This document discusses enterprise flow and creating value through meaningful work. It describes how adopting an approach focused on flow can help organizations increase delivery rates while reducing failures. It presents organizations as flow systems and discusses various impediments to flow at the team and enterprise levels. It also covers concepts like feedback loops, constraints, stocks and flows. The document advocates viewing organizations through the lens of complexity science and systems thinking rather than the traditional machine metaphor. It promotes the use of simulations and workshops to help organizations explore flow-based ways of working.

1. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 1patrick.steyaert@okaloa.com
January 2017
Enterprise flow
Creating value through meaningful work

2. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 2
Success?
average system lead times
have dropped from 8 to 2
weeks
all the while reducing failure
load by improving quality
Increased delivery rate
by 40%

3. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 3
Local optimization
Delivery rate
Development lead time
Quality
DeliveryBusiness /
Customer
End user

4. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 4
Business agility
Agile Development Agile Business
Worker pull Customer pull
Responding
to change
Driving change
Collaboration
(within team)
Emergent
Co-creation
(with customers and
network)
Sustained

5. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 5
The agile landscape today
Islands of agility that often require sustained agile coaching rather
than leading to sustained business agility

6. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 6
A deeply rooted Metaphor
The organization as a machine is a deeply rooted metaphor
embedded in classical science reinforced by the success of the
industrial revolution. It is the dominant metaphor for the 20st
century analog organization.F = ma
Rigid rules Efficiency PlansInterlocking parts

7. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 7
Not just rational
Also intuitiverational
brain The rider
intuitive
brain The
elephant
Intuitive thinking plays a
dominant role in making
judgment calls
Thinking is rational as well
as intuitive
It is based on past
experience

8. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 8
A different way of thinking
Action
Results
Thinkin
g
Closedloop
Openloop
RATIONAL
We are implementing
agile practices and agile
practices are good.
If we don’t get the
expected results, then we
need to push harder.
INTUITIVE
Agile practices and how
they are sustained is a
result of our (intuitive)
thinking.
If we don’t get the
expected result then we
need to re-examine our
thinking (intuition).

9. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 9
Self-organization

10. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 10
FLOW
MOVING ALONG IN A STEADY, CONTINUOUS STREAM
CREATING VALUE THROUGH MEANINGFUL
WORK

11. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 11
Systems thinking
“
The performance of a system is
not the sum of its parts.
It is the product of its
interactions.”
Russell Ackoff

12. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 12
Organizations as Flow systems
A new metaphor of organization that is rooted in the new
science of complexity and forms a synthesis of self-
organization, flow and systems thinking. It is the metaphor for
the 21st century digital organization.
impedance feedback constraintsStocks and flows

13. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 13
Team flow system
Ideas Ready
for Dev
Development Testing Ready
for UAT Done
ongoing done
Abandoned
(5)
(3)
IN-FLOW OUT-FLOW
STOCK
(Work-In-
Progress)

14. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 14
End-to-end flow
The value stream as a flow system
UPSTREAM / Discovery
End-to-end flow from identified to satisfied need!
DOWNSTREAM /
Delivery
Improve capability to better
meet demand1
Anticipate, manage, create
and shape the demand 2
3 Alignment

15. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 15
Enterprise flow
Not just flow of
work, but also
flow of value
Ultimate flow
End-to-end flow
Team flow

16. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 16
Impedance
All flow is subject to friction
Resistance Capacitance Inductance
E.g. DefectsE.g. Sprints, releasesE.g. Technical debt

17. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 17
Common impedance
Team flow
Work in progress
Starting work
Blocked work
(resistance)
Defects
(inductance)
Planning
(capacitance)
Finishing work

18. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 18
End-to-end flow
Impedance mismatch
DeliveryDiscovery
STOCKS
SILOS
TENSION
Flow of outgoing
(work)
Flow of incoming
(options)

19. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 19
Feedback
Loops that sustain a flow regime

20. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 20
No flow regime
Team flow
Work in progress
Starting work
Blocked work
(resistance)
Defects
(inductance)
Finishing work

21. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 21
No flow regime
Enterprise flow
Problem or opportunity
Concept
Product
Solution
Feedback

22. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 22
constraints
The route to regime change
Constraints that govern flow in the
established flow regime.
(maintaining existing feedback loops)
Constraints that create a new
regime of flow.
(creating new feedback loops)

23. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 23
From capacity to WIP
constraints Enabling team flow
Work in progress
Starting work
Blocked work
(resistance)
Finishing work
WIP constraint
(enabling constraint)
Capacity constraint
(governing constraint)

24. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 24
Customer Kanban
Enabling end-to-end flow
Finish request
Start request

25. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 25
Anticipating Feedback

26. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 26
Organizations as Flow systems
A new metaphor of organization that is rooted in the new
science of complexity and forms a synthesis of self-
organization, flow and systems thinking. It is the metaphor for
the 21st century digital organization.
impedance feedback constraintsStocks and flows

27. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 27
Closing the loop
Flow systems as a foundation for sustained business agility
The past The future
Flow systems
Business Agility
Practices ExperienceMindsetAgile coach
Practices
Mindset

28. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 28
Okaloa flowlab
Business simulationsrational
brain The rider
intuitive
brain The
elephant
Quickly iterate between
theory and practice
Engage the intuitive as
well as the rational brain
Explore current and
future way of working in a
safe environment

29. Enterprise flow© Patrick Steyaert, 2017 29Visit www.okaloa.com/flowlab
I have attended a Flowlab
workshop and it is the best to
start with agile.
A. Kulkarni
Flowlab really helps in
understanding the core of agile
and Kanban.
U. Sinha
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