Leankit's CEO on how to establish a lean leadership culture and what tools other leaders can use along the way

1. Lean Leadership,
Culture, and Tools
Chris Hefley
CEO | LeanKit
@indomitablehef
#AgileIL15 @AgileIsrael

4. Lean Leadership Culture, and Tools
• Without Leadership, sustainable Lean/Agile is impossible
• Leadership’s responsibility is to change the culture, by teaching Lean
Thinking
• Lean Tools (Lean Thinking Tools) are essential for changing the
culture

5. 1960s-1980s 1980s 1990s 2000s Today
TOC
Just-In-Time
Lean
Manufacturing
Lean Healthcare
Systems
Engineering
Construction
Toyota
Six Sigma
TQM
Agile
SAFe
Scrum
Focus on flow / feedback vs. “efficiency”
Lean Startup
Lean – A multi-industry trend
Last Planner
Kanban

6. Built on a foundation of Leadership
The Goal of Lean
Pillars of Lean
Principles, Values, and Tools
The House of
Lean

7. Lean = Lean Thinking

8. Lean Tools = Thinking Tools
Lean Thinking Tools
• “5 Whys”
• PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act)
• Cost of Delay
Agile Thinking Tools
• Planning Poker
• Story Mapping
LeanKit’s Thinking Tools
• FSGD
• TLDR
• Fat Robin Scheduling
• 0.5x Thinking

9. Frequent
Small
Good
Decoupled

10. what Fizz Good
and
what doesn’t

11. Frequent
Small
Good
Decoupled
Frequent
Small
Good
Decoupled
Frequent
Small
Good
Decoupled
Frequent
Small
Good
Decoupled
Frequent
Small
Good
Decoupled

12. Annually
Big
Good
Coordinated
Frequent
Small
Perfect
Coordinated
Frequent
Big
Perfect
Coordinated
Frequent
Big
Good
Coordinated
Quarterly
Small
Good
Coordinated

13. Frequent
Small
Good
Decoupled
Tested
Logged
Documented
Reviewed
@ifandelse

14. DIY Lean Tools
• As you learn Lean Thinking, you can (and should) create your own
Lean (Thinking) Tools
• Borrow and Customize Models and Tools from wherever you find
them
• Brand them as your own
• What’s your organization’s “FSGD”?

15. DevOps
• What is DevOps?
• Another Thinking Tool (not just tech)
• The goal of DevOps: Continuous Delivery, High Quality and Safety
• Corresponds to two classical Lean Thinking Tools
• Error-Proofing (Poka-Yoke)
• Autonomation (Jidoka)

16. Poka Yoke
Mistake-Proofing

17. Autonomation (Jidoka)
• “Intelligent Automation” or “Automation with a human touch”
The Self-
Healing
Machine

18. So, it’s all about Lean

19. Lean Leadership
• Sustainable Lean/Agile requires Leadership
• Not just “permission” from Leadership
• Not just “buy in” from Leadership
• Leadership must Lead and Teach Lean Thinking

20. Lean Culture
• Sustainable
Lean/Agile requires
a cultural change
• To change the
culture, change the
thinking

21. Lean Tools
• Use Lean Tools to teach Lean Thinking
• “A Fool with a Tool is still a Fool”
• The tools don’t make you Lean, or Agile, or effective at DevOps (not
even LeanKit )

22. Start with Leadership
• The initial goal of a Lean/Agile transformation effort should be to
“convert” the Leadership
• Without Leadership and Cultural Change, Lean/Agile won’t be
sustainable
• Use initial Agile transformation results to provide evidence of positive
change, and real economic impact
• Lean Metrics can help to show that economic impact (better than
Agile alone)

23. For more information
• On FSGD: leankit.com/FSGD
• Lean and “The house of Lean”
• Lean Primer by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde
• LeanPrimer.com
• On DevOps
• Tomorrow’s DevOps Flow Workshop, by Dominica DeGrandis
• More great Lean content, webinars, e-books, etc., at LeanKit.com/blog and
LeanKit.com/Learn