Heuristics for Becoming a Learning Organisation

Karl Scotland @kjscotland http://KarlScotland.com http://AvailAgility.co.uk

Descriptive not

Prescriptive

Heuristic: involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem solving by experimental and especially train-and-error methods. of, or relating to exploratory problem-solving techniques that utilise self-educating techniques (as the evaluation of feedback) to improve performance

Mirriam-Webster Dictionary

Heuristics Replace Rules

we need a clear rule for when (or who) can break the rules and heuristics that apply on the other side of the boundary. If you have to break the rules then that is OK, it will happen, but you have to then follow the heuristics.

cognitive-edge.com : Rules is Rules, Jan 29 2013

Disorder

Complicated Knowable Causality Good Practice Sense – Analyse Respond

Simple Known Causality Best Practice Sense – Categorise - Respond

Complex Retrospective Causality Emergent Practice Probe – Sense - Respond

Chaotic Incoherent Causality Novel Practice Act – Sense - Respond

Orde

red

Unord

ered

Cynefin

Heuristics Support Substitution

a simple procedure that helps find adequate, though often imperfect answers to difficult questions. The word comes from the same root as eureka.

Daniel Kahneman

Consider the letter K. Is K more likely to appear as the first letter in a word OR as the third letter?

Heuristics Guide Towards New Possibilities

rules of thumb – that guide us towards a solution by way of organised exploration of the possibilities.

Roger Martin

The Knowledge Funnel

Mystery

Heuristics

Algorithm

Validity

Reliability

Inductive - what is

Deductive – what must be

Abductive – what might be

Flow

Value

Potential

Study

Share

Stabilise

Sense

Search

System

Interventions Impacts

What systemic problem, difficulty or frustration are we trying to address, and who is experiencing it?

System

Outputs … create Outcomes … which have Impact

More stories like this… Fewer stories like that…

What stories might be told about the work going through a perfect process which has reliability and efficiency?

Flow

Impacts

What stories might be told about the work creating an unbeatable product which has validity and effectiveness?

Value

Impacts

What stories might be told about the work being done by passionate people who have flexibility and euphoria?

Potential

Impacts

Flow Value Potential Process Product People Reliability Validity Flexibility Efficiency Effectiveness Euphoria

Study the context Share the understanding Stabilise the work Sense the capability Search the landscape

What could be done to learn more about customer and stakeholder needs, the resultant demand, and how that demand is processed?

Study

Interventions

Customer

Demand

Proc

ess

Empathy Interviews

Demand Analysis

Value Stream Mapping

What information is important to share, and how can tokens, the inscriptions on them, and their placements, create a common understanding?

Share

Interventions

Dimensions

! Scope ! Time ! People ! Cost ! Quality ! Priority ! Status ! Capability

! Demand ! Value ! Issues ! Risks ! Constraints ! Dependencies ! Assumptions ! ?

TIPs

Token Inscription Placement

What policies could help limit work in process, and remove unnecessary or unexpected delays or rework?

Stabilise

Interventions

Policies

!  WIP Limits !  Definitions of Done/Ready !  Scheduling !  Classes of Service !  Defects !  Cadences

What measures and meetings might create insights and guide decisions on potential interventions?

Sense

Interventions

ODIM

Outcome Decisions Insights Measures

Do it fast

Do the right thing

Do it right

Do it on time Keep doing it

Cadences

! Scheduling ! Planning ! Reporting ! Reviewing

! Retrospection ! Releasing !  Learning !  ?

What small experiments could be run to safely learn the impact of different interventions?

Search

Interventions

Double Loop Learning

Results Strategies & Techniques Assumptions

Background: What do you want to learn and why?

Frame the Experiment: What is your Problem Statement?

Write the Problem Statement from the Define worksheet here. What pain or problem is being experienced?[Customer Segment] needs a way to [describe job to be done], (because|but|surprisingly) [describe insight].

Hypothesis to Test

[Specific repeatable action] will create [expected result].Is this hypothesis falsifiable?

Experiment Details

Describe the experiment you plan to run and how you are going to attempt to falsify your hypothesis.

Safety: How is the experiment safe to run?

Describe how the experiment is safe to run.Describe how you will recover from running the experiment upon completion or if you discover it isn’t safe to run.

Measures

What will you measure to invalidate your hypothesis?What will you measure to indicate the experiment is safe to run?What will you measure to indicate you should amplify the experiment?Measures can be Qualitative and Quantitative.

Experiment Backlog

Stack ranked list of actions needed to run the experiment.

Next Steps: Given what you learned, what’s next?

Experiment Results and Learnings

Describe what you learned from the experiment? Did you invalidate your hypothesis or does it live on?

Experiment Name:

Owner:

Mentor: Date:V 1.0

If we can’t generate 5-10 options for a solution it means we are overly constrained and have too little diversity.

Jabe Bloom

http://kanban-thinking.net

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Thank You! Karl Scotland @kjscotland http://KarlScotland.com http://AvailAgility.co.uk http://kanban-thinking.net