Agile Kaizen: Managing Continuous Improvement Far Beyond Retrospectives

208 Pages·2014·2.29 MB·English

by  Ángel Medinilla (auth.)

Ángel Medinilla
Agile Kaizen
Managing Continuous Improvement
Far Beyond Retrospectives
Agile Kaizen
.
´
Angel Medinilla
Agile Kaizen
Managing Continuous Improvement
Far
Beyond Retrospectives
A´ngelMedinilla
Proyectalis
MairenadelAljarafe
Seville
Spain
ISBN978-3-642-54990-8 ISBN978-3-642-54991-5(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-642-54991-5
SpringerHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014941731
#Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2014
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Lifeisgrowth.Ifwestopgrowing,technically
and spiritually, we are as good as dead.
(cid:1) O Sensei Morihei Ueshiba
You don’t have to be the Dalai Lama to tell
people that life’s about change.
(cid:1) John Cleese
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The
rebels. Thetroublemakers. The round pegs in
the square holes. The ones who see things
differently. They’re not fond of rules. And
they have no respect for the status quo. You
canquotethem,disagreewiththem,glorifyor
vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do
is ignore them. Because they change things.
Theypushthehumanraceforward.Andwhile
some may see them as the crazy ones, we see
genius. Because the people who are crazy
enough to think they can change the world,
are the ones who do.
(cid:1) Steve Jobs
.
Preface
Thisbookisbasedonmyexperiencewhileworkingwithcompaniesasanexternal
trainer and consultant. I have helped all kinds of companies, from 12 to 10,000
employees, to successfully implement Agile frameworks. Additionally, I have
trained several thousand managers and developers on topics like Scrum, Kanban,
Lean, Agile, Agile management, team coaching, Lean Startup, Agile product
management, and change management. Client profiles include companies in the
following industries: telecommunications, banking, videogames, software
factories, mobile application development, government, logistics, retail,
dot-coms,onlineservices,start-ups,andmediacompanies.
My previous book, Agile Management, received very good comments and
appraisals. I’m happy about that, but many of the comments mentioned that it
wasagoodbook“onhowtomanagesoftwarecompanies.”That’sprobablyoneof
theproblemswithrelyingtoomuchonyourownbackground,usingpersonalstories
or using some key buzzwords like Agile. I’d like to assure you that this book is
addressed to any human organization that feels the need to improve and obtain
better results—no matter what kind of organization, market, product, technology,
vision,goal,orsize.
Nearly everyone I meet knows the famous Albert Einstein quote that defines
insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different
results.” It doesn’t matter how much sense this quote makes; I feel that the vast
majorityofcompaniesarestuckinthesameprocess,methods,tools,practices,and
behaviors, yet they expect to obtain higher productivity, bigger market shares,
betterquality,andshorterTimetoMarket.
Ifwewantbetterresults, wehavetomakechange happen.Weliveintimesof
constant change, and even if we feel fine with the current state of things, we will
probablyfindsoonerratherthanlaterthattheenvironment,customers,competitors,
technology, employees, or markets have changed and our current state of delight
and complacency is no longer sustainable. As Edward Deming said, ‘It is not
necessarytochange.Survivalisnotmandatory.’
But, again, it was Albert Einstein who said that problems can’t be solved with
the same mindset we had when we created them. In order to improve our
companies,wehavetoimproveourselves.That’swhyIbelievethatthefoundation
vii
viii Preface
ofimprovementisnotfoundinprocesses,practices,techniques,ortools(although
I’llprovideplentyoftheminthisbook)butinembracingtherightmindset—values
andprinciples.
Beyondprocessimprovement—quality,productivity,time,profits,costs,etc.,I
believethatthereisahighermoralimplicationbehindKaizen.AKaizenculture,as
anyculture,startswithacommonpurpose,a“noblecause”.AsDanPinkpointsout
inhisfamousTedTalkaboutmotivation,whencompaniesjustfocusonprofitand
thisprofitgetsunmooredfromanoblepurpose,badthingshappen.
MassproductionandtheConsumerSocietyhavecreatedaworldofwaste.Our
economy is based on an endless loop of buy–break–discard–buy a new one.
Companies plan for obsolescence and accelerated consumption. A whole bunch
of companies have been created around the concept of producing crap—cheap,
affordable crap that will break or be out of fashion soon so we can persuade our
customerstobuymorecrap.Craptheydidnotneedtobeginwith,butbythetime
they find out that the crap they bought is not making them happy, we will be
throwinganew,coolercrapintothemarket.
The main focus of many companies, on the other hand, is cutting costs. But
instead of making their companies more efficient, which is difficult, they move
companies to third world countries where labor is cheap, unions are banned, and
theyareabletocontaminateinsteadofinvestingmoneyinfilters,cleaningdevices,
andwastedisposalorrecyclingprocesses.
The result is that we consume far more than what the Earth is able to provide,
andweproducemorewaste thanthe Earthcan process. TheEarth’s population is
predicted to double over the twenty-first century. Urban areas expand and there’s
lesslandavailableforfarming.Wearecontaminatingthewaterwedrinkandtheair
webreathe.Accordingtoscientists,weareexperiencingthesixthmassextinction,
andthere’sundeniableevidencethatwearecausingit.Despitetheeffortofmanyto
discardtheproofs,there’sglobalwarming,andrightnowwedon’tknowifwewill
beabletoreverseit.
Forheaven’ssake—there’sevenaGarbagePatchinthePacificOcean,agyreof
marinedebrismadeofplastics,chemicalsludge,andothergarbage.Itisnotvisible
fromspace,asplasticsaresuspendedunderwater,butthecurrentestimatesarethat
itistwicethesizeoftheUnitedStates.Andthere’sasimilaroneintheAtlantic!
We are basically destroying the future for our children, and we just hope
someone will do something in the future—since ‘it’s just the way things are’. A
Kaizen mind wouldn’t allow such behavior, and the more people embrace the
Kaizenculture,thecloserwewillbetoareallysustainablesociety.
AsapartoftheKaizenArmy,youarenowenlistedtofightforanewproduction
paradigmbasedonefficiency,collaboration,respect,sustainableprocesses,built-in
quality, and waste removal. As you will see, the expect results go far beyond
increasedproduction,moreprofits,orfastertimestomarket,butyoushouldexpect
thosealso.
Preface ix
There is also a personal, important goal of improving and becoming the best
personyoucanbe—learningtoseeyourfaultsandareasofimprovementandbeing
abletoengageinthiswithoutremorse,guilt,orfrustration.Andofcourse,theneed
to create better, more humane companies remains. Companies that instead of just
seekingprofitatanycost,letusstrive,shine,andexploreallourpotential.
Seville,Spain A´ngelMedinilla
October2013