going beyond wip limits for ever-higher organizational performance
TRANSCRIPT
GOING BEYOND WIP LIMITSFOR EVER-HIGHER ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE
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22 February 2017
GOING BEYOND WIP LIMITS FOR EVER-HIGHER ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE
Presented by Michael Hannan, PMP, TOC JonahFounder & Principal Consultant, Fortezza Consulting
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MY PROMISE TO YOU FOR THIS SESSION:Inspire and excite you on the topic of organizational performance improvement.
MY WILD-EYED STRETCH GOAL FOR THIS SESSION:Help you maximize your impact as leaders, so that you might advance
humankind through the pursuit of dramatically higher levels of organizational performance.
Copyright © 2017 Fortezza Consulting, LLC
On September 11, 2001, the largest sealift rescue initiative in the history of humankind was carried out, rescuing over 35 times more people per hour than the next largest — the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk.
Youtube search “9-11 Boatlift”
Also check out a keynote presentation I gave on this—go to www.FortezzaConsulting.com/videos (It’s the “Accelerate Results” conference video.)
What do these four things have in common?
1.= 500
people
The 9-11 rescue
throughput
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Dunkirk’s rescue
throughput
In the past 10 years, a major pharmaceutical company found a way to double the number of life-saving drugs it brought to market, with no increase in cost.
What do these four things have in common?
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2.
What do these four things have in common?
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In the span of just a few years, Amazon went from deploying new software < 10 times a day to deploying new software more than 7,000 times a day.
3.= 10 times a day
In its first 8 years, SpaceX made space launches 5x less costly, and in the next 8 years, expects to make them 100x less costly.
What do these four things have in common?
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4.
Cost per lb to Low-earth Orbit
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Poll: What do these four things have in common?
Step 1: Start with unbridled enthusiasm for unlimited upside
Step 2: Identify the most essential building block for dramatic performance improvement
Step 3: Craft a disciplined approach based on that building block
Step 4: Challenge conventional wisdom Step 5: Start asking “How might we…”
Logical progression of webinar
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…and don’t ever stop
STEP 2:IDENTIFY THE MOST ESSENTIAL BUILDING BLOCK
FOR DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT
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STEP 2: Task-switching game
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Round #1 Round #2
data
poi
nts
First round results with task switching
Second round results with
focus
time to complete
Almost twice as fast!
2σ ~ 90% 2σ ~ 60%
STEP 2: Typical game results
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2x 3x 4x 6x
8x 12x
STEP 2: If simple tasks see a 2x improvement…
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Block off calendar time Turn off Outlook pop-
up notifications Put your phone on
silent Turn on a “heads
down” auto-reply email
Put a sign on your door
Work from home, and/or work non-standard hours
USB lights
STEP 2: A few simple ways to drive single-tasking
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STEP 3:CRAFT A DISCIPLINED APPROACH BASED ON THAT BUILDING BLOCK
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Lean/Kanban− Visualizing the actual flow of work is critical to
identify impediments and to experiment with improvements
− Enabling the system to “pull” work improves flow while empowering teams
− Minimizing batch sizes—ideally down to “single-piece flow” — can generate impressive flow improvements
− Keeping “work in progress” (WIP) within capacity is key to maximizing flow
STEP 3: Craft a disciplined approach
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Theory of Constraints, Psychology– Single-tasking is a highly effective way to minimize
lead times for human tasks– Maximizing flow across a complex organization
(system) can only be done once the system constraint is identified
STEP 3: Craft a disciplined approach
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Agile/Scrum, Psychology− The team can find ways to improve flow more
effectively than any single member− The team is much more motivated when working
under a disciplined framework designed to foster team autonomy
STEP 3: Craft a disciplined approach
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Number of Task Owners
8
Ensure that this number…
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…is never higher than this number
STEP 3: Is single-tasking actually happening?
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Previous productivity level
Impediments; lapses
in single-tasking
Improved single-task discipline
Over 2X!
2 months
STEP 3: 700-person IT projects organization
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task
s
summary cumulative flow diagram
STEP 4:CHALLENGE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM
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Conventional wisdom: Impose single-tasking with WIP limits on individual users.
STEP 4: Challenge conventional wisdom
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Better idea: Allow the team to experiment with different “Team WIP Targets.”
STEP 4: Challenge conventional wisdom
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Better idea: Allow the team to experiment with different “Team WIP Targets.”
STEP 4: Challenge conventional wisdom
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Better idea: Allow the team to experiment with different “Team WIP Targets.”
STEP 4: Challenge conventional wisdom
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Individual/Team WIP Limits
• Limiting WIP is usually a great first step for improving flow
• “I’ve set a limit on each of you, and you all must comply!”
• Some workers feel incentivized to “game the system”
• Not as conducive to a “How might we…?” culture
Team WIP Targets Based on Single-Tasking
• Encourages a target based on single-task behavior
• Allows total flexibility for teaming up on tasks
• If you’re way over or under target, the team can see it and explore why
• Fosters experimentation• “We trust you, and want to
help you pursue ever-higher levels of team performance”
STEP 4: WIP limits vs WIP targets
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Can speed up any project or operation and be used with any methodology
Can complement key characteristics of Agile:◦ Self-organized Scrum Teams, user stories, story points,
backlogs, burndown charts, retrospectives, customer transparency, scope buffering, and more
◦ Offers an option to replace time-boxed sprints with single-piece flow to improve velocity and predictability of execution
Speed improvements in real-world environments have ranged from 30% to 300%
The Focus-and-Flowtm Method
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Can certainly take a “copy/paste” approach to propagate across teams, with leadership reinforcement of the “How might we…?” culture
For project-centric organizations, elevate the application of WIP Targets from the task level to the project level◦ For Agile portfolios already using scaled approaches like
SAFe, can simply enhance with “Project-level WIP Targets,” and experiment with what target yields the highest throughput of project completions
◦ For a more universally applicable approach designed for maximum throughput, I recommend Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM), which calls for staggering projects according to the capacity of the most constrained resource type
How to scale this approach
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Fortezza Consulting is offering new customers a “30/30” guarantee:◦ Guaranteed 30% speed improvement in 30 days or less, for
teams up to 30 people in size Happy to craft a larger-scale approach—with a similar
guarantee—for enterprises looking for organization-wide implementation
◦ Consulting and coaching paired with your 30-day free trial of LeanKit
◦ Check out details at http://www.FortezzaConsulting.com/30-30/
Simply schedule a 30-min call with me by going to http://www.FortezzaConsulting.com/appointments/
Getting started
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Fortezza Consulting resources◦ Blog
www.FortezzaConsulting.com/blog◦ Email subscription
www.FortezzaConsulting.com/stay-connected◦ Book (Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover)
www.FortezzaConsulting.com/new-book
LeanKit resources◦ Blog (LeanKit.com/blog)◦ Learning Center (LeanKit.com/learn/kanban)
Where can I learn more
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Q&A
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For a team of 20 paired programmers, are you saying they should just pick a Team WIP Target of 10?
With so many teams each having so much team autonomy, how would you scale this across a large organization with any level of consistency?
Aside from telling my teams “Set your WIP so low it feels kind of painful,” how should I help them get started with limiting and targeting WIP?
How do I get my team’s buy-in? How do we limit/target WIP when we are working cross-functionally?
Michael Hannan, Founder & Principal [email protected] US +1 (301) 520–0899
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