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Complete event information at http://lkna18.leankanban.com
Sunday, April 8
 

9:00am PDT

Lean Kanban University Informational Meeting
Open to those already in the Lean Kanban University program or those who are interested in possibly joining.  This is an update on recent developments in LKU certified kanban programs including professional credentials.

Speakers
avatar for Janice Linden-Reed

Janice Linden-Reed

CEO, Lean Kanban Inc
Janice Linden-Reed is CEO of Lean Kanban, Inc. overseeing all Lean Kanban University certified Kanban training programs, credential programs for Kanban professionals, and the Lean Kanban Conference global series.   Her professional background includes game design and production... Read More →



Sunday April 8, 2018 9:00am - 12:00pm PDT
LILY

1:00pm PDT

The Business of Kanban
Lean Kanban Accredited Kanban Trainer Brendan Wovchko leads this workshop on how to set up and run a successful Kanban training business.

Speakers
avatar for Brendan Wovchko

Brendan Wovchko

huge.io
Brendan began experimenting with Kanban in late 2011 and within a year he was hooked. Having since become one of the most sought-after Kanban trainers in the U.S., Brendan is known for his obsession with finding simpler ways to teach Kanban and for leveraging his c-suite experiences... Read More →



Sunday April 8, 2018 1:00pm - 5:00pm PDT
LILY
 
Monday, April 9
 

7:30am PDT

Lean Coffee

Monday April 9, 2018 7:30am - 8:30am PDT
SLACK ZONE (CEDAR III)

7:30am PDT

Check-In
Monday April 9, 2018 7:30am - 9:00am PDT
FOYER

8:50am PDT

Welcome | Opening Remarks
Important information about the Lean Kanban North America conference.

Speakers
avatar for Janice Linden-Reed

Janice Linden-Reed

CEO, Lean Kanban Inc
Janice Linden-Reed is CEO of Lean Kanban, Inc. overseeing all Lean Kanban University certified Kanban training programs, credential programs for Kanban professionals, and the Lean Kanban Conference global series.   Her professional background includes game design and production... Read More →


Monday April 9, 2018 8:50am - 9:00am PDT
SUMMIT

9:00am PDT

Keynote: Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic -- Storytelling with Data: Bringing data to life through pictures and story
Stories resonate and stick with your audience in ways that data alone does not. Why wouldn’t you leverage the power of story when communicating with data? Join this engaging session, during which Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic demonstrates the untapped potential of combining the magic of story with best practices in data visualization for communicating effectively with data. You'll leave the session inspired to bring your data to life and make it a pivotal point in an overarching story that motivates your audience!
**This presentation is followed by a 30-minute break. Cole will be available to sign her Storytelling with Data book which will be for sale outside the auditorium, or order yours in advance.** 

Speakers
avatar for Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic tells stories with data. She is the author of storytelling with data: a data visualization guide for business professionals and writes the popular blog www.storytellingwithdata.com. Cole’s unique talent was honed over the past decade through analytical roles in banking, private equity, and on Google’s People Analytics team. Her well-regarded workshops and presentations are highly sought after by data-minded individuals, companies, and philanthropic orga... Read More →


Monday April 9, 2018 9:00am - 10:00am PDT
SUMMIT

10:00am PDT

Coffee Break
Monday April 9, 2018 10:00am - 10:30am PDT
FOYER

10:00am PDT

Book Signing
Book Signing: Keynote Speaker, Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic



Speakers
avatar for Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic tells stories with data. She is the author of storytelling with data: a data visualization guide for business professionals and writes the popular blog www.storytellingwithdata.com. Cole’s unique talent was honed over the past decade through analytical roles in banking, private equity, and on Google’s People Analytics team. Her well-regarded workshops and presentations are highly sought after by data-minded individuals, companies, and philanthropic orga... Read More →


Monday April 9, 2018 10:00am - 10:30am PDT
SLACK ZONE (CEDAR III)

10:30am PDT

Managing the Chaos: A Proto-kanban Story Beyond IT
We often aim for success and welcome it with open arms. But, sometimes success comes more quickly than you anticipate, and demand for services exceeds your capacity to deliver. The result can be missed commitments, high stress, and inability to forecast with clarity. As quickly as your brand shines, it can tarnish with your inability to keep up. Basically your dreams become your nightmare.




In 2012, we formed a small little training program for a transforming enterprise that consisted of a single class and an instructor. Within 3 years we had grown to 12 courses and 6 instructors with a waiting list for seats. People wanted more courses and more offerings of the existing courses. People were asking for us to attend events and summits and briefings. As demand surged we began to fall into a pattern of unreliable service and delivery with a completely unsustainable work/life balance.




In the midst of the chaos we started implementing a Kanban model that we had known primarily as an IT software development model. While we’re doing a different kind of work than IT, we became convinced an implementation of a proto-kanban management system could save our reputation. We started with stickie notes on a whiteboard. We visualized all of the work we were doing: every inquiry, work product, service request. We then limited the commitments we made based on a strict prioritization method and only worked on a handful of things at a time. We became hyper-focused on getting things done and much less focused on getting things started. And finally we used “throughput” metrics to influence other departments to help with shared work items. We were also able to use our metrics to influence upper-management to see our training department as a primary service that needed scaled resources instead of as a support service that was merely overhead.




A basic Kanban management implementation saved our business when the chaos of success was drowning us. And it can help you too!

Speakers
avatar for Melinda Solomon

Melinda Solomon

AKT
Melinda Solomon is a training professional who has created educational programs catering to diverse international audiences in a variety of industries including Pharmaceuticals, Biotech, and Government. She has worked with organizational transformations to implement lean principles... Read More →


Monday April 9, 2018 10:30am - 11:20am PDT
CEDAR I&II

10:30am PDT

Developing Organizational Agility through the Kanban Maturity Model
How can I improve my organizational agility using the Kanban Maturity Model?
Agile is not a state. Agility is a capability that evolves gradually.
 
