This is the first post in a guest series, Kanban: A Universe of Options for Life's Planning & Organizing Challenges by Nadja Schnetzler.About three years ago, I heard of kanban for the very first time, and it was love at first sight. When I drew my first kanban board for the team I then headed, I knew I was home.This just felt right and easy.
From learning about kanban from a friend to the moment when I decided to try kanban for myself it took exactly 2 hours. I am a jumpstarter. I like to take quick and pragmatic decisions and I like to jump into the pool at the deep end. My team knew me well and they agreed to try this new method – at this point, the team would have been ready for pretty much anything, probably even witchcraft or voodoo, if it would help us increase our sales - (the company was going through a pretty rough patch at this time).
When I brought a whiteboard from a meeting room into the teamspace and started writing the columns - "To Do," "Doing," and "Done"- and started creating the first few Post-its with tasks, the members of my team looked up curiously from their work and gathered around the board, asking me what I was doing. I explained that I had just learned about this simple tool that would help us understanding our work and the way we collaborated better and to share better what we were working on. Amazingly, after just half an hour of talk, I had all 5 people on board and they were soon picking Post-its and moving them into the "Doing" column, prompting a conversation about how the work in progress of this team should be limited.
Kanban has entered all aspects of my life.
Ever since, I have used kanban in many variations for my personal work, in my family, in client projects and even in personal coaching sessions. Kanban, along with some other tools and methods (for instance the Pomodoro Technique), has completely changed the way I think about my work and the way I tackle pretty much everything I do. And because I like to share what I learn and know with others, my – quite playful and sometimes unorthodox – use of kanban has triggered many questions, reactions and even training inquiries by people in my network.
The benefits of kanban for me as an individual and for the teams I work with are amazing, and I often marvel at the fact that something as simple as a board with a few columns and colorful post its can completely change the way we collaborate, make choices and progress in our work.
Kanban is especially beneficial for the messy type of planner that I am. I was always hopeless at planning my whole day from 9 to 5 meticulously, and I was also particularly bad at sticking with one method. I am someone who gets easily bored, and I have to change the way I work often just to trick myself into paying attention. With kanban, it’s a bit different: I have been faithful to kanban throughout the last three years, but I redesign my kanban board every few days, sometimes weeks. This is great, because my work system stays the same but it’s look changes and this way, I am always motivated.
The notion of "inspect and adapt" goes well with this. My kanban boards have evolved over time depending on the nature of the work I do, the teams I work with or the people involved (my family, for instance).
Keeping the principles pure and simple.
The essential things that I talk about when working with other people are simple. The basic need of the people I coach and train with is to work better, to collaborate better, to go through change processes in a more stringent and clear way etc. I stick with the following principles that I lay out whenever I work with people who are new to kanban.
1. Visualize your work
2. Make sure the tasks you define are small enough
3. Limit the stuff that is going on at the same time (limit WIP)
4. Communicate with yourself and with others regularly
5. Improve your system regularly
6. Do not over engineer (as simple as possible, as complicated as necessary)
7. Whatever works!
Nadja Schnetzler was born in Switzerland and spent her childhood in Mexico City. After graduating from High School, she was a founding member of BrainStore, the first Idea Factory in the world. She has a bachelors degree in journalism from renowned "Ringier School of Journalism". Over the last 25 years, Nadja has led over 600 innovation projects for companies like Nestlé, Siemens, the Swiss Railways, Kraft Foods, BMW, Save the Children, the United Nations or Amnesty International. She is the author of the book "The Ideamachine" (Wiley) and a sought-after speaker and lecturer at various universities.In 2012, Nadja founded «Word and Deed» with the aim at inspiring organisations, companies, teams and individuals. Word and Deed works in the areas of communication, innovation and collaboration. Kanban has become one of the most important agents of change for Nadja and her clients.Nadja lives in Switzerland with her husband and her two teenage kids. She enjoys listening to and playing baroque music (with her violin) and has an open house for people from all walks of life.