Ken Power discusses common impediments that prevent smooth work flow in organizations. He identifies nine common impediments, including extra features, delays, handovers, and failure demand. Power also outlines three factors that shape self-organization in human systems: structures, patterns, and conditions. Finally, he provides lessons for solving organizational impediments, such as understanding the nature of problems using the Cynefin framework and focusing on end-to-end value flow using lean thinking.

1. Making sense of organization impediments
What prevents work from flowing
smoothly?
Ken Power
Principal Engineer, Cisco Systems
Tuesday September 15, 2015
@ken_power

2. 2© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.

3. 3© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.

4. 4© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.

5. 5© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.

6. 6© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.
“Expectation is the
root of all
heartache”
- William Shakespeare

7. 7© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.
Start with two
questions
How does work
flow through your
entire organization?
What impedes the
flow of work
through your
organization?

8. 13© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.
Impediment Description
Extra Features Features added without a proven need or valid hypothesis
Delays Situations in which something happens later than it should, and implies a
holding back, usually by interference, from completion or arrival.
Handovers Incomplete work must be handed over from one person or group to another
Failure Demand The “demand caused by a failure to do something or do something right for the
customer”
Work In Progress Work that is not yet complete, and, therefore, does not yet provide any value to
the business or the customer
Context Switching When people or teams divide their attention between more than one activity at a
time
Unnecessary Motion Any movement of people, work or knowledge that is avoidable, impedes the
smooth flow of work, or creates additional inefficiencies
Extra Processes Extra work that consumes time and effort without adding value
Unmet Human Potential Not using or fostering people’s skills and abilities to their full potential
Impediments to Flow
Power, K., and Conboy, K., "Impediments to Flow: Rethinking the
Lean Concept of ‘Waste’ in Modern Software Development", Agile
Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming,
15th International Conference (XP2014) May 26-30, MMXIV, 2014

9. 8© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.

10. 9© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.
Three factors shape patterns and form the conditions
for self-organization in human systems

11. 10© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.

12. 12© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.
Enabling flow through the
organization
probe sense respond

13. 11© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.

14. 14© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.
Failure Demand
Value Demand
Planned' Ready' In'Progress' Done' Accepted'
Exit'Policy:'
Meets'Defini:on'
of'Ready'
(5)'
Exit'Policy:'
Meets'Defini:on'
of'Done'
Exit'Policy:'Item'
meets'
Acceptance'
Criteria'
Exit'Policy:'
Ready'to'be'
deployed'
Exit'Policy:'
Priori:zed'for'
grooming'
(3)'(10)'
T1 T2
Power, K., "Metrics for Understanding
Flow", Agile Software Development
Conference (Agile 2014), 2014

15. 15© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.
Ancona, D., "Framing and Acting in the Unknown", in (Snook, S.A., Nohria, N.N., and Khurana, R., 'eds.'): The
Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being, SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2012
Sensemaking should be a core
capability for individuals, teams
and organizations “so that we can
break through our fears of the
unknown and lead in the face of
complexity and uncertainty”

16. 16© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.

17. 17© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.
77%

18. 18© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.
77%
~70%

19. 19© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.
77%
~30%

20. 20© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.

21. 21© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.

22. 22© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.

23. 23© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.

24. 24© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.

25. 25© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.

26. 26© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.
• Understand the nature of the problem. The Cynefin framework helps here.
• Solve actual problems and causes, not just symptoms. A3 helps with this.
• Create the conditions for self-organization. CDE helps with this.
• Focus on the end-to-end flow of value through your organization, and on
actively removing anything that impedes the flow of work. Lean thinking helps
with this.
• Understand what success and failure could look like before running your
experiments. This will help you pay be selective about the patterns you pay
attention to.
• Reveal impediments to flow and understand their meaning. Sensemaking
helps with this.
Lessons learned for solving organization
impediments

27. 27© 2015 Ken Power. All rights reserved.
Ken is a Principal Engineer and internal coach and consultant with Cisco Systems, Inc. He
lives in Galway, Ireland and works with teams and organizations around the world. His
responsibilities include leading the agile transformation for Cisco’s largest software group.
He also works with universities and research groups in agile, lean and software
engineering research. He is currently completing a PhD in Lean Flow and understanding
impediments in teams and organizations. He is a frequent speaker at the major
international agile, lean and software engineering conferences, and has published
numerous papers on agile and lean development. Ken is a Fellow of the Lean Systems
Society, a certified Human Systems Dynamics Professional, and a trained Co-Active
Coach and Organization & Relationship System Coach.
Biography: Ken Power

28. @ken_power
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kenpower
ken.power@gmail.com
http://kenpower.ie/
With some
graphics by