Developing organizational agility implies changes to behaviour and practices at all hierarchical levels.
Failing to introduce the right practices in an appropriate context can lead to losing momentum, unnecessary complication of the improvement initiative or social rejection, which in total means not obtaining the expected benefits from the invested effort and energy.
 
This talk is about how the Kanban Maturity Model (KMM) can be used to grow an agile organization. I will present two cases of using KMM:
(1) to extend the agile management from team level to multiple inter-dependent projects and services in the financial area of a large bank and
(2) for overcoming the strong “I” mentality of individuals and teams in a software development company and build a shared vision, "what We develop" thinking and focus on customer needs.

I will elaborate on how I used KMM to evaluate the initial states of these two organizations, what actions were taken, and the current outcomes.

Speakers
avatar for Teodora Bozheva

Teodora Bozheva

AKT, KCP
Teodora Bozheva has more than 20 years of experience in the field of software development, project management and process improvement. She has personally undergone all the challenges in meeting tough schedules and managing projects dependencies and limited resources.Teodora is passioned... Read More →


Monday April 9, 2018 10:30am - 11:20am PDT
SUMMIT

11:25am PDT

Portfolio Management with Kanban
Portfolio management is a key aspect of organizational performance. The ability to visualize upcoming projects, projects in progress, the process of value creation, the dependencies, the ability to share a common vision and to throttle the work in progress based on organizational capacity are all contributing elements to the effectiveness of an organization.
Unfortunately, the shared vision of a portfolio is too often buried in a tool shared with too few people and does not help the organization build a global and cohesive plan of action.
But when we think about it... Value chain, limiting work in progress, transparency, flow... have you ever thought about using Kanban for portfolio management? Seems like a great idea!
Create alignment around what delivers value to your end-users, use cadence to move forward, help shape a new organizational culture, support innovation, continuous improvement, and leadership and unite people around a shared mission, that is what Kanban at the strategic level can bring.

Speakers
avatar for Nicolas Mercier

Nicolas Mercier

Lean Agile coach, Facilité
Nicolas is passionate about agility and it is a contagious passion! People who work together effectively and find ways to deliver high-value products for their clients is what motivates him the most.He found Scrum somewhere around 2007. Since then, he went from being a developer to... Read More →
avatar for Frédéric Paquet

Frédéric Paquet

Before getting into agile coaching, Frédéric worked as a developer, architect, PCO, advisor to the PMO and project manager in both the private and public sector. He was also co-founder of a web company in the field of psychometry and soft skills development and worked as CTO for... Read More →


Monday April 9, 2018 11:25am - 12:15pm PDT
CEDAR I&II

11:25am PDT

Resistance Is Not Futile, Just Poorly Understood
It is a widely accepted fact that people naturally resist change, no matter how small, yet when faced with resistance from individuals, teams and entire organizations, many leaders struggle to thoughtfully recognize and respond (or not respond to) resistant behaviors that may impede meaningful and lasting improvement. Resistance to change emerges as a consequence of a myriad of factors such as:

+ Fear of the unfamiliar / unknown
+ Threats to moral codes or values
+ Power dynamics
+ Hedging for existing plan (e.g. sunk cost bias)

 Through the sharing of real world examples attendees will learn practical concepts and thinking tools to aid in anticipating, discerning, and adapting to resistance before it becomes an impasse to the progress of change. 

Speakers
avatar for Adam Hsu

Adam Hsu

Organizational Coach, JPMorgan Chase
Adam Hsu is member of a team of coaches in Global Technology at JPMorgan Chase focused on enabling organizational and business agility at every level of the organization. Adam's approach to coaching is grounded in the principles of Socio-Technical Systems theory with a focus on emergent... Read More →


Monday April 9, 2018 11:25am - 12:15pm PDT
SUMMIT

12:15pm PDT

Lunch
Monday April 9, 2018 12:15pm - 1:15pm PDT
TAMARACK

1:15pm PDT

Lightning Talks
Join us for these short-format presentations by select LKNA18 attendees.


Monday April 9, 2018 1:15pm - 2:00pm PDT
SUMMIT

2:00pm PDT

Keynote: Klaus Leopold - Why Agile Teams Have Nothing To Do with Business Agility
In this talk, I discuss an agile transition where approximately 600 people were involved. The goal was to shorten the time-to- market for initiatives to be able to respond to customer needs more quickly and, as such, improve business agility. In order to achieve this, a reorganization was carried out. Cross-functional teams were constructed so knowledge needed for development was fully available within the team. In addition, the teams were categorized by product in order to remove any dependencies.  Visualization of the work, Standup meetings and Retrospectives made the agile transition complete -- but the expected improvements did not occur.

I will share what we did to improve the situation and reach the goal of “more business agility”. I also show how you can approach an agile transition of this size, so you can avoid the issue they experienced. This much I can tell you in advance: do not start at the team level. Starting beyond the team level will not only save your nerves, but also a lot of money!













Speakers
avatar for Klaus Leopold

Klaus Leopold

Flight Levels Guide, LEANability
Dr. Klaus Leopold is computer scientist and Kanban pioneer with many years of experience in helping organizations from different industries on their improvement journey with Lean and Kanban. He is author of the bestseller “Rethinking Agile”, “Practical Kanban” (www.practi... Read More →


Monday April 9, 2018 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
SUMMIT

3:00pm PDT

Coffee Break
Monday April 9, 2018 3:00pm - 3:15pm PDT
FOYER

3:15pm PDT

Kanban Burgers? From 18 months to 3 with Kanban and punctuation points
How do I leverage punctuation points effectively for improvement?
How RDI Software was able to leverage specific punctuation points to implement an end-to-end service Kanban for software development, achieving a sixfold improvement in the time to market.

Speakers
avatar for Rodrigo Rosauro

Rodrigo Rosauro

KCP
KCP - Senior Manager, RDI Software.


