Working in the US last week with David on some updates to the Kanban curriculum, it struck me soon after writing my last post (where I was thinking out loud) that the Kanban Method speaks to multiple agendas:

1. The continuous improvement agenda – kanban systems feeding the process of ongoing improvement[1], providing grist to the mills of Agile retrospectives, Lean improvement routines, collaborative PDCA and so on
2. The service delivery agenda – using service orientation as a lens[2] on process and organisation, being clear about what we deliver, to whom and why, understanding and deepening the knowledge discovery process[3], catalysing collaborative, customer-focused delivery at scale
3. The humane, start with what you do now agenda – the Kanban Method’s very distinctive, values-centric approach to leadership and organisational change

(Forgive me for presenting these in this inside-to-outside order – it aligns to my talk[4])

Many people both inside and outside the Kanban community find it easy to identify with that first agenda. For better and for worse, it integrates very comfortably with other frameworks, the “better” part being that it helps (a lot), the “worse” part being the limits imposed on Kanban’s reach by attachment to existing models.

I’ve majored all year on that last agenda; from my initial post in early January, explaining Kanban as a system of values has been very fruitful. Invoking Bruce Lee (yes, that Bruce Lee) with “be like water” and “no method is method”, David elevates Kanban’s approach to change to a philosophy.

But neither agenda adequately reflects the impact that Kanban can have from the moment it is introduced. It’s a paradox often observed: how is it that the start with what you do now method so often heralds such immediate change?

Perhaps we’ve invested too much in explaining how Kanban works and too little in describing its effects. We must allow the possibility that some familiar messages that continue to resonate strongly with those that deeply understand Kanban may do little for those that don’t.

The service delivery agenda is distinctive enough (actually quite radical in many organisational contexts) and gets quickly to the immediate benefits. We know from teaching to this agenda that it resonates. Yes, change management and leadership are necessary to bring it about and continuous improvement will sustain it, but those messages can come later.