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Chapter 2

Lean

People dont buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it. Simon Sinek says that

this is the fundamental reasoning behind what he refers to as the Golden Circle,

which he describes as a natural law occurring in many forms, in the same way as

the Golden Ratio. He cites example of the Golden Circle including Martin LutherKing, who said I have a dream not I have a plan and the Wright brothers,

who succeeded first with manned flight despite having less money, education,

connections and publicity as competitors. The Golden Circle suggests that to

maximize our chances of success we should start with WHY, before determining

HOW, and finally WHAT. Starting with WHAT will lead to focusing on activity

at the expense of outcomes.

The Golden Circle

Starting a kanban system design with WHY involves knowing why you want

to use a kanban system and the goals you are aiming for, rather than using a kan-

ban approach just because it seems popular or a good idea. Therefore, begin by

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defining your WHY, deciding where you want to go and creating a vision of the

future that you hope the kanban system will help create. Then the kanban system

will be a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. Your WHY is your desti-

nation, and your kanban system can be HOW you get there, and guide WHAT

you do to get there.

WHY

A WHY is what motivates people to take action. It is a purpose, a cause or a be-

lief. It is a reason to care and want to get out of bed in the morning. A WHY is

notto make money. Money is a necessary precondition for business, in the same

way that breathing is a necessary precondition to living although our purpose in

life is not to breathe. Making money may also be a desirable result, but it is not aWHY.

WHY is the equivalent of the System Thinking premise of purpose. Complex

Systems have a purpose which influences behavior, the product of the systems

elements and interactions. Dave Snowden uses the Magic Roundabout in Swin-

don as an example of a complex system whose purpose is to enable a high

throughput of cars with a low accident rate. Reports show that it achieves this

purpose, despite also being generally regarded as one of the scariest roundabouts

in existence. By starting with WHY, the roundabouts designers created an effec-

tive, safe and resilient WHAT. Starting with WHAT leads to the less scary but

more common design.

Magic Roundabout

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WHY is always going to be context specific, but one simple generalization

would be that it is to satisfy customer demand. Demand analysis can help under-

standing of what work adds value, and helps us towards our WHY, and what

work doesnt add value. John Seddon describes failure demand is work that re-

sults from not doing something right, or not doing something at all. That is not to

suggest that we should strive for perfection and be right first time with up front

analysis and design. Value can still be added in small, incremental and iterative

steps. Think of it like a ticket machine at your local deli. When a customer first

takes a ticket then the request can be considered value demand. Subsequent tick-

ets for the exactly same request can be considered failure demand. However,

further tickets could be for similar, related requests because the customer comes

back for more of the same, as opposed to exactly the same.

Simon Sinek argues that our brain is wired to start with WHY. Our first brain,

the Limbic System is what deals with emotions, unconscious thought, instinct,and governs our behavior. Our thinking brain, the Cerebral Cortex, is what deals

with rationality, conscious thought, intellect, and governs our language. Thus,

our natural behavior is to make decisions emotionally, unconsciously, and in-

stinctively. We then justify those decisions rationally, consciously and intellectu-

ally with facts. I have just bought a new car (well, new for me) and spent a not

insignificant amount of money in a totally impulsive purchase. I had no intention

of buying a car when I entered the garage, but fell in love with the car and ended

up talking myself into deciding it was an opportunity I would regret if I missed

it. Similarly, both times I have bought a house, which is both an important deci-

sion and major investment, the decision was because the house felt right . Thesize, condition, location, price etc. came second.

How

HOW describes the way that a WHY will be realized. It can be thought of as a

set of guiding principles that help map a WHY to a WHAT. A HOW can also be

a specific outcome that is to be accomplished without detailing the activity and

output required to complete it. Additionally, HOWs are often ways of differenti-

ating approaches and describing them in comparison to competitors.

One way of describing HOW a Lean or Agile approach enables a WHY is

with the metaphor of a Recipe for Success. David Anderson popularized this idea

with the following recipe:

Focus on Quality

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Reduce WIP Balance Capacity against Demand PrioritiseSimilarly, my colleague Ken Clyne at Rally talks about the fundamentals of

Agile as:

Focus on customer value Deliver early and often Reduce batch size

Pull quality forward

Inspect and adapt Create a collaborative cultureThese recipes are a guide to HOW to achieve Agility in order to achieve a

WHY. However, they are not specific enough to describe WHAT to do.

