Just one hour, what your team tells you…
“Just one hour!” My client almost shouts enthusiastically at me. “Just one hour - that's all it takes!” My client seemed to think that repeating a statement makes it more impactful.
It was all about this 60 minutes they had spent together with the team. Amazingly, that was new to them. It was new to ask the team directly how to improve their work. And that's exactly what we do.
We bring the team together. I draw the value stream on the whiteboard: from idea to production. Then it’s their turn: “Where do you wait for something or someone?”
That's called value stream mapping. Let me repeat it here, so that it's more impactful: “Value stream mapping. Together with the team. Just one hour!”
This company had always struggled with improvements. They were always looking in the wrong direction. They looked to single tasks like testing, And they didn’t look end-to-end: from idea to production. With their spreadsheets they tried to figure out the actual truth with all their numbers. But without much success.
Just one hour! That's what it takes, it's a discussion and a whiteboard session. Together - with the team to discuss how to improve.
Write down the flow from a business idea into production.
Map all involved people and tools to the flow.
Ask the team where they have to wait and where the flow is broken.
Doing value stream mapping was eye opening for them. They were amazed. It was a revolution in their company.
Value stream mapping is actually no sensational surprise. It’s nothing new for other industries. It's a flashback to the 80’s. This was the time when the Lean movement started at Toyota. Optimizing the assembly line with Lean is value stream mapping. To bring Lean to their IT departments was a logical next step. It ended up with Six Sigma certificates and Black Belts for everybody in and around quality management.
And as I repeated. Just one hour - because your team knows where the waste is. But it’s your job to listen to them. Management has to facilitate this team discussion.
So, forget the spreadsheets with the numbers. Do it face to face. And listen. When was the last time you were in a room with your team? When did you ask them about the blocks in their daily workflow?
Do value stream mapping frequently with your team