Each of us can benefit by understanding the universal concepts of work value and waste. But to realize the benefits we must put these in regular practice through the suggested actions.

1. Work Value and Waste
For individuals in a team context
Prabhakar Karve (2018)

2. Purpose of work
We work together to achieve a purpose
• User perspective
• Deliver more value faster
• Business perspective
• Maximize ROI for business
• Team perspective
• Exciting work coupled with peace of mind

3. Work Value and Waste
• Work covers all activities which consume scarce (limited) resources
• For example time money attention and opportunity
• Value is received by the beneficiaries when their material & emotional needs are fulfilled
• Specially watch for emotions like irritation annoyance frustration hurt etc.
• Any work that does not add or contribute to value is a waste
• Waste is unacceptable - eliminate it
• Work not done that could have added significant value
• Is waste of opportunity – plan work for it

4. Value flow and delivery modes
Value steps through Identification Creation Delivery Consumption and back to identification
• Service mode (Direct)
• Human involvement in every transaction
• Stays current with reality and can quickly adjust as needed
• More costly and difficult to scale
• Product mode (Indirect)
• Humans create products that keep delivering value thereafter
• May soon get out-of-sync with current reality
• Scalable and cost effective

5. Why eliminate waste
• Waste prevention restores the true potential of our work
• Let us stop polluting the value through ignorance inertia carelessness & greed
• Let us restore it to its natural beautiful state of high quality agility & productivity
• Quality – Avoiding unwanted creation & pollution keeps the offering simple clean & current
• Agility – Removing wasteful roadblocks & bottlenecks lets value flow smoothly & effortlessly
• Productivity – Value delivered (Potential - Pollution)/Work done (Valuable + wasteful)

6. Action: Make value & waste integral part of thinking
• When you encounter a problem think who is impacted and how
• And who needs to take what actions
• When you see an opportunity think who will benefit and how
• And who can take what actions
• Use this approach during all interactions with team members
• And it will become your natural way to deal with problems and opportunities

7. Action: Use value & waste to guide work prioritization
• Know who is responsible to decide the priorities
• And suggest giving preference for high value low effort work items
• Often we are part of a bigger value creation
• Don’t underestimate your contribution
• When two or more systems engage with each other for a short duration
• Capitalize on the opportunity by acting in the spirit of “Now or never”

8. Why is all this important
• Data is important because it takes us back to reality
• But the way we interpret data is governed by our frame of reference
• Our current frame of reference is made up of our assumptions identifications & beliefs
• Which filter and modify data coming through our senses before it reaches our brain
• Value-driven and waste-conscious thinking enriches this frame of reference
• Which changes the perspective, shifts the direction and modifies the priorities

9. Do I have what it takes to be successful
• Am I lazy enough to want less and less work
• While itching to find better ways to deliver more value faster
• Do I need spoon feeding or
• Can I keep aside pre-conceived notions and be free to look at situations in a new light
• Am I alive enough to enjoy taking ownership
• And start doing whatever it takes to bring the desired changes

10. Thank you

11. Value streams
• Value rides on work
• But value progression may not be same as work progression
• Work can be seen and managed in compartments
• Value has to be seen and managed end-to-end as a single system
• Unless the work is tightly coupled with value
• There is a risk of substantial waste

12. Two types of value Streams
1. Operational Value Streams
Used to deliver end
Customer value
2. Development Value Streams
Used to build the systems
and capabilities that enable
operational Value Streams
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13. Leaders have a tough job of playing multiple roles
• Operational value stream is transactional
• Development value stream is improvemental
• Operational value stream is all about continuity, predictability, and efficiency
• Development value stream is all about change, disruption, and agility
• Development stream improves predictability and efficiency of operational stream
• But the disruption should be minimal and incremental

14. Action: Visualize and get rid of risks
• Know which value stream(s) we are part of along with scope of our involvement
• To be aware of the upstream & downstream activities
• Start understanding how upstream actions / inactions are creating risks for us
• And how our actions / inactions are creating risks for those downstream
• Make dependencies & risks visible across the value stream
• And streamline work flows and information flows

15. Action: Aim for 100%C&A to transform quality
• %C&A = Percentage of created work instances found to be complete & accurate
• Mark as defect any occurrence of incompletion or inaccuracy
• Apart from technical details capture information about impact on value & waste
• Those belonging to identification creation & delivery get together to analyze with integrity
• And summarize this information at the stage of creation for preventive actions
• Goal is to keep improving till we reach 100%C&A and stay there

16. Value streams as a system
• All knowledge work involves people
• Who are diverse and often unpredictable
• Human systems are complex systems
• Need to look beyond simple cause and effect relationships
• Value streams keep getting better and better
• Through a combination of collaboration and competition
• Each of us has a right to look after our interests
• And responsibility to take care of others’ needs too

17. Value streams as a system
• All knowledge work involves people
• Who are diverse and often unpredictable
• Human systems are complex systems
• Need to look beyond simple cause and effect relationships
• Value streams keep getting better and better
• Through a combination of collaboration and competition
• Each of us has a right to look after our interests
• And responsibility to take care of others’ needs too

18. System governance framework
• People can be in different states of empathy
• State A - those who care about their own interests as well as of others
• Provide info: Make them aware of others’ interest
• State B - those who primarily think of only their interests
• Create structures: To influence & motivate to shape their behavior
• State C - those who don’t mind hurting others’ interests
• Enforce rules: Do as told else face the consequences

19. Action: Govern your own system
• Take charge of your domain of control / influence
• To ensure that no part of your system is being treated unfairly
• Locate pockets where people feel compelled to take suboptimal actions
• Because the system is not looking after their interests
• Find ways to know distribution of people in different states of empathy
• Take steps to skew the bell curve towards state A