Monday April 9, 2018 3:15pm - 4:05pm PDT
CEDAR I&II

3:15pm PDT

Trust Leadership
How can I have the clarity to make effective improvements?
My response to what is beneficial is based on my observations helping organizations/teams/individuals quickly understand why they have the results they have, get agreement, build momentum and raise the level of performance.  I see much failure, much heartache and significant financial losses coming from misdiagnosis, false hopes, and from lack of understanding of the interdependencies at play in human and production systems. 
Kanban thinking and practices improve clarity. The most important driver is establishing visible and objective leadership at all levels. The core here is, of course, rebuilding or improving trust inside and out. 
 

Speakers
avatar for Dragos Dumitriu

Dragos Dumitriu

AKT, KCP, Lean Kanban Services
Over the past 20 years, Dragos received several awards for innovation, service delivery and leadership, including the 2016 "Lifetime Achievement Award" from LeanKanban University for helping organizations worldwide deliver outstanding performance improvements. His secret? Relentless... Read More →


Monday April 9, 2018 3:15pm - 4:05pm PDT
SUMMIT

4:10pm PDT

ESP China @PingAn Credit Card
 This is a holistic implementation of Enterprise Services Planning (ESP) to a 500 people development business unit. We will split the business unit into 8 tribes. We will visualize using Kanban at all levels, and adopt full ESP cadences. Our goal will be cut the delivery time by half.  See what happens!

Speakers
avatar for Adam Wu

Adam Wu

AKT, KCP
Adam Wu, KCP, AKT, obtained PhD in software engineering from Peking University. He has worked in the industry for almost 20 years, and took the role of Chief External Agile and Lean Coach for Ping An, Huawei, SF-express, and China Merchants Bank.


Monday April 9, 2018 4:10pm - 5:00pm PDT
CEDAR I&II

4:10pm PDT

Legally Kanban
The management staff of a legal department held a Kanban training session but their day-to-day life was chaos.  They asked us for help applying Kanban to their work, to get out of the mess they were in. So, we signed a contract for 24 hours of Kanban consultancy.
We saw many IT departments thinking about systemic solutions. The lawyers, on the other hand, did not have any idea of how to systematically look at their work.
How do you, as a Kanban Coach, engage - for 24 hours in total - this kind of worker - immersed in a sick culture - on how to improve their maturity? This answer will be one of the learning outcomes from the talk. Other included topics are:
  • How to introduce systems thinking to lawyers (and similar workers)
  • Dynamics to provoke the right stress level
  • Techniques to apply continuous improvement to workers under constant stress
  • Tools to generate a sense of purpose in a work area that you, the Kanban Coach, do not know
  • Ways to get out of chaos in 24 hours total
  • Advantages and disadvantages of using STATIK
  • Dealing with external departments and providers in the midst of chaos
  • Techniques to apply collective intelligence to make workers help themselves
  • What numbers should lawyers (and similar workers) see

Speakers
avatar for Carlos Felippe Cardoso

Carlos Felippe Cardoso

Carlos Felippe Cardoso. Working with Agile since 2004, he has been spreading the agile mindset in Brazil and has a highly technical background focusing on Agile practices and automated testing. He played the role of agile coach and he was also the technical leader of a software-dev... Read More →
avatar for Luiz Lula

Luiz Lula

Agile Coach at Knowledge21. He has managed software projects for the financial market for years, with the challenge of making a historically traditional sector more agile. Currently, as Agile Coach, he supports the evolution of large companies in various sectors using the practices... Read More →


Monday April 9, 2018 4:10pm - 5:00pm PDT
SUMMIT

5:05pm PDT

Your Tiger Teams Have a Blind Spot
In the face of significant internal or external pressure, it is a common practice for organizations of all sizes to convene a dedicated team of highly knowledgeable people to work together as a team to achieve a critical improvement initiative goal such as increase customer satisfaction, improve quality, or reduce lead time for a specific service or product.  You may recognize these special temporary teams in your own organization referred to as Committees, Working Groups, War Rooms, Tiger Teams, and SWAT Teams in addition to other creative and impressive sounding monikers.  While these improvement initiative teams go by many different names, and despite the fact that the team consists of highly skilled and motivated domain experts, it is extremely common to see these superstar teams struggle to effectively mobilize and coordinate their efforts and demonstrate meaningful progress in a reasonable time frame, if ever.


In this session attendees will learn about significant improvement initiatives at JPMorgan Chase where Kanban was introduced to enable teams to very quickly generate visibility of the target problem domain whilst also establishing transparency and the structure upon which teams will collaborate to achieve their goal.  Practical examples of how techniques such as Proto-Kanban, Upstream Kanban, Portfolio Kanban, Service Level Expectations, STATIK, and Cadences were introduced will be shared to give attendees confidence in recognizing opportunities and applying appropriate Kanban techniques and approaches in their own organizational context.

Speakers
avatar for Gabe Abella

Gabe Abella

AKT
Gabe Abella is an Accredited Kanban Trainer (AKT) and an organizational coach in Global Technology at JPMorgan Chase who travels the globe to enable incremental & evolutionary as well as transformational change in order to effectively and continuously meet the needs of customers... Read More →


Monday April 9, 2018 5:05pm - 5:55pm PDT
CEDAR I&II

5:05pm PDT

Think Beyond Methods, Create Viral Change
How can I scale my Agile initiative without going down the rabbit hole of Agile methods?
Adoption of agile methods is not only driven by a legitimate need for increased business agility but is also driven by a less legitimate bandwagon effect. While this bandwagon effect fuels the agile industry, it also leads to change that is often not congruent with its purpose. This has resulted in isolated, if not competing, communities of practice organized around specific methods where the still dominant 20th century rational management thinking is insufficiently challenged and change often stalls or even regresses if not sustained by coaches that support the chosen method. The time has come to fundamentally challenge this state of affairs. More than methods with a narrow focus and a broad ambition, business agility requires an integrative, bridge-building approach. More than linear, imposed change that tends to stall or even regress, it requires non-linear, viral change. Rather than imposing practices, it needs to instill a new type of thinking.

