In our very first episode of The Flow Sessions, our flagship webinar series hosted by VSMC board advisor and value stream lead, Steve Pereira, we had a conversation with Value Stream Mapping legend, Karen Martin about value stream thinking. It was a very lively session, with many more questions than we were able to address in the session. In this post, I tackle the questions that relate to the human elements of value stream management.
Questions:
Some further context: we have been doing this on smaller, internal value streams - perhaps this affects the outcome of this step since our "customers" are a little more ambiguous?
Nobody likes having their baby called ugly, nor do we like it when we are told our work doesn’t matter which is effectively what we say when it’s not value-adding - is it worthless? Of course not! It’s currently essential to the delivery of value to our customers BUT we should seek to reduce or eliminate non-value activities where possible. We need to reframe this as an opportunity for the people completing these steps in the value stream. Frequently, these steps can be heavily manual, onerous, boring even. In digital value streams, we automate these tasks away. Take release management as an example. In progressive release management, the release manager evolves from gatekeeper to guide (see table below). This is an exciting time to reinvent themselves, their work and their career path that benefits the value stream team and the organization. Organizational performance is about individual’s contribution and therefore the joy and happiness they find in work. Leaders need to help everyone find and meet their potential in the roles.
There’s always one, isn’t there? Actually there’s about 16%. It’s part of the job of a change agent, dragging an organization through the digital revolution, to understand who they’re dealing with and bring people on the journey. Geoffrey Moore’s ‘Crossing the Chasm’ work is so helpful here - take a look at this:
Moore wrote about how organizations adopt technology, but you can apply this equally to people adopting ways of working. Your naysayer is your skeptic. Skeptics are important because they show us our weaknesses and risks and give an opportunity to address them. They also don’t have to stay skeptical.
You can use stakeholder mapping techniques to identify where the people you work with sit in terms of their understanding and emotional buy-in to the change you are driving. And how to change their minds. Our partner, DevOps Institute’s DevOps Leader course goes into this in more detail.
I don’t really subscribe to the concept of mindset. I subscribe to neuroplasticity. Leaders need to make space for people to learn and practice VSM. VSM is a system of continuous improvement as are most progressive ways of working. The space is needed for people to have time to stop just making new things and executing the existing processes and instead learn to find better ways of making new things. If they don’t, they are creating cultural debt which will be very costly in the long run.
Check out these case stories. Our VSM Foundation course includes 25 case stories - This course is provided free of charge as self-paced learning to all of our members. To find out more about becoming a VSMC member, go here. Here are some financial services stories for your pleasure!