Personal Kanban at NYC's Agile Learning Center

The Agile Learning Center at Manhattan Free School is designed to put young people in the driver’s seat of their learning and living – giving them the same opportunity and responsibility that we have as adults – to create their own lives.Each morning, we begin with a standup meeting. Everyone takes a turn stating their intentions for the day and making requests for any support they may need. At the end of the day, we come back for another standup meeting to reflect. Did we fulfill our intentions? If so, how? If not – why? What might we do differently tomorrow based on our awareness of today?This daily cycle of creation and reflection produces a powerful feedback loop, providing us clear information about the choices we make and the results of those choices. Between the bookends of this daily cycle, kanban boards are used to support mindfulness in our decision-making process.After morning standup, we use kanban boards to make our intentions visible. Speaking intentions is a start, but making them visible in physical space takes our awareness and commitment to the next level. Now we have a self-created roadmap for what’s possible.

A student kanban

From there, students practice prioritizing by surveying the possibilities for their day and moving things into READY or “Get Set”. What do I really want to do today? Who could I work or play with? What will nurture my body, mind, and spirit? A nine year-old may not be using these words or asking these specific questions, but the kanban process has them considering all of these factors in their own way.Next, we get to experience the power of making what’s possible a reality by pulling the selected intention into DOING or “Go”. ACTION! Deep engagement ensues. When we take the time to make conscious choices, we tend to be more focused, present, and committed to our actions, because we are taking ownership over the whole process.

Finish line on the student Kanban

When an intention is fulfilled, a task completed, or a curiosity explored, we come back to move the story across the finish line. Crossing the finish line does not mean that the story is over and done with. However, it does mark what we have created, and gives us the opportunity to reflect, assess, and constantly improve.

Wall of student kanbans

The kanban board is an extremely effective tool for breaking through our automatic thinking – informing ourselves of the past, visualizing the future, and bringing our attention to the present.Agile Learning Centers is an open-sourced education model for the 21st Century. Learn more about the very first Agile Learning Center at AgileLearn.org

Kidzban Around the Web #2

Around the web people are sharing their experiences with Kidzban.  This is the second post in the series – Kidzban Around the Web.Joseph Flahiff introduced Kanban to his daughters on a Saturday morning when they had guests arriving at 2pm, and they needed to get chores done before their guests arrived. Joseph states in his Saturday Chores with Kanban Part I  "Normally the girls choose all their chores before they start."  They were previously using a chores list set up in an excel program.  On this particular Saturday he decided on introducing a Kanban board.

KIdzban Saturday Chores

Take a look at this wonderful video below where Joseph interviews his daughters - JoHanna and Jillian. They discuss the few bumps in the road they encountered and how they tackled their challenges together and why they'd like to use the process again. Joseph's daughter JoHanna mentioned "There will still be some bumps but not the same ones because we've learned from our mistakes.""Working with a list we never really felt like we were working together.  We felt like competitors instead of teammates." - JoHannaThe next Saturday, Joseph's entire family got into the action even his 3 year old daughter Joy completed tasks on their Kanban.  The Saturday Chores with Kanban Part II highlights another wonderful video below where the girls discuss how they worked together and broke up the chores into smaller tasks so they weren't so overwhelming. Team work is personified when you hear how all three daughters managed the task of vacuuming the master bedroom together.When asked what her favorite part of using the Kanban was Jillian stated "The achievement of finishing a chore."You can read and view Joseph's Saturday Chores with Kanban Part I and Saturday Chores with Kanban Part II in their entirety by heading over to his WhiteWater Projects blog.Videos and photo credit: WhiteWater Projects Blog.This is the second post in the series - Kidzban Around the Web.  You can read the first post in the series here.

Kidzban Around the Web #1

Highly Visible Family Kidzban

Around the web people are sharing their experiences with Kidzban.  This is the first post of the series - Kidzban Around the Web.With families becoming busier and busier it can be overwhelming keeping up with everything we need to accomplish in each day.Steve Hamilton tackled this problem with his Kidzban.   Steve's wife was away for 3 weeks, and while she was away he wanted to keep track of their two children's activities so he decided to set up a Kanban board on the sliding glass door. Steve explains "This is the single most visible space in the entire house — it is the first thing you see when you walk in the front door."Each Sunday they planned out the coming week - homework, activities, practices, etc. The cards were color coded for each child. Every night they would spend a couple minutes planning the next day. That's when they would move the cards from the top section into the today section.

Steve went on to add "We are now one full week in and so far it has been smooth sailing. No missed homework, no missed practices, good meals each night and the house is reasonably clean!"

Please head over to Steve's Blog to read his Kidzban post in it's entirety.Photo credit: Steve's Blog.There often are things we don't get done before we go to bed each night. Tim Wise came up with a perfect solution for his 6 year old son with his Kiddie Kanban: The Going to Bed Kanban Board.Tim begins by noting "My 6 year old loves responsibility. He loves being able to know what he has to do and getting it done himself.  He does not love when his dad tries to bark commands."They decided to write everything that needs to get done before bed on sticky notes and put them on the wall.  A few tasks were - change clothes, take a shower/bath, read a book, brush teeth, learning new prayers, etc.  His son mentioned "This is like a Todo list for bed." So they labeled the first column TODO. He also said, "We need to be able to tell when I am done." So they then added a Done column. They added the Doing column so they could see what was being worked on.  After the notes went up his son began rearranging them putting them in order. Tim mentioned to his son that was prioritization.Tim finishes up by stating "We said some prayers after reading together, and we learned a new one together. 'Thank you for today. Amen'  So we accomplished learn some new prayers along the way. Unfortunately, we never fit in the bath, so I guess we'll be stinky together tomorrow."You can read the entire Kiddie Kanban: The Going to Bed Kanban Board post on the Agile Dude Blog.This is the first post in the series - Kidzban Around the Web.  You can read the second post here.