In this presentation, we will report on our experience with new ways of teaching and coaching agility that explicitly aim to create viral change by instilling new ways of thinking not just changing practice. We will analyse the self-sealing logic of implementing agile methods to show 1) why change should be viral and how this differs from traditional or even evolutionary change, 2) why viral change needs new ways of teaching and coaching that go beyond the rational explanation of practices, and 3) why this new way of teaching and coaching is important to engage the entire organization. Consequently, we will discuss the importance of simulation as a way to address the intuitive as well as the rational brain. We will introduce integrative thinking as a way to overcome the differences between agile methods and to bridge the gap between organizational silos. We examine the role of networks, rather than hierarchies, as a way of organizing change that is congruent with 21st century business agility.

Speakers
avatar for Patrick Steyaert

Patrick Steyaert

AKT, KCP, Okaloa
Patrick Steyaert is founder of Okaloa. As a creator of Okaloa Flowlab, he teaches and coaches agile thinking (before methods) by making use of business simulations. With his work on upstream, customer and discovery kanban he helps organizations to look at the end-to-end flow (from... Read More →


Monday April 9, 2018 5:05pm - 5:55pm PDT
SUMMIT

6:00pm PDT

Reception
Please join us for drinks and light appetizers! All registered LKNA18 participants are invited to this networking reception on the outside Evergreen Lawn. 


Monday April 9, 2018 6:00pm - 8:00pm PDT
EVERGREEN LAWN
 
Tuesday, April 10
 

7:30am PDT

Lean Coffee
Join this conversation structured with Personal Kanban and have a meeting that matters. Look for the table marked Lean Coffee.


Lean Coffee is a trademark of Modus Cooperandi, Inc.


Tuesday April 10, 2018 7:30am - 8:30am PDT
SLACK ZONE (CEDAR III)

7:30am PDT

Check-In | Information
Tuesday April 10, 2018 7:30am - 9:00am PDT
FOYER

9:00am PDT

Keynote: David J Anderson -- First Who, Then Why: Becoming a Level 6 Leader
The Fit-for-Purpose Framework can be used to develop the business motivation for deeper maturity Kanban implementations.


How do you know if a change is truly an improvement?


How do you know if your Kanban service delivery is good enough or needs to improve?


What are your customers expectations and where should you focus your improvements?


All products and services have a design component, an implementation component and a service delivery component. All 3 must be fit-for-purpose in order to satisfy your customers.


The Fit-for-Purpose Framework is the new method for driving high maturity, customer-focused performance across your organization. It reveals which metrics to use as KPIs, and how to define thresholds for acceptable performance. It helps you segment markets and make strategic plans. It tells you which customer segments are satisfied and which are underserved or potentially overserved. It provides guidance on which segments to amplify and which to turn off.

Speakers
avatar for David J Anderson

David J Anderson

AKT, KCP
David Anderson is an innovator in management thinking for 21st Century businesses. He has 30+ years experience in the high technology industry starting with computer games in the early 1980s. He has led software development organizations delivering innovative products with superior... Read More →


Tuesday April 10, 2018 9:00am - 10:00am PDT
SUMMIT

10:00am PDT

Coffee Break
Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:00am - 10:30am PDT
FOYER

10:00am PDT

Book Signing
Book Signing - David Anderson, Alexei Zheglov, Klaus Leopold, Patrick Steyaert, Andy Carmichael and Teodora Bozheva


Speakers
avatar for David J Anderson

David J Anderson

AKT, KCP
David Anderson is an innovator in management thinking for 21st Century businesses. He has 30+ years experience in the high technology industry starting with computer games in the early 1980s. He has led software development organizations delivering innovative products with superior... Read More →
avatar for Teodora Bozheva

Teodora Bozheva

AKT, KCP
Teodora Bozheva has more than 20 years of experience in the field of software development, project management and process improvement. She has personally undergone all the challenges in meeting tough schedules and managing projects dependencies and limited resources.Teodora is passioned... Read More →
avatar for Andy Carmichael

Andy Carmichael

AKT, KCP, Huge IO (UK & Ireland) Ltd
Andy is a trainer and coach who helps his clients build “better software… faster”. He’s the principal Kanban trainer for Huge.IO in the UK and Ireland, and he’s an author, speaker and blogger who’s active in getting the lessons of Lean and Agile into the wider business... Read More →
avatar for Klaus Leopold

Klaus Leopold

Flight Levels Guide, LEANability
Dr. Klaus Leopold is computer scientist and Kanban pioneer with many years of experience in helping organizations from different industries on their improvement journey with Lean and Kanban. He is author of the bestseller “Rethinking Agile”, “Practical Kanban” (www.practi... Read More →
avatar for Patrick Steyaert

Patrick Steyaert

AKT, KCP, Okaloa
Patrick Steyaert is founder of Okaloa. As a creator of Okaloa Flowlab, he teaches and coaches agile thinking (before methods) by making use of business simulations. With his work on upstream, customer and discovery kanban he helps organizations to look at the end-to-end flow (from... Read More →
avatar for Alexei Zheglov

Alexei Zheglov

AKT, KCP
Alexei Zheglov is a management consultant based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He was first educated as a mathematician and a software engineer. Then, for many long years, he experienced how modern companies run into all kinds of problems when they try to produce and deliver complex... Read More →


Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:00am - 10:30am PDT
SLACK ZONE (CEDAR III)

10:30am PDT

Building Bridges (and buildings) with Kanban
How can we discover and resolve our large organization's poor planning practices for better coordination with Kanban?
Our 100 year old, 400+ person firm of architects, professional engineers, interior designers, bridge inspectors and supporting departments adopted the Kanban method in one year. Learn what we tried, what worked well and what didn’t work so well, and what our strategy is as we move forward.


