context
for the second project. It’s has to put
away the first one and all its related tools
and ideas and pick up new tools and
ideas. That adds to our cognitive load.
In other words, our brain has to work
to adjust to the new context – and that
takes time.
In his work with software developers,
author Gerald Weinberg calculated the
time lost as we switch contexts. His data
shows that the more work we tackle at
once, the more time we waste adjusting
to the switch.
Limiting our work in progress, Rule 2,
helps us avoid this context switching
penalty.

15. 15|
Rule2.
Limitworkinprogress
Why your boss/client wants you
to limit your W.I.P.
Why YOU want to limit your
W.I.P.
Completion Quality Focus Clarity
Visibility provides awareness
• You understand your capacity
• You focus on tasks at hand
• You feel in control
• You lose that helpless feeling
• You do better work

16. Stages of
Personal
Kanban
Startsimple
Prioritize
Adapt tosuit you
Keepit simple
Options Doing Done
Intro
Whatis
PK?
Two
Rules
Stages
Ways to
Use
Wrap

17. 17|
Startsimple–shape
PKtosuityourwork
andworkstyle
Effort
Value At this stage,
resist the (very
common)
temptation to
overcomplicate
your board.
Keep things
simple.

18. Kanban in
Use
AtypicalPKboard
Ateamboard
Anorganizationalboard
Portableboards
Electronicboards
Options Doing Done
Intro
Whatis
PK?
Two
Rules
Stages
Ways to
Use
Wrap

19. 19|
Someexamplesof
realboards
This is my personal kanban board,
which hangs on the door to my office. It
may be more elaborate than necessary.
As my board evolved, I added rows for the
two primary areas of my business so I
could keep track of those. Recently, I
added rows for marketing, admin and one
for learning/volunteering.
I added a column for “waiting” and add a
smaller sticky describing what/who I’m
waiting for to the original sticky. My WIP
limit is 3 – waiting doesn’t count.
I’ve colour coded meetings, creative work,
writing and planning so I see where my
time goes.
I have an area for things on the horizon
and for recurring events (like
bookkeeping).

20. 20|
This team has been using kanban for just a few
months and its board is evolving. It’s placed
where not only team members can see it - their
internal clients can see, for themselves, the
status of their projects. Team members track the
stages of every element of their projects.
The rows E and U stand for “Expedite”
(“Emergencies?”) and “Unplanned.” If your work
is interrupt-driven, make “Chaos,” “Surprises” or
“Unplanned” one of the tasks of your Work In
Progress limit.
Each member of this team has a set number of
magnets with their name on it equal to their
WIP limit. (The images are LEGO people.) When
someone’s magnets are gone, s/he can’t take on
new work till something is finished.
Did you notice they’ve written, “Stop
starting, start finishing” right on the board?
Here’s an example of a team board for
a marketing department.

21. 21|
Every project in this organization is
tracked and updated as work
progresses. Departments have their own
more detailed boards, such as the one
on the previous page.
The division executives meet by the
board twice a week and, within a few
minutes, know the status of every
initiative. They can make decisions
required to clear bumps and bottlenecks
that their departments can’t clear by
themselves.
As you can imagine, it took several
months to get to this stage. But, after
two years, they have developed a
cadence – and nobody misses a
meeting.
This kanban board fills all four
walls of a conferenceroom.

22. 22|
When I travel or work in someone else’s
office, I take along my portable kanban
– just a file folder.
The board below is in a small Moleskine
notebook.

23. 23|
Yes, there are online versions of kanban.
They’regood when your team is scattered,
but are less powerful as they are not
always visible.
Trello and LeanKit are two online kanban systems I have
used.These screen shots are from the free versions. .

24. Summary
Funforthewhole family
Keepsmeetingsontrack
Findout more
HowtocontactSue
Options Doing Done
Intro
Whatis
PK?
Two
Rules
Stages
Ways to
Use
Wrap

25. 25|
Someexamplesof
realboards
People of any age can use Personal
Kanban.
You can use it at home as well as at
work. A friend has one for books she’s
reading. I add personal things to my
big board. But I have a separate board
for sewing projects.

26. 26|
Someexamplesof
realboards
These ladies are using a PK-related
process called Lean Coffee to
manage their meeting.
Participants each bring a few topics
they want to discuss. Using “dot
voting” they select the topics of
highest interest and place them in
the Ready column.
One at a time, they pull topics into
Doing and discuss each for a set
time.
When time’s up, they can vote for
more time or move the topic to Done.
Learn more at http://leancoffee.org/

27. 27|
Jim Benson
@OurFounder
Tonianne DeMaria Barry
@Sprezzsatura
http://moduscooperandi.com
http://personalkanban.com
These people “wrote the book” on
Personal Kanban

28. 28|
sue@itsunderstood.com
http://itsunderstood.com
http://talktomebook.com
http://leanintuit.com
@itsunderstood

29. The End
Options Doing Done
Intro
Whatis
PK?
Two
Rules
Stages
Ways to
Use
Wrap