{"id":129,"date":"2011-07-05T22:48:34","date_gmt":"2011-07-05T22:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benjaminmitchell.wordpress.com\/2011\/07\/05\/improvements-to-using-a-simple-kanban-to-structure-meetings\/"},"modified":"2011-07-05T22:48:34","modified_gmt":"2011-07-05T22:48:34","slug":"improving-personal-kanban-for-effective-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/improving-personal-kanban-for-effective-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"Improvements on using a simple kanban for effective meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since I posted last week about <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.benjaminm.net\/2011\/06\/30\/using-a-simple-kanban-to-run-effective-meetings-and-workshops\/\">using a simple kanban to structure workshops<\/a>, I\u2019ve used the technique with several other clients and have made some subtle but useful improvements.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the key improvements:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Making time constraints explicit<\/strong>. Ask everyone at the start of the meeting \u201care there any time constraints you have?\u201d. Write a post-it for anyone that is coming late or will be leaving at a different time than the others. Use a \u201ctime constraints\u201d column between the \u201cto do\u201d column and the \u201cdoing\u201d column, where the post-it notes are queued in time order.&#160; Placing the column here allows people to see what time constraints need to be considered when choosing the next most important topic.&#160;&#160; If there are known breaks such as morning tea or lunch time then put these in the queue as well. As the time constraint is reached, then pull it into the \u201cdone\u201d column (this means the done column can be read from top to bottom as a hi story of the meeting). <\/li>\n<li><strong>Defining key questions on the \u201cto do\u201d column. <\/strong>I\u2019ve been writing the key questions to ask when focussing on the \u201cto do\u201d column. The benefit of making them explicit is that it has been easy to ask someone else to \u201crun the board\u201d and facilitate the meeting. This has been useful in giving clients the ability to practice running for themselves, which is more powerful than me demonstrating it to them. The key questions are:\n<ul>\n<li>Is there anything else to add? <\/li>\n<li>Is there value in re-ordering the backlog (to do queue)? <\/li>\n<li>What\u2019s the next most important item to start <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Adding an \u201cany actions?\u201d exit criteria to the \u201cto do\u201d column. <\/strong>Once the agreed time limit is reached, or earlier if anyone feels the current topic has finished being discussed, ask \u201care we done? would anyone like longer on this current topic?\u201d if there&#8217;s no agreement about adding more time, then ask a second question \u201cAre there any actions we need to record?\u201d. If any actions are needed then these are added to the \u201cactions\u201d column. <\/li>\n<li><strong>Add an \u201cactions\u201d column to the right of \u201cdone\u201d.&#160; <\/strong>I\u2019ve added an \u201cactions\u201d column to the right of \u201cdone\u201d where any actions agreed in the discussion can be put. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/benjaminmitchell.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/07\/photo-5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image:none;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:block;float:none;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;padding-top:0;border-width:0;\" title=\"photo (5)\" border=\"0\" alt=\"photo (5)\" src=\"http:\/\/benjaminmitchell.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/07\/photo-5_thumb.jpg\" width=\"430\" height=\"324\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Having run four or five workshops like this in the last week, <strong><em>it is critical is to be strict on not allowing discussion to continue once the timer has gone off<\/em><\/strong> (I use the marimba noise from my iPhone&#8217;s timer and deliberately let it ring several times if people are talking past the time). I stress that it\u2019s OK to propose to take more time and to see if there\u2019s consensus (by asking \u2018Does anyone have a concern if we continue for X more minutes?\u2019), but allowing people to keep talking makes it too easy to continue talking too long.<\/p>\n<p>Some other observations and things I\u2019m experimenting with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Estimating times<\/strong>. In a few situations I\u2019ve tried asking people to estimate how long they think a topic will take. This can be revised before the task is started. Once it is started the time can be updated by adding \u201c+5\u201d for example, when five extra minutes are added. I\u2019m just experimenting with this at the moment. It has been useful at highlighting that a group has been underestimating each topic, which made people add more realistic times to future topics. <\/li>\n<li><strong>Inviting people to write the post-it notes, re-arrange or track actions themselves. <\/strong>Several times I\u2019ve found myself doing the work for the clients, by writing the post-it notes, re-arranging them or tracking actions. I believe that the effectiveness of this approach can be enhanced if the participants have the experience of doing the work for themselves. Also, it reduces the possibility of error by writing the wrong thing. <\/li>\n<li><strong>Add a section for \u201cpolicy changes\u201d under the \u201cactions\u201d column. <\/strong>I\u2019ve also been experimenting with \u201cpolicy\u201d changes for agreements around how the team might be working. I use the format \u201cIt\u2019s OK to \u2026\u201d An example from a client this morning was \u201cIt\u2019s OK for tasks to move tasks back into \u2018to do\u2019\u201d or another one \u201cIt\u2019s OK to split a larger task into smaller ones at any time\u201d <\/li>\n<li><strong>Keeping a cumulative flow chart.<\/strong> This morning I was working with a client who wanted to try using a cumulative flow chart to record what occurred on their team kanban board. In order to illustrate, I got them to hand-draw the chart (see last week\u2019s post on <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.benjaminm.net\/2011\/06\/29\/how-three-forks-on-a-hand-drawn-chart-helped-a-team-improve\/\">using three forks on a hand-drawn cumulative flow chart<\/a> as an example) by counting the number of post-it notes in the columns (we ignored actions as these were by-products of discussing topics, rather than topics themselves). The client reaction was great, with the manager saying \u201cI completely get what the chart is about now\u201d and the result was we only need to spend two minutes actually talking about it (to help others in the team check their understanding).&#160; Here\u2019s the chart they produced: <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/benjaminmitchell.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/07\/photo-6.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image:none;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:block;float:none;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;padding-top:0;border-width:0;\" title=\"photo (6)\" border=\"0\" alt=\"photo (6)\" src=\"http:\/\/benjaminmitchell.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/07\/photo-6_thumb.jpg\" width=\"244\" height=\"324\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Client Response     <br \/><\/strong>The response from clients has been really positive to this approach. The client this morning said they were amazed how much they achieved in a short workshop. They also said they felt more energized from that meeting than they had when we\u2019d done a longer meeting without using this kanban format!&#160; I\u2019ve also used it with little or no introduction in meetings and it\u2019s been very successful.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d welcome hearing further about your experiences, or your views on what I\u2019ve mentioned, in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since I posted last week about using a simple kanban to structure workshops, I\u2019ve used the technique with several other clients and have made some subtle but useful improvements. Here are the key improvements: Making time constraints explicit. Ask everyone at the start of the meeting \u201care there any time constraints you have?\u201d. Write a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techpeoplethrivi-i2tkeoduos.live-website.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}