Kanban has changed the way we deliver our projects to our clients. Traditionally, firms in architecture & engineering assign people to projects and focus on managing the people much more than managing the work. Within a month of beginning our Kanban adoption, we realized that we were far weaker at workplanning that we imagined and our past practices compensated for that in a way that led to wasted effort, quality lapses and hoarding of resources. Kanban forced us to recognize the need to improve and exposed those poor practices.


Introducing and leading Kanban adoption in a firm of our size and diversity introduced a lot of challenges. We have 8 offices in 3 states practicing in 10 market sectors with project types ranging from roads and bridges to bio-pharma manufacturing to higher education student housing. Project teams are fluid and most project leads are involved with as many as a dozen projects at one time. Work is delivered to projects through teams with disciplinary specialization, such as HVAC engineering, lighting design and lab planning.


Our approach was focused on leading adoption on a discipline team by team basis. In one example, we brought bridge inspectors from 3 offices together to learn and begin to practice. In another, we went to an office and worked with each discipline separately. On average, we introduced one team to Kanban every 2 weeks. As a result, we had dozens of teams functioning at different levels and requiring evolving approaches to coaching that were specific to their group.


This talk will focus on what techniques we used, what worked well, what didn’t work well and what we learned from our experience. In addition, the talk will describe our approach going forward.

Speakers
avatar for William Keen

William Keen

Bill is the Chief Innovation Office of architecture and engineering firm Clark Nexsen. Bill started his career as a structural engineer before he took on several management roles in the firm. Just before taking on his current role, he served as the COO. Bill led the firm-wide adoption... Read More →


Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:30am - 11:10am PDT
CEDAR I&II

10:30am PDT

STATIK Beyond the Classroom: Adopting Systems Thinking with Powerful Simplicity
The Systems Thinking Approach to Introducing Kanban (STATIK), is a core element of the LeanKanban University (LKU) Kanban System Design (KSD) aka Kanban Management Professional I (KMPI) foundation course.

A central characteristic that runs through the Kanban Method is its ability to convey highly effective approaches to managing complex work in a clear and simple way, such that students of Lean Kanban University classes leave the classroom with powerful tools that they can apply immediately to the improvement of their organizations. However, students sometimes struggle to fully realize the potential benefits after they return to their own work environments.

What are the steps of translating classroom learning into acts of leadership that result in the shared understanding and agreement required for organizational introduction of Kanban?

Here's a clue:

1) People need time and space to learn to think together in a new way to reveal better ways of seeing and understanding the work that they do.

2) The managers responsible for the service need the time and space to deeply explore the questions and exercises of STATIK together with simple models and tools.

Since acceptance as an Accredited Kanban Trainer (AKT) in January 2017, the presenter has had opportunities to deliver several private and public KSD courses. He has also provided follow-up consulting for students from various levels of management — from first line managers to VPs responsible for multiple complex, interdependent services.

The purpose of this seminar is for one rookie to share with other rookies some of the simple and effective tools, models and tips for successful Kanban adoption that he has gleaned from mentors and students alike in an initial year of practice as a Lean Kanban Accredited Kanban Trainer and Kanban Consultant.

Speakers
avatar for Travis Birch

Travis Birch

AKT
Travis has been learning about helping organizations improve since 2008. By 2013, he self-identified as a Scrum coach. Around that time, he met Alexei Zheglov, from whom he began to learn about the Kanban Method. Travis has had the good fortune of working with Mr. Zheglov and helping... Read More →


Tuesday April 10, 2018 10:30am - 11:10am PDT
SUMMIT

11:15am PDT

Kanban in SAFe Waters
In this session, I am going to tell the story of the Kanban transition in a German private bank that happened as part of a wider SAFe initiative, spanning more than 1.5 years.

The transition took place in the IT Operations department, consisting of appr. 80 people in 8 teams that provide the IT services backbone for about 800 employees and the partners of the bank.

The story has different interesting facets, like the coaching approaches for implementing systems, the power of Proto-Kanban, and dealing with the effects of a managed change towards SAFe while pursuing evolutionary change. It involves both Kanban systems at team level but also on Portfolio Level for overarching initiatives.

I will describe the insights and learnings that the organization had, and how these were applied. From a bit of distance, I will also reflect on the initiative from a Kanban Coaching stance, with particular focus on how the SAFe context impacted the work.

Speakers
avatar for Susanne Bartel

Susanne Bartel

AKT, KCP
Susanne is a freelancing Kanban coach and trainer. She lives with her family in Hamburg, Germany. Susanne works with teams, leaders, and organizations in and at their work systems. She is passionate about shaping people's working environments to the better, while increasing the effectiveness... Read More →


Tuesday April 10, 2018 11:15am - 12:05pm PDT
CEDAR I&II

11:15am PDT

Optics of Kanban: Lens and Filters!
How can I apply Kanban "filters" of seeing and understanding work to make better decisions?
Accessible keys to Kanban success: the Lens (seeing work, workflow, knowledge work and organisations differently) and the decision filters (emphasising value and flow over waste and scale; finishing over starting, trust over control, action over analysis). They’re succinct memoranda of Kanban power!
A key to successfully applying the Kanban method is to see work in a different light - to see it through the Kanban lens, and to filter decision-making for Lean working (the Lean Decision Filter) and improved business agility (the Agile Decision Filter).
The Kanban Lens, as well as the Lean and Agile Decision Filters, have been part of the Kanban body of knowledge for several years, but they are not well known, and recent developments, particularly the Kanban Maturity Model, shows the need for a good understanding of these fundamentals. The lens and decision filters provide a concise and memorable framework for examining the way we look at work, workflow, knowledge work and organisation, and how decision-making can be focused on value-creation and pro-active innovation.
This talk will explain these key ideas, that bring to life the essence of the Kanban Method.







