Kanban as tasklist in timeboxed cycles

When training teams to work in timeboxed cycles for agile innovation projects, we so far mostly have used a very simple way of breaking down the tasks within a cycle based on google docs. Here is an example:

Basically, the team adds tasks based on the backlog tasks they get from the champ (product owner) and they then pull tasks. Who has started a task marks it yellow, if it's done it becomes green. It's a very useful way of managing the tasks.

Some teams, however, have started preferring kanban as a tool to monitor the tasks in their timeboxed cycles. They argue that is more visual and easier to follow. The same tasklist like above would then look different:

What is interesting is that many teams think that kanban visualizes the work better. While in the tasklist above you can see, of course, if a task is already pulled and started, here you can actually see where exactly it is in the process, who pulled it, you can go into a card and see details or links or comments.

By assigning different colors to the tasks you can distinguish between types or sizes of tasks or you can assign urgency (see next example)

It is not necessary, of course, for a team to use a digital kanban board. Often, the handmade version with Post-its or generic stickies is more than enough. The important thing is that the work is visualized and the team meets in front of their board often to check the status of their work.

We do not tell teams how to manage their tasks, but we tell them to keep a task list and explain them the two most common ways it can be done. Maybe you have other options, please share them!

How words shape our future

In their book "The Three Laws of Performance" Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan write - among many other exciting things - about the fact how our language, the words in our heads and the words we use, shape our future, and what happens once we start changing the language we use and the thoughts we think.

While reading this, I remembered this famous saying:

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

How important this is occurred to me this week while training a team in India in agile innovation management. The team is just starting their work within a very hierarchical telecom company, they are ten brilliant and capable individuals who have all that it takes to shape the future for their organization. They are infact hired to change the way the company innovates, and they are learning what it takes to do this with us.

We started by setting the ground rules of the team, and the team wholeheartedly agreed to phrases like "I will pull my jobs and responsibilities and not wait for anyone to tell me what to do" or "if I am unsure about something I will take it to the team" (and many other phrases that make up the framework of agile work).

The problem, as it occured yesterday is not that the team does not want to work like this, it is that they are terrified to death because their work experience so far has been all "command-and-control", "wait for approval", "my boss tells me what to do". Especially in Indian culture it is highly uncommon to do something without approval from the boss.

And this is where language comes into play. Phrases like "this is very hard" or "I don't know if people in the organization understand this" or "I think they hate us already" started being voiced after one week of training. All these statements and complaints are not facts, but just perceptions. They also serve as a "racket".

A racket has four elements:

1. A complaint that has persisted for some time

2. A pattern of behavior that goes along with the complaint

3. A payoff for having the complaint continue   

4.The cost of the behavior

What this came to mean for me: If I consciously or unconciously blame others for the things that don't work I do not have to face my own fears and try to make things happen, because I already delegated the potential failure to others (the ones that "don't let us work like that" etc.). Infact, doing this is very common for all of us and it stops us from performing as we could.

So, while on one hand moving forward as a team towards an agile structure and work practices that could set all the energy and the innovation capacity free in the organization, on the other hand the team uses language that will make it very difficult for them to make that future for them happen. The language they use defines the future they are perceiving or expecting.

So one of the key becomes to change the language you use or the thoughts (also language) that you think. This is a very long process that involves many conversations and discussions, slowly changing the perception of the team, analyze and let go of the rackets. Only if the team does that they can start shaping their own future and the future of the organization.