Let’s Put the “Continuous” in Continuous Improvement

Creating a mindset of continuous improvement requires frequent practice.

Do you remember the Post Mortem review for projects? I do. They are not fond memories.

We would hold these meetings at the end of a long, arduous waterfall project. In most cases, the project had run off the rails. These reviews were not happy events. Even the name is regrettable. The dictionary defines a post mortem as “an examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death.”

So what was wrong with these reviews other than the name? They resulted in too little, too late. The improvement loop was too slow. Team members had moved on to new projects. Inspection was delayed until the end. There was no ability to improve during delivery.

The post mortem is the opposite end of the spectrum from continuous improvement. So how are we doing now that we are on the Agile journey?

The Current State of Continuous Improvement and Agile

Even if we are practicing Agile, continuous improvement may not be present.

As an Agile coach, I see how we struggle today to embrace a true continuous improvement mindset. Too often change is seen as a secondary priority. We can get too comfortable with our approaches and initial plans.

If we are not changing, we are stagnating.

Some common clues to a reduced improvement focus are below:

• “Let’s wait until the Retrospective to address this issue.”
• “The team will skip the Retrospective this Sprint. There is too much work to do.”
• “We can’t afford to change the way we are working. We have a deadline to meet!”
• “There is no time to address these new user needs. They will have to wait for the next release.”
• “We only focus on improvement in the Retrospective.”

It is easy to slip back into patterns that delay change. If we are not changing, we are stagnating. And we are increasing the risk of delivering the wrong thing, delivering it wrong, and taking too long to deliver it.

Let’s Put the “Continuous” Into Continuous Improvement

As an Agile community, we need to up our game when it comes to continuous improvement. In my experience, frequent practice, deliberate inspection, and making space for change help us get there.

Frequency of Practice

Assume we are discussing improvement once a quarter, once a month, or once every couple of weeks. Most behavior specialists would suggest we are not practicing improvement. Rather, they would conclude that we are practicing the status quo. The frequency of change focus is too low. If we want to improve, we must form a new habit. New habits are best adopted with regular, daily practice.

Let’s talk about how the professionals practice improvement. In other words, how does Toyota do it? Kaizen events at Toyota are crucial to developing their continuous improvement mindset. George Koenigsaecker details these Kaizen events in his book Leading the Lean Enterprise Transformation.¹

Kaizen events are one-week long, intense improvement experiences. They focus on a particular improvement goal.

Toyota believes it takes 100, week-long Kaizen events to obtain a continuous improvement mindset.

At Toyota, they know the continuous improvement mindset takes deliberate practice. They believe it takes 100 Kaizen events for one to undergo a personal transformation. This transformation makes you frustrated with waste in the current status quo. You become self-motivated to drive improvement without end.

So improvement takes practice…a lot of practice. You will need endurance and deliberate focus.

Deliberate Inspection

I often ask my teams this question, “What is the most important Scrum ceremony?” I usually ask this question in the context of improvement, so most will say, “The Retrospective!”

I then follow up by asking, “Is the Retrospective the only ceremony focused on improvement?” This often creates some puzzled looks. Of course, the Retrospective is the most obvious improvement focused event. But on closer reflection, every ceremony in Scrum has an inspect and adapt aspect.

We should ensure each ceremony is focused on adjusting to our current reality. In each ceremony, we should consider what needs to change based on what we now know.

Practice gathering feedback at every interaction.

To take inspection to a new level, practice gathering feedback with every interaction. In this practice, any time two or more people engage in an activity together, they should gather feedback on the interaction. This can happen between team members and between team members and managers. It is simple to do. Two questions are asked:

• What went well?
• What should we change for next time?

Make Space for Change

So we are gathering all of this feedback for improvement through deliberate inspection. Now what? The team and managers must now make the improvement a reality.

We must prioritize change.

This seems obvious. But in practice, it is often not done because we don’t make room for the change. It is overshadowed by delivery to a plan. A fixed mindset often gets in the way. Adaptation is neglected and the status quo reigns. We must prioritize change.

Here are some interesting ways I have seen teams and managers make space for change:

• Leave Room in the Release for Change: Don’t assume you know everything you need to do before you start work. Leave room to adapt to emergent product ideas and better ways of working.
• Make Room in the Sprint for Change: Don’t fill the Sprint with features. Leave room for change. Make space to improve daily.
• Add the Change to the Sprint Backlog: Treat the change like features you are delivering. Plan and forecast to adapt to a change just like you do to meet the Sprint Goal. Track the change to done on your Sprint Board.
• Reflect Daily: Reflect on change experiments daily, including progress, obstacle removal, and next steps.
• Have a Change Champion: Someone from the team volunteers to own the improvements for the Sprint. This person reminds the team to focus on the change and keeps it front and center in every interaction. The team members can rotate change champion ownership every sprint based on interest.

Sit Back and Bask in Your Continuous Improvement Glory

Deliberate, daily improvement will speed up your team’s improvement trajectory. The incremental, small changes are not revolutionary when taken at an individual level. But they will add up to a true metamorphosis over time.

Your daily improvement habit will renew your curiosity for improvement. Satisfaction with the way you have always done things will dissipate. You will gain the attitude that you can always improve and get a little bit better.

Inspect. Adapt. Repeat daily. Thrive.

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Related Posts

• Speeding Up Your Agile Transformation
• Good Versus Great and the Agile Mindset
• Is Half-baked Agile Enough?
• A Closer Look at Transparency
• Improvement Versus Delivery

References

1. Leading the Lean Enterprise Transformation, George Koenigsaecker, 2012