These are the slides from my keynote for Lean Agile Scotland 2013. In this session, I shared stories, workflows and practical thinking tools that illustrate how the act of deliberately capturing and evolving "learning streams" (as opposed to - or rather in addition to - the more conventional value streams) can lead to surprising consequences.

1. @agilesensei
agilesensei.com
a3thinker.com
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written, illustrated
and performed by
Claudio Perrone

2. I’ve seen things most people wouldn’t
believe…

3. Like the rise of A Learning organization,
fueled by the enlightened self-interest of
ITS people

4. I saw how Curiosity and courage can
generate endless options

5. ... And what it means to develop, and honor
people for their ideas & contribution.

6. All those… moments... will be lost in time
like tears...
in... rain

7. % of organizations
Today, Many of us face a different world…
effectiveness
(*) Courtesy:
Steve McConnell – After the Gold Rush
& Bob Marshall (“Marshall Model of Organizational Effectiveness” www.fallingblossoms.com)

8. It’s a world where Invention and
innovation are replaced by organizational
conformity…

9. … Knowledge development IS annihilated
by bureaucracy, fire-fighting, and
command & control

10. Companies go through many reorganizations,
only to stay the same
Organization chart
Blame flow
God
Victims
Rule makers
Controllers
Enforcers
Losers

11. The traditional agile approach towards
management Hasn’t been particularly
effective
… You are a “chicken”. You
shouldn’t even talk

12. Arguably, organizations can’t be “agile” if
only the development teams are doing Agile
Typical “Agile” Enterprise
SMs

13. It’s a war we
can’t possibly
win…

14. Unless…

15. 1
BEYOND VALUE
STREAMS

16. “
All we are doing is looking at the
timeline from the moment the
customer gives us an order to the
point we can collect the cash.
And we are reducing that timeline by
removing the non-value-added
wastes.
-­‐-­‐-­‐
TaiichiOhno,
Founder
of
TPS

17. Customers
Lean destroyed the myth that splitting work
Kaizen
Current State Value-Stream Map
in big batches improves the economies xx to yy (high season)
Period calculated: from of
Acme Reinsurance
Push arrow
F: 200/month
scale.
Date: xxx
inbox
Author: Claudio Perrone
Average: 10/day
Pull arrow
Proc. Lead Time: 71.75h
Non VAT
3d
Value Adding Time (VAT)
0.25h
2d
2.5d
5h
2h
1h
1h
Calculate
premium
2h
Submit
quote
Proc. Efficiency 12.9%
Train on
Kanban
pulling
Reinsurance placement
Request for
reinsurance
Register
20jobs
Clean &
analyze
data
FIFO
Reduce
batch
sizes
10jobs
$ value
Calculate
risk
2jobs
due date
Clarify
classes of
service
C/T too
long
Setup
Kanban
board
5jobs
Improve
system
validation
Total Cycle Time: 9.25h

18. … And provided many “tools” to obliterate
Customers
the competition
Future State Value-Stream Map
Period calculated: from xx to yy (high season)
Acme Reinsurance
Date: xxx
F: 200/month
Pull arrow
Author: Claudio Perrone
Average: 10/day
Proc. Lead Time: 46.25h
Non VAT
2d
Value Adding Time (VAT)
0.25h
1d
1.5d
4h
2h
1h
2h
1h
Calculate
premium
Submit
quote
Proc. Efficiency 17.8%
Train on
Kanban
pulling
Reinsurance placement
Request for
reinsurance
Register
MAX
5 jobs
Reduce
batch
sizes
Clean &
analyze
data
MAX
4 jobs
Calculate
risk
MAX
2jobs
Clarify
classes of
service
C/T too
long
Setup
Kanban
board
MAX
2jobs
Improve
system
validation
Total Cycle Time: 8.25h

19. “but that’s only part of the story…”

20. Why do you allow
your competitors to
copy all your tools?

21. What they need to see…
is not visible
What the
hell is He
talking
about?

22. Does this look
familiar?

24. Do you
remember
how the
story ends?

25. W. Edwards deming believed that…
“
95% of variation in worker’s
performance is governed by the
systems
---W. Edwards Deming

