[VP] Presentation

[Alfred Almendra]

Hello,

I'm Alfred Almendra, an agile coach in Lyon, France.

I've discovered visual management with a simple task board and a scrum
burndown chart.
Then moved to a new mindset with visual management and
serious/innovation games to both identify, measure and solve problems.

Current troubles with visualisation :
- how managers understand visual information, and how they use it
- post-it redundancy, when using several boards. Tools are full of
great features, but it seems nothing can replace a real manual
low-tech board of notes...

Alfred

[Yves Hanoulle]

Bonjour Alfred, 

2012/9/10 Alfred Almendra <alfred....@gmail.com>

Hello,

I'm Alfred Almendra, an agile coach in Lyon, France.

I've discovered visual management with a simple task board and a scrum
burndown chart.
Then moved to a new mindset with visual management and
serious/innovation games to both identify, measure and solve problems.

Current troubles with visualisation :
 - how managers understand visual information, and how they use it

please say more

 

 - post-it redundancy, when using several boards. Tools are full of
great features, but it seems nothing can replace a real manual low-tech board of notes...

please explain more about why you have multiple boards

(and what you have already tried)

 

Alfred

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[Alfred Almendra]

>> Current troubles with visualisation :
>> - how managers understand visual information, and how they use it
>
> please say more

For instance, when a kanban board enables to identify a bottleneck in
the process, or when a matrix of skills enables to identify a risk on
a particular skill, or whatever...
Those things aim to help the team to improve.
Sometimes, a "command control" manager uses such information to blame
an employee, or a service.

>> - post-it redundancy, when using several boards. Tools are full of
>> great features, but it seems nothing can replace a real manual low-tech
>> board of notes...
>
> please explain more about why you have multiple boards
> (and what you have already tried)

I mean 2 kinds of board :
- one board per team. Up to 5 teams/boards in the same company.
- one board per level of hierarchy. I've only used a max of 2 levels
: one board for the portfolio management, then splitted into several
team boards, almost like scrum of scrum.

Alfred

[Morgan]

Hi Yves and everyone else!

My name is Morgan Ahlström, dad (4 yo daughter and 7 yo son), husband,
fisher, agile coach and many other things.

My agile journey started ten years ago and I bought in to the
visualization techniques that came with the vanilla implementations
but it wasn't until much later that I realized what visualization
could do for me personally. It might have been when I read "Refactor
Your Wetware" or at least in that neighborhood that I started using
different techniques to consciously activate the right side of my
brain. I've been a logically(?) reasoning, left part of the brain,
kind of guy my entire life but drawing, doodling, fidgeting and
visualization has helped me find a new capacity within myself. It's
not (yet?) a part of my personality, I have to do it consciously to
gain access to these parts of myself but today I always walk around
with pen and paper and I make sure that I have a pen i my hand
whenever I move into any problem solving.

One of my challenges today is trying to find where to start in a very
broad problem scope. I've been asked to give some general conclusions
on a topic that spans over so many different dimensions and topics
that I don't know what perspective to take. The assignment could be
compared to being asked to give a summary of history. It's not the
actual topic of course but then you get an understanding of my
problem; should a problem like this be addressed from a geographical
perspective, a timeline, language/culturally ...?

BR

Morgan

[Yves Hanoulle]

Hi Morgan,

I did not know you kids had same age as mine (wel we "have" a 10 year old also)

2012/9/11 Morgan <morgan....@gmail.com>

Hi Yves and everyone else!

My name is Morgan Ahlström, dad (4 yo daughter and 7 yo son), husband,
fisher, agile coach and many other things.

My agile journey started ten years ago and I bought in to the
visualization techniques that came with the vanilla implementations
but it wasn't until much later that I realized what visualization
could do for me personally.

 

It might have been when I read "Refactor Your Wetware"

 

to my shame I still haven't read the book, although I was part of the mailing list...

 

 

or at least in that neighborhood that I started using
different techniques to consciously activate the right side of my
brain. I've been a logically(?) reasoning, left part of the brain,
kind of guy my entire life but drawing, doodling, fidgeting and
visualization has helped me find a new capacity within myself.

what a nice story.

 

It's
not (yet?) a part of my personality, I have to do it consciously to
gain access to these parts of myself but today I always walk around
with pen and paper and I make sure that I have a pen i my hand
whenever I move into any problem solving.

great advise 

One of my challenges today is trying to find where to start in a very
broad problem scope. I've been asked to give some general conclusions
on a topic that spans over so many different dimensions and topics
that I don't know what perspective to take.

 

The assignment could be
compared to being asked to give a summary of history. It's not the
actual topic of course but then you get an understanding of my
problem; should a problem like this be addressed from a geographical
perspective, a timeline, language/culturally ...?

did you ask them what teh acceptance criteria for the assignment are?

 

BR

Morgan

[Yves Hanoulle]

Thank you Alfred,

2012/9/10 Alfred Almendra <alfred....@gmail.com>

>> Current troubles with visualisation :

>>  - how managers understand visual information, and how they use it
>
> please say more

For instance, when a kanban board enables to identify a bottleneck in
the process, or when a matrix of skills enables to identify a risk on
a particular skill, or whatever...
Those things aim to help the team to improve.
Sometimes, a "command control" manager uses such information to blame
an employee, or a service.

so we need to find a way to make their action visible...

could become interesting

>>  - post-it redundancy, when using several boards. Tools are full of
>> great features, but it seems nothing can replace a real manual low-tech
>> board of notes...
>
> please explain more about why you have multiple boards
> (and what you have already tried)

I mean 2 kinds of board :
 - one board per team. Up to 5 teams/boards in the same company.
 - one board per level of hierarchy. I've only used a max of 2 levels
: one board for the portfolio management, then splitted into several
team boards, almost like scrum of scrum.