Speakers
avatar for Andy Carmichael

Andy Carmichael

AKT, KCP, Huge IO (UK & Ireland) Ltd
Andy is a trainer and coach who helps his clients build “better software… faster”. He’s the principal Kanban trainer for Huge.IO in the UK and Ireland, and he’s an author, speaker and blogger who’s active in getting the lessons of Lean and Agile into the wider business... Read More →


Tuesday April 10, 2018 11:15am - 12:05pm PDT
SUMMIT

12:05pm PDT

Lunch
Tuesday April 10, 2018 12:05pm - 1:00pm PDT
TAMARACK

12:30pm PDT

Excursion! Museum of Flight
Connect with other Kanban enthusiasts on a fun trip to the nearby Museum of Flight at Boeing Field.  We arranged free admission for a limited group.  You will have to arrange your own transportation such as taxi, Uber/Lyft, or drive.  The museum is a 10-15 minute drive from the conference.

http://www.museumofflight.org/

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Tuesday April 10, 2018 12:30pm - 2:00pm PDT
Seattle Area

1:00pm PDT

Extended Break
Use this time to rest, check in with the office, or explore the local area, Come back refreshed for the afternoon and evening conference sessions.


Tuesday April 10, 2018 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Seattle Area

1:00pm PDT

Core Flow Experiment
Following in the hallowed footsteps of the Red Bead Experiment, this session will demonstrate how using a pull system, limiting work in progress, results in better outcomes. We'll touch on the concepts of flow efficiency and resource efficiency, and you're guaranteed to gain deeper insight into what makes agile work at the level of the mechanism of action. The session will be fun, interactive, and hopefully life-changing. (very limited capacity)

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Speakers
avatar for Russell Healy

Russell Healy

Russell is a Lean and Kanban practitioner. He's the creator of the popular getKanban Board Game, and a co-founder of Vimaly, a soon-to-be-released next-generation visual management tool (this year, he promises!). Russell comes from Wellington, New Zealand, and has attended all but... Read More →


Tuesday April 10, 2018 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
SLACK ZONE (CEDAR III)

1:00pm PDT

My company has mandated Jira/TFS/etc. How can I do real Kanban?
Your company has mandated Jira/TFS/”fill in the blank” tool and you want to run Kanban.  You struggle to use the tool in a way that is effective.  You try workarounds.  Some work, some don’t.  What can you do?  What have you done?

We’ll tell a brief story of what we have done at Digite using SwiftKanban to integrate with other tools to enable better Kanban implementations.  But we’d also like to hear your stories.  What challenges have you faced.  What have you tried?  What would you really love to see available to help your Kanban?

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Speakers
avatar for Ramesh Patil

Ramesh Patil

Ramesh brings to Digite over 30 years of rich experience as an academician, entrepreneur and technologist. Ramesh is a pioneer in the field of Artificial Intelligence and its application to medicine and has served on the faculty of Computer Science at MIT and University of Southern... Read More →


Tuesday April 10, 2018 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
CEDAR I&II

2:00pm PDT

Innovation to Delivery @ZhongAn Insurance
 ZhongAn Insurance, the Chinese biggest online insurance company uses Kanban and ESP system to manage their business, and made it bloom within one year. We have divided the org into 9 tribes, running similar as Spotify model. And our practice covers the whole process from opportunity discovery to product implementation, from business innovation to IT delivery. 
Here is some background information about the company. ZhongAn got IPO [HKG:6060] on Sep 28, 2017, with the market value around 100 billion HKD (12.5 billion USD), becoming the biggest Fintech stock in the history of HK market. It’s a good achievement for a 4-year old company, considering it just opened the business at the end of 2013. It’s also listed as the top three in the Global Fintech 100 released by H2 Ventures and KPMG in Nov, ranking the 2nd to be precise. 

Speakers
avatar for Michelle Cheng

Michelle Cheng

Founder,  CEO of Agilean, an 8-year old company which has become the leading  agile and lean consulting service provider in China. Her clients include PingAn (largest insurance group), Huawei, CMB (biggest Chinese retailing bank), and SF-Express (Chinese version of  UPS). She played... Read More →


Tuesday April 10, 2018 2:00pm - 2:50pm PDT
CEDAR I&II

2:00pm PDT

What does it take to grab a cupcake? How Systems of Feedback Loops Regulate our Behavior – A neuroscience perspective
From an evolutionary perspective, brains came into being as a means to an end. Today it is assumed that the necessity of movement was the reason that animals developed a brain in the first place. In a hostile and constantly changing environment, characterized by fierce competition, movement became essential for survival. However, movement required sophisticated coordination capabilities. This became the function of the brain.

This organ has been shaped now for more than 500 million years. It is an ocean and a museum of feedback loops likewise. These feedback loops have been coordinating our movements ever since and they are still performing remarkably, if not impaired.

But how exactly does the brain initiate and coordinate voluntary movement? What exactly happens when we reach out for a cupcake? A lot of the understanding about what and how the brain does what it does results from studies of the brain when it doesn’t do what it is supposed to do. Neuroscientists study brain dysfunctions in order to learn about how the brain operates under normal conditions.

Taking the example of motor dysfunctions that result from impaired systems of feedback loops within designated brain areas, I want to demonstrate how versatile, powerful but also sensitive feedback loops can be. We will see what it takes to grab a cupcake, and how dysfunctions can interfere with our ability to initiate and coordinate voluntary movements.

I will also take the stance that understanding how feedback loops and systems thereof operate in the brain can add to the Kanban body on knowledge. If we assume that organizational survival is determined by its capability to move, we must conclude that organizations must have developed brains and feedback loops in order to coordinate their movement and thereby avoid extinction. However, organizational structures and functions are at times as hard to figure out as those of the brain. Thus, I suggest studying organizational dysfunctions will help us improve our change management activities in organizational systems. Ultimately, what we call organizational agility – intentional, goal-directed and smooth organizational movement, shall become as easy as grabbing a cupcake.