A common explanation for WHY organizations want to become Lean or Ag-

ile is Better, Faster, Cheaper. These are at best HOWs, and not WHYs. In fact,

I would suggest that cheaper isnt even a HOW. To paraphrase John Seddon,

focusing on cost will usually result in cost going up.

Another approach to describing HOW to become Agile is through a transfor-

mation strategy or roadmap. Options for which path to take include beginning

slowly with a single, fully Agile pilot project from which to learn, diving in and

moving all project to an Agile approach in one go for clarity of message, only

beginning new projects or initiatives as Agile to avoid risking current work, or

incrementally solve specific challenges with certain practices for a more evolu-

tionary transition.

Working Agreements can also be considered as a description of HOW. Ex-

plicit policies for how work is done can be created by recognizing how value is

created, how that creation is visualized and made transparent, how the work in

process is limited, what cadences are used for synchronization and co-ordination,

and how continuous learning and improvement happens.

My personal take on HOW to be Agile is in terms offlow, value, capability.

Achieving flow involves eliminating delays and focusing on reducing the lead

time from concept to consumption. Delivering value involves making sure that

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the right things are being worked on and the right problems are being solved ra-

ther than doing the wrong things righter. Building capability involves develop-

ing people and their skills working as teams aligned to the organization strategy.

Lean and Agile How

What

WHAT is done proves what is believed. It consists of tangible ways with which

a WHY is realized and provides clear data points that actions are according to a

WHY.

Agile practices are WHAT teams do in order to enable them to realize their

WHY. Further, practices can be associated with HOW agility is demonstrated, in

terms of flow, value and capability. The following is one interpretation of some

practices. Im sure there are many others.

Flow

User StoriesUser Stories are a technique to break down functionality into small pieces of de-

monstrable functionality which can create single piece flow.

Limiting WIPTime-boxing and kanban-style limits are both ways of managing WIP and ena-

bling a focus on finishing rather than starting to keep work flowing.

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VisualizationVisualization approaches help teams see all the work so that they can focus their

energy in the right places to keep flow.

Co-locationStrong teamwork and collaboration minimizes the need for queues and batches

which cause delays.

Test Driven DevelopmentTest Driven Development, with its emphasis on automated unit testing and refac-

toring, keeps designs clean and quality high so that new work can progress

quickly.

Continuous IntegrationContinuous integration and deployment help works flow right through to the cus-

tomer without lengthy release processes causing delays.

Value

Vertical ThinkingProduct Backlogs, User Stories, Minimal Marketable Features and other value-

focused forms of requirements are intended to help teams ensure they are deliv-

ering maximum benefit.

On-Site CustomerSimilarly, the On-Site Customer, or Product Owner roles are intended to maxim-

ize collaboration with people who are determining and receiving the value.

Demos and ReviewsIteration demos and reviews are a means of gaining early and continuous feed-

back and validation that the product is delivering the intended value.

Continuous Delivery

Frequent and continuous delivery means that the value can be realized as soon aspossible.

Automated TestingAcceptance Test Driven Development and Behavior Driven Development pro-

vide techniques for delivering value through quality and clarity of functionality.

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Capability

TeamsDedicated, cross-functional, value focused teams mean that learning and

knowledge is kept, shared and built upon to develop capability.

Knowledge SharingVarious collaborative practices, such as Pair Programming, Collective Code

Ownership, Group Design, Team Estimation and Planning Poker similarly share

knowledge around a team.

Demos and ReviewsRegular demos and reviews provide a cadence with which feedback and learning

can build product capability.

RetrospectivesRegular retrospectives provide a cadence with which feedback and learning can

build team capability.

VisualizationVisualization of work, and the way value is created, gives visibility of bottle-

necks and constraints and other issues such that they can be resolved to improve

capability.

SlackSlack ensures that teams have spare capacity to both address these issues, and

spend time on other forms of capability development which will improve future

productivity and performance.

Conclusion

When embarking on a change initiative using Agile approaches, always Start

with WHY. Use the WHY as a True North with which to guide the Agile trans-formation and steer decisions on which Agile practices to use for what reasons.

Understand HOW agility is going to help progress towards the WHY and

WHAT Agile practices will provide the means to get there.

A clear WHY, that people are motivated by, will make it more likely that

people will want to use Agile. However, Thomas Edison said that vision with-

out execution is hallucination so dont stop at WHY, but make sure the Agile

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HOW is also well known and the Agile practices that form the WHAT are clear-

ly understood to ensure that the goal is successfully reached.