Xavier (Quesada) , I know you are here will you explain what you did when we worked together?

;-)

y

[Morgan Ahlström]

On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 11:18 AM, Yves Hanoulle <Yv...@paircoaching.net> wrote:

Hi Morgan,

I did not know you kids had same age as mine (wel we "have" a 10 year old also)

Yes, it's nice to get to know the people behind the names as well. 

 

One of my challenges today is trying to find where to start in a very
broad problem scope. I've been asked to give some general conclusions
on a topic that spans over so many different dimensions and topics
that I don't know what perspective to take.

 

The assignment could be
compared to being asked to give a summary of history. It's not the
actual topic of course but then you get an understanding of my
problem; should a problem like this be addressed from a geographical
perspective, a timeline, language/culturally ...?

did you ask them what teh acceptance criteria for the assignment are?

I've tried that but they don't really know what they want for themselves. My guess is that they see this huge forrest in front of them that they can't grasp and wants help in finding a path through it. The generous interpretation when describing it would probably be as a very open-ended assignment. 

BR

Morgan

-- 

__________________________________
Phone: +46 (0)72 726 33 03
Twitter: @Morgsterious
Blog: http://morgsterious.wordpress.com

[Yves Hanoulle]

2012/9/12 Morgan Ahlström <morgan....@gmail.com>

On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 11:18 AM, Yves Hanoulle <Yv...@paircoaching.net> wrote:

Hi Morgan,

I did not know you kids had same age as mine (wel we "have" a 10 year old also)

Yes, it's nice to get to know the people behind the names as well. 

 

One of my challenges today is trying to find where to start in a very
broad problem scope. I've been asked to give some general conclusions
on a topic that spans over so many different dimensions and topics
that I don't know what perspective to take.

 

The assignment could be
compared to being asked to give a summary of history. It's not the
actual topic of course but then you get an understanding of my
problem; should a problem like this be addressed from a geographical
perspective, a timeline, language/culturally ...?

did you ask them what teh acceptance criteria for the assignment are?

I've tried that but they don't really know what they want for themselves. My guess is that they see this huge forrest in front of them that they can't grasp and wants help in finding a path through it. The generous interpretation when describing it would probably be as a very open-ended assignment. 

that's a good place to start I assume

so how can we visualize that?

 

BR

Morgan

-- 

__________________________________
Phone: +46 (0)72 726 33 03
Twitter: @Morgsterious
Blog: http://morgsterious.wordpress.com

[Morgan Ahlström]

 

One of my challenges today is trying to find where to start in a very
broad problem scope. I've been asked to give some general conclusions
on a topic that spans over so many different dimensions and topics
that I don't know what perspective to take.

 

The assignment could be
compared to being asked to give a summary of history. It's not the
actual topic of course but then you get an understanding of my
problem; should a problem like this be addressed from a geographical
perspective, a timeline, language/culturally ...?

did you ask them what teh acceptance criteria for the assignment are?

I've tried that but they don't really know what they want for themselves. My guess is that they see this huge forrest in front of them that they can't grasp and wants help in finding a path through it. The generous interpretation when describing it would probably be as a very open-ended assignment. 

that's a good place to start I assume

so how can we visualize that?

 

Excellent question. Next! ;-)

I think that would like to see some kind of multidimensional affinity mapping but that's kind of hard for me to do. 2-D projections have not given me any insights yet.

Perhaps some kind of QFD-matrix could be a way of moving between different perspectives? Not sure how I would implement that yet though.

/Morgan

[Dave Nicolette]

Don't know enough about the situation to offer useful advice. Can
suggest some tools/techniques that might help you understand the
situation and create a vision for improvement, though:

Influence mapping. This is a technique used in game development that
is also useful in understanding the informal power structures in
organizations.

Causal loop diagrams (also known as diagram of effects). In situations
too complicated to lend themselves to linear cause-and-effect
analysis, this can help expose the chains of causes and effects that
loop back on themselves. Interesting types include "reinforcing loops"
that increase a condition, and "balancing loops" that hold an
organization in an equilibrium state. When you try to "fix" one thing
at a time and nothing seems to change, it may be because the
equilibrium state is a result of many influences acting in concert.
This can be a useful tool to expose those.

This book has a lot of great tools and methods for analyzing
organizations: http://www.amazon.com/The-Logical-Thinking-Process-Approach/dp/0873897234.
It lays out a rigorous approach to analyzing the current state and
planning for a desired target state based on systems thinking. Dettmer
describes several useful analysis tools.

Value stream mapping. This technique comes from the Lean school of
thought, as far as I know. It's a practical way to understand how work
flows in a system/process/organization and the points in a process
that could be improved. It's process-oriented, not people-oriented.

A3 method. This is a simple way to organize various analysis tools,
problem statements, and goal statements on a single sheet of paper to
keep the "big picture" visible. You can incorporate any analysis
methods and tools you like with the format.

This book is not as "technical" as Dettmer's book, but I found it
helpful as a way to get into the right frame of mind to identify what
is important vs. what isn't so important: The 80/20 Principle.
http://www.amazon.com/80-20-Principle-Secret-Achieving/dp/0385491743/

Regarding 2D vs. 3D analysis, you might check out some of the 3D mind
mapping and concept mapping tools out there.

You can find a lot of info online about these things.

Hope that helps.
Dave

>
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> __________________________________
> Phone: +46 (0)72 726 33 03
> Twitter: @Morgsterious
> Blog: http://morgsterious.wordpress.com
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