Speakers
avatar for Andreas Bartel

Andreas Bartel

KCP
Andreas is a Kanban Coach working for Lotto 24 AG. He is currently supporting the executive board kanbanizing the IT and the rest of the organization, including Finance, CRM, and Legal. He also offers his know-how as a freelancer. Andreas has begun his professional career at Sun Microsystems... Read More →


Tuesday April 10, 2018 2:00pm - 2:50pm PDT
SUMMIT

2:55pm PDT

Sisyphus, Windows, Xbox, and Lean
What prescriptive steps have moved large enterprises to Kanban and Lean?
How does Kanban fit into the real-world travails of driving continuous delivery and lean practices across a large  enterprise? The Microsoft Windows and Xbox organizations have been around for 30 and 20 years, respectively. Over the past 5+ years, both have been driving toward continuous delivery and lean practices, overcoming decades of slow build-test-deploy systems, over-focus on features, split development and operations, gut-driven decisions, and inflexible planning. Eric will discuss the prescriptive steps that have worked to move these enterprises forward (and those that haven’t).

Speakers
avatar for Eric Brechner

Eric Brechner

Microsoft Xbox
Eric Brechner is the development manager for Microsoft’s Windows and Xbox Engineering Systems team, and author of the book, “Agile Project Management with Kanban.” At Microsoft, he has also been development manager for Xbox.com, engineering learning and development, and Office... Read More →


Tuesday April 10, 2018 2:55pm - 3:45pm PDT
CEDAR I&II

2:55pm PDT

Service-Delivery Review: The Missing Feedback Loop
How do I gain feedback on the fitness of my service delivery so I can improve it?
Though the standard agile feedback loops – such as the product demo, team retrospective and automated tests — provide valuable awareness of health and fitness, many teams and their stakeholders struggle to find a reliable way to understand an important area of feedback, including their level of agility: the fitness of their service delivery. This session introduces the service-delivery review as the forum for this feedback. Participants will learn the basics of how to conduct a service-delivery review and the benefits, as well as typical fitness metrics. The context will be for software-delivery teams but the lessons will be applicable for any team, group or department that provides a service.

Speakers
avatar for Matt Philip

Matt Philip

Matt Philip is the Director of Learning and Development at ThoughtWorks. In his work as a coach, trainer, quality advocate and facilitator, Matt helps organizations and teams continuously become fit for their purpose. He tweets at @mattphilip and blogs at https://mattphilip.wordpress.com... Read More →



Tuesday April 10, 2018 2:55pm - 3:45pm PDT
SUMMIT

3:45pm PDT

Ask a KCP | Afternoon Break
Bring your workplace challenges and questions to our Kanban Coaching Professional (KCPs) at this free coaching clinic.  Look for the KCP's with the white lanyards in Ballroom C.


Tuesday April 10, 2018 3:45pm - 4:10pm PDT
SLACK ZONE (CEDAR III)

4:10pm PDT

Kanban @ Optum: Driving Change and Supporting Growth
How does my large group implement Kanban while still integrated with our current tools?
Follow the journey of the IT infrastructure management group (which includes server admin, hardware implementation and management, software implementation and management, help desk, etc.) as they implemented Kanban throughout their organization within Optum and United Health Group.
Hear how they:
- Won management support.
- Developed and administered a maturity assessment to guide leaders and integrate with corporate planning
-  Provided training throughout the organization, starting at the top and growing quickly as leaders sent more and more employees to training
- Implemented Kanban - several case studies here, including integration with SharePoint and ticketing systems
- Demonstrated results - this organization is very mature in use of Tableau dashboards, etc. to track and show progress, as well as identify opportunities.

Speakers
avatar for Jeanine McGuire

Jeanine McGuire

Consultant and Kanban Trainer, Optum
Jeanine McGuire is passionate about empowering innovation. Having experienced firsthand waterfall and Agile development and having led operations teams in IT, healthcare and banking, she sees Kanban as a missing link in today’s workplace.  As an Accredited Kanban Trainer, she guides... Read More →


Tuesday April 10, 2018 4:10pm - 5:05pm PDT
CEDAR I&II

4:10pm PDT

Katas for Kanban Improvement
Supercharge you Kanban journey by injecting the use of the Kata!  In this session Michael will share his insights on how to use different versions of Toyota Kata to encourage disciplined practice of Kanban at the Team and Leadership levels.

Speakers
avatar for Michael Blaha

Michael Blaha

Director of Cloud Operations, Provation
Currently a Director of Cloud Operations at ProVation Medical.  Michael has had a history of helping to catalyze a Lean and Agile evolution in large (Fortune 10) and moderate scaled corporate cultures resulting in extensive adoption of Kanban and DevOps.Throughout his career Michael... Read More →


Tuesday April 10, 2018 4:10pm - 5:05pm PDT
SUMMIT

5:10pm PDT

Scaling Agility - ESP Approaches
What problems will I have when scaling Kanban? What is the best approach?
Previously I worked at eDreams Odigeo where we implemented Enterprise Services Planning (ESP). This allowed me to find a solid recipe to implement serious business agility at scale. Now it's Mexico time!
Would this approach work on a Mexican company where traditional management is still on? Where hierarchy still has a real meaning? Would the Mexican culture eat the ESP strategy for breakfast?.





Speakers
avatar for Ivan Font

Ivan Font

AKT
AKT and ESP specialist


Tuesday April 10, 2018 5:10pm - 6:00pm PDT
CEDAR I&II

5:10pm PDT

Hit the Limit of Local Flow and Move Upstream
When and how should I extend flow throughout my organization?
Achieving flow at the local level with teams and departments can produce significant improvements in service delivery. But does this make your organization fit for purpose? In this talk we examine the limits of local flow and the need to achieve flow throughout your entire organization.
LoyaltyOne /Air Miles (LO) is a Canadian-based retail focused marketing company employing over 1000 employees.