26. …Which maybe explains why the purpose
of the Lean systems society is to…
“Improve the world
by improving its
systems.”
Lean Systems Society
“Excellence in
Managing Complexity”
http://leansystemssociety.org/

27. Perhaps…
“
We should work on our processes, not
the outcome of our processes.
---W. Edwards Deming

28. “At Toyota, improving and managing are one
and the same”
Traditional thinking:
Normal daily management
+
improvement
Toyota’s thinking:
Normal daily management
=
Process improvement

29. “
Some people question targets.
Question arbitrary targets instead.
"How are we going to change our
systems to achieve it?”
That’s an excellent question.
-- Claudio Perrone

30. In Lean, Managers have a purpose...
Value Stream

31. …and (at least) a method.

32. I believe
“
Lean is a business strategy
to make money*
THROUGH
the development of people
(*) replace with “create customer value” or “reach
results”, if you prefer

33. So, maybe...
“
It’s not what you do but rather what
you learn by doing it that matters.
-- Claudio Perrone

34. “learning to see” involves bringing to the
surface what we learn
Value Stream
Learning
Stream(s)

35. An A3 report, for example, “surfaces” a learning
stream around a problem

36. A set of kaizen memos can represent
another Learning stream…
Kaizen memo:
Kaizen Memos
Before improvement:
We didn’t trace the small,
continuous improvements
to our work
Action taken:
Created “Kaizen memos” to
post on an “implemented
ideas” board
Effect: Team members trace and celebrate every
implemented idea, even the smallest!
Submitted by: Claudio Perrone
Date:

37. …Which can also be “SURFACED” on a kaizen
board

38. What other
Learning streams
can we seek to
surface?

39. How about stories?

40. How about change efforts?

41. More specifically…
How do you introduce
and surface change in
your organization?

42. 2
EVOLVE
EXPERIMENTALLY
(A Lean Change story)

43. “Once upon a time, in a ‘fortune 50’ land,
A prince lived in a much troubled castle”

44. “after reading a great book, he thought”
Scrum is
AWESOME!

45. Fascinated by the benefits that a mature
agile organization can bring…
Visibility
Business
Value
Agile
Development
Adaptability
Risk
Traditional
Development

46. … he said:
I want you to turn
33+ teams using scrum.
Do it. Now.

47. Scrum may be a great solution, but…
…What’s the
problem?

48. I went to the “gemba”, the place were the
value is actually created. After all…
“
... A desk is a dangerous place from
which to view the world.
--- John le Carre

49. After some fact finding, I shared my
observations and insights…
Insights
Lean Change Cycle
Review
Options
Introduce
MVC
Prepare

50. Copies of my preliminary A3 were lying
on the table…
http://a3thinker.com/deck

51. after 1½ years of waterfall Development,
The company was experiencing a seemingly
endless integration hell

52. many People where blaming each other
for what was happening

53. What could we do?
Insights
Lean Change Cycle
Review
Options
Introduce
MVC
Prepare

54. The ship was sinking fast…
So, “Do nothing” was not an option

55. with that urgency,
in that context,
And with that complexity…
…scrum was not
a viable option

56. In the end, we agreed to:
- aim at a pre-release for a major customer
- focus on flow optimization

57. change was certainly going to be
disruptive (and not so “minimal”)
Insights
Lean Change Cycle
Review
Options
Introduce
MVC
Prepare

58. …But desperate times called for
desperate measures
Insights
Lean Change Cycle
Review
Options
Introduce
MVC
Prepare

59. “we articulated our Change strategy”
Urgency
Target State
Stable prerelease
deployed to
Major Client
by xx
If we don’t
release soon,
the ship will
sink!
Communication
Vision
Cadenced
meetups
Pre-Release to
Major Client by
Focus on JIT
fixes
Cross-funct.
teams
Kanban
Committments
…
R&D Teams
Testing Dep
Success
Criteria
Actions
Change
Participants
Mgmt
Released by xx
QA ok Major client
happy
Review
MMFs
Wins
morale
https://leanpub.com/leanchangemethod
Baseline for
performance
Keep job
Keep Client