Kanban: A Universe of Options for Life's Planning & Organizing Challenges #5

This is the 5th post in a guest series, Kanban: A Universe of Options for Life's Planning & Organizing Challenges by Nadja Schnetzler.

There are all kinds of kanban boards I have created and used in different situations. Here are a few images and short explanations:

Summer themed Personal Kanban

A kanban for summer

Makeshift window kanban

A makeshift kanban board on a window for a team who had to prepare an event in short time and had no method to do it in a good way.

coffee table kanban made with scrabble tiles

A kanban board made of scrabble tiles on the table of my living room.

Organizing quickly with a new team Kanban

A kanban board for a project team with people who have never worked together before and had to get organized in a few hours.

Digital vs. Analog

I am an incredibly digital person. I spend most of my day in front of a computer, tablet or smartphone, and I love to spend free time online, too, researching ideas, reading or just stumbling through the web. So, most people are somewhat perplex that I do not use an online kanban board. I have tried out several of the online kanban software available, and some of them are really good, but nothing, really nothing beats an analog kanban board made from paper and pencil or drawn on a blackboard or whiteboard. I think the reason is that the feeling of transporting the tasks through the board is never quite the same on an online board as on the "real" version.

Remote teams

I have done a fair amount of work with remote teams in the past and this is the only use case where an online board beats the offline version. It's great to see how team members are collaborating over distance by using a digital kanban board, and it’s great to see postits move. Every meeting starts around the kanban board over skype, and the discussions are very similar to teams that stand in front of a «real» kanban.

All in all, my journey with kanban has been immensely beneficial so far, and I am looking forward to all the new things I will learn with kanban over the next years, in all contexts and aspects of life.

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.This is the final post in the guest series by Nadja Schnetzler - Kanban: A Universe of Options for Life's Planning & Organizing Challenges.  You can read the previous post here.

Kanban: A Universe of Options for Life's Planning & Organizing Challenges #4

This is the 4th post in a guest series, Kanban: A Universe of Options for Life's Planning & Organizing Challenges by Nadja Schnetzler.

Here are a few kanban boards that were created in trainings with individuals and teams:

Using fish to be descriptive on the kanban

See the neat illustrations using fish?

Using street signs to design a kanban

This participant visualized everything with street symbols

Variety of Kanban Boards

A participant explaining his solution out of 10 different kanban boards

Using kanban boards in very different contexts

I have used kanban boards in many shapes and forms for the most different situations over the last years. It’s amazing how adaptable the concept is. Here are a few examples of kanban boards I have created, used, encountered and encouraged.

The Cleaning Party kanban board

In our family, we have a ritual on Saturdays called „the cleaning party“. It means that we gather as a family (2 adults and 2 young teens) collect all the tasks that come to our minds related to our household, and then work for two hours on those tasks. We have used a kanban board for this activity now for three years, and the fact that everyone can pull the tasks that work best for him or her is great. We have also introduced the role of the facilitator. This person has an overview, calls for breaks, gives out little treats during the cleaning party and makes sure we debrief when the party comes to a close.

Turning cleaning into a party kanban board

The family conference kanban board

For our “family conference”, a weekly meeting where we discuss important family matters and issues, we also have created a kanban board. It is used as a discussion board to organize the discussion topics and to see what we are focusing on in the discussion right now. Everyone can contribute discussion topics on postits, and then, in turn, each family member picks a postit and this item is discussed. Whatever we decide during our discussion is noted on a bigger stickie and then pulled into the "decided" column. I really love the way this system helps my children to focus on a topic, to use tactics in picking topics and in respecting the other family members.

Family conference Kanban board

The coaching meeting kanban board

When I meet people for personal coaching, mainly people who are in some kind of change process, I also use a kanban board to work with them. A board helps to collect the possible discussion topics (based on some questions I ask the participant during our first few minutes of the meeting). Then, it's time to decide which of the collected topics should first be discussed. This means pulling the stickies from the first column into the second. I use three layers in the second column to show that again, the postits can be prioritized further.

Then we decide which topic we should discuss first. This one wanders into the "focus" column. Sometimes, when discussing an issue we realize that to really discuss it we need additional information, in which case the postit goes to the "later" section. And finally, when we feel we have discussed a topic at length, we put it into the "Next Steps" column, where we later formulate a plan of what to do now based on all the discussed items.

The beautiful thing of a coaching kanban board is that we can just continue where we left in the next meeting, and we have all the information at hand.

The coaching Kanban board

The portable kanban board

I have a portable version of my kanban board because I travel a lot. It's a large paper with my usuall columns, folded down to a portable size, and reinforced with tape, When I travel, I take the stickies from my board at home and stick them onto my portable board. When I come home, I "synchronize" the boards. It's super easy. I use small size stickies on all my boards so that they also fit my transportable version.

A portable Kanban

My portable kanban board

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.This is the 4th post in the guest series by Nadja Schnetzler – Kanban: A Universe of Options for Life’s Planning & Organizing Challenges. You can read the previous post here.