{"id":118062,"date":"2023-11-20T16:37:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T20:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=118062"},"modified":"2023-11-28T18:05:54","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T22:05:54","slug":"kanban-continuous-improvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/kanban-continuous-improvement\/","title":{"rendered":"The 3 Building Blocks of Kanban’s Continuous Improvement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How can you constantly improve yourself and your work habits<\/a>? How is continuous improvement part of the kanban system?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In kanban, continuous improvement is at the core of the workflow system. The way you achieve it is by observing your work, asking questions, and trying out new ways of doing things. It’s important to take some time to step back and reflect on what you’ve accomplished so you can continue moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s look at three ways to embed continuous self-improvement into your personal kanban practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

1. Retrospectives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In organizational contexts, retrospectives are meetings where a team looks back on a project and reflects on what went well and what went wrong. They\u2019re opportunities to celebrate, vent, and identify work habits or methods to keep or discard. In the context of personal kanban, you can have a retro with yourself by looking at what you did or didn\u2019t accomplish and thinking about why. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the authors of Personal Kanban<\/em>, continuous improvement can first be achieved by holding retrospectives regularly, such as every week, and not waiting until the next scheduled retro if you get derailed. It\u2019s better to stop, conduct a retrospective, and start fresh. To remind yourself, you can add a \u201cRetrospective\u201d column to your kanban where you put completed tasks. Each week, before planning the week ahead, look at this column to reflect on your wins and losses and see what you can learn from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Agile teams conduct retrospectives at the end of a work cycle to ensure they\u2019re constantly giving and receiving<\/a> feedback and finding ways to improve. Consider incorporating some agile techniques to ensure your retrospectives help you improve<\/a>. For example, at the end of a work cycle, choose one new thing to try, one thing that\u2019s not working and you\u2019ll stop doing, and one thing that\u2019s working well and you\u2019ll continue doing. Then, make a note of the changes you\u2019ll make to your work process and be specific. What will the change entail, and how will you know if it worked? Revisit the note at the end of the following work cycle to see if you\u2019ve made progress.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Observe Patterns<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Visualizing your work and its flow allows you to identify the usual patterns it follows. The patterns you identify inform how you plan ahead<\/strong>, helping you make adjustments to make your work more efficient. Paying attention<\/a> to patterns also helps you be alert to disruptions so you can deal with them early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some patterns the authors suggest you pay attention to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n