Everyday Kanban

Discussing Management, Teams, Agile, Lean, Kanban & more

Category: Management (page 19 of 25)

The Castle vs. Shack Conundrum

I’ve begun to witness an all-too-common situation at work that I have dubbed “The Castle vs. Shack Conundrum.”

Problem

Customer A is adamant that we have to build a house in 4 weeks. When we begin to talk to our customer, we start to understand that the house that they envision is more like a castle. However, building a castle in 4 weeks is so unlikely that its barely worth discussing. When the team analyzes the situation, we are in agreement that, with focusing only on this project, we could build a house in 4 weeks. However, that house would be a very nice shack — most decidedly not a castle. The team begins to discuss this reality with the customer and we find that this news is deemed completely unacceptable.

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Put your WIP on a diet

If you’ve ever had a problem managing your weight, there is one consistent thing you’ll notice across most diets. Each one tells you that you have to visualize what and how much you eat. The theory is that you eat more than you realize. By visualizing what and how much you eat, you can begin to see what you’re doing wrong and then begin to make better choices to cut back. This theory can be directly applied to your work in progress.

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Politics aren’t just for D.C.

Sometimes the workplace can feel like Washington, D.C.. Chock full o’ politics. I’m told I’m being too logical or naive when I outwardly wonder why we can’t just focus on the work and leave all of the kindergarten politics in the schoolyard where it belongs. However, with some perspective, I realize that these political scenarios arise from a system in which people feeling excluded, undervalued or taken advantage of. Those feelings cause people to expect it again and protect themselves by employ measures to avoid feeling that way in the future. Can you guess what happens then? More often than not, the other party now feels the way the first one felt, reacts the same way and bam! Vicious circle time.

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