60. we also negotiated and challenged certain
(self-serving) policies

61. We introduced lean techniques very
pragmatically
Insights
Lean Change Cycle
Review
Options
Introduce
MVC
Prepare

62. We moved hundreds of people in just 3
days, to reduce many functional barriers
Programming
Team
Testing
Team
Programming
Team
Documentation
Team
Cross-functional
Team
Functional Team
Cross-functional
Team

63. teams adopted a kanban bord, each fine-tuned
according to their specific workflow
Development
Ordered
Backlog
3
6
Rq.
Fixed
DOD
DOR
Expedite
1
PreTesting
CD
Ready
Smoke Test
PreTested
Done
DOD
Integration
Done
Integration Team
(Complex configuration)
DOD

64. We reviewed and validated our progress
and assumptions regularly
Insights
Lean Change Cycle
Review
Options
Introduce
MVC
Prepare

65. focus on flow optimization, Shared sense of
Urgency and executive sponsorship enabled us to
deliver fast, against all odds

66. What would your
first lean change
implementation look
like?

67. Start small! These days, When I first
engage with any team…

68. …I often start with a retrospective to
collect initial insights
(and to obtain permission to help)…

69. I USE THAT DATA TO feed a change board And
SYSTEMATICALLY DEFINE AND negotiate
explicit change experiments
Observations & insights
Options
Possible Experiments
This Week
Week + 1
Week + 2
Week + 3
Archive

70. That was a (powerful) learning stream!

71. BUT…
HOW DO WE KNOW THAT
WE ARE actually
CREATING VALUE?

72. It’s hard. We accept that…
“… complexity and uncertainty
are natural to social systems and
knowledge work.”
http://leansystemssociety.org/

73. Are we doomed?
“
If you get good at delivering shit faster,
you just get a lot of shit.
--Jeff Patton

74. 3
VALIDATED
LEARNING
(A lean startup story)

75. Some time ago, I decided to write a book
on A3 thinking

76. But I didn’t want to write a book that
nobody reads…

77. So, I Documented my initial assumptions on a
Lean canvas
Top 3
Problems
Existing
alternatives
Solution
Key metrics
Cost structure
Unique
Value
Proposition
Unfair
Advantage
Channels
Revenue streams
Customer
Segments
Early
adopters

78. … and then, I went “out of the building”, to
validate those assumptions

79. I shaped my thinking around the the build/measure/
learn loop through an experiment board
Learn
idea
(whether to pivot
or persevere)
Build
(Turn ideas into product)
(often a series of
MVPs)
data
Product
Measure
(How customers respond)

80. …Which, today, consists of observations/
insights, open questions, and ideas…

81. targets, analysis and hypotheses…

82. Experiments (identify, define metric, build)

83. Validation (qualitative & quantitative)

84. …& knowledge base.

85. In other words…
“
I execute tasks
To develop features
That are part of experiments
That I run to validate hypotheses
That I formulate thanks to
observations about the world that
surrounds us.
-- Claudio Perrone

86. My mindset shifted:
“From concept to cash”
to “From question to knowledge base”

87. Ironically
,
I never wrote that book

88. people needed something to help them
when and where it mattered most

89. So I tested an idea with a low fidelity MVP

90. … captured enthusiastic earlyvangelists with a
glimpse of what would come next…

91. And released a family of thinking tools…
www.a3thinker.com

92. to change the world.
one problem at a time.
www.a3thinker.com/deck

93. Final Thoughts

94. “
It’s not what you do but rather what
you learn by doing it that matters.
-- Claudio Perrone

95. “
It’s not what you do but rather what
you learn by doing it that matters.
But then...
-- Claudio Perrone

96. “
It’s not what you do but rather what
you learn by doing it that matters.
But then...
it’s not what you learn, but rather
what you do with it that matters.
-- Claudio Perrone

97. Thank You!
Claudio
Perrone
claudio@agilesensei.com
www.agilesensei.com
www.a3thinker.com
www.twi@er.com/agilesensei