Pea Pods!
Over the past several years working on improving service delivery at LO we began to notice converging delivery patterns across all technology initiatives that took on pea-pod shaped CFDs with predictable 5 to 7 month lead times. This stability in delivery pattern occurs regardless of technology, domain, or teams involved. While this represented significant improvement for the company, a significant gap still remained between this capability and our fit service delivery thresholds.

In this session, we discuss how we examined our entire delivery approach from a Systems Thinking lens; through the exploration of causal loop relationship we reveal the limits of localized flow. We share how this examination has lead us to better understand our upstream flow. We identify overburdening at a company-wide level, with disconnected downstream commitment points that result in push systems. We also explore how this results in work fragmentation that clouds customer recognizability of product features and disconnects local improvements from fit for purpose thresholds.


Speakers
avatar for Martin Aziz

Martin Aziz

Director, Business Technology, LoyaltyOne
Martin is the Director of Agile Practices at LoyaltyOne, a Canadian marketing company and part of the fortune 500 company, Alliance Data. Martin is focused on developing the delivery capabilities of the organization; having the spent the last few years focusing on service delivery... Read More →
avatar for Fernando Cuenca

Fernando Cuenca

Agile Coach
Independent Agile Coach based in Toronto.



Tuesday April 10, 2018 5:10pm - 6:00pm PDT
SUMMIT
 
Wednesday, April 11
 

8:45am PDT

**FULL** Fit-for-Purpose: A Strategic Opportunity
How can I apply the Fit-for-Purpose (F4P) Framework to ensure the long-term success of my business?
There is such a huge variety of customer needs that one can run a robust business by simply giving customers what fulfills their purpose. Yet the strategy conversation in many companies focuses not on those customers, but on competitive analysis. 
Fulfilling customer purpose requires attention to several components. Yet many companies obsess about just one of them and elevate their product designers as “innovators.” Customers choose by few criteria. Yet many companies drown in data and metrics, trying to optimize their offerings. Frontline staff are a great source of knowledge of customer purpose. Yet the frontline staff in many companies are among the shortest-tenured, the lowest-paid, and the most disconnected from the decision makers. 
All these contradictions (and the list could go on) represent strategic opportunities for your business. The Fit-for-Purpose (F4P) Framework can help you close these gaps and unlock the opportunities. 
Join this intensive workshop to explore the F4P Framework. First, you will learn how to identify fit-for-purpose in several contexts. Second, the core F4P concepts: fitness criteria and thresholds, types of metrics, frequently-occurring criteria, market segmentation by purpose. Third, managing for F4P: using narratives and data, turning insights into action. Fourth, integrating F4P with other approaches.





Speakers
avatar for Alexei Zheglov

Alexei Zheglov

AKT, KCP
Alexei Zheglov is a management consultant based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He was first educated as a mathematician and a software engineer. Then, for many long years, he experienced how modern companies run into all kinds of problems when they try to produce and deliver complex... Read More →



Wednesday April 11, 2018 8:45am - 12:00pm PDT
CEDAR II

8:45am PDT

**FULL** Making Better Decisions: Know the Limits of Analysis Methods and Tools
Over the years, through LeanKanban conferences, leadership retreats, and on-line user groups, our community has had numerous discussions about various analytical methods and tools. A benefit from these discussions has been an increased awareness of why decision makers should know something about the limits and assumptions of common analysis methods and tools they use, and how this knowledge contributes to better decision making when managing projects, validating process improvements, evaluating training, etc.

In this workshop, I review some key “nuggets” captured from these discussions, related to the limits and assumptions of analysis methods and tools commonly observed for measuring and managing workflows or improvement efforts. For this review, we’ll specifically examine key “Gotchas” for the following: averages, scoring methods, control charts (process behavior charts), Little’s Law, Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFDs), and Monte Carlo simulations.

If you’re a decision maker (project manager, program manager, or senior executive) and new to our community, this workshop is a great way to get up to speed on helpful topics from these past discussions. While no formal previous statistics knowledge is required, a basic comprehension of the methods and tools listed above, or with concepts of random numbers, scatter plots, percentiles, histograms, or simple simulations using dice, playing cards, or spreadsheets would be helpful.

Speakers
avatar for Frank Vega

Frank Vega

KCP, Vega Information System Services, Inc.
Frank brings 30+ years of IT/IS experience, in roles including director, software architect, technical team lead, developer, database modeler, and numerical/data analyst. In 2002 he began assisting teams with applying lean-agile processes and practices (XP, Scrum), and added the kanban... Read More →



Wednesday April 11, 2018 8:45am - 12:00pm PDT
CEDAR I

8:45am PDT

Kanban in Action: Observing Flow
This interactive presentation provides a detailed look at how to interpret, thoughtfully observe, and design Kanban Boards to better understand and promote the work of your teams. We will start with an overview of the Kanban Method and then proceed through a series of interactive exercises that give you an opportunity to review and interpret various Kanban boards. After the break, we will move to designing boards for alternative situations. The exercises will increase your understanding of Kanban systems, provide opportunities to practice interpreting various board setups, and give you experience creating designs for a variety of contexts. They will equip you to have more thoughtful and meaningful conversations with your teams about the design of their systems and the flow of their work.

The primary learning outcome is to provide participants practice with designing and interpreting Kanban board configurations so that they can practice thinking critically and thoughtfully, explore how they would use visualization, and ask insightful and meaningful questions.

Speakers
avatar for Mark Grove

Mark Grove

Managing Consultant and Agile Coach, Excella Consulting
Mark Grove is an agile coach and Management Consultant with Excella Consulting and an ICAgile Authorized Trainer and Lean Kanban University Accredited Kanban Trainer (AKT). He coaches individuals and teams to continuously deliver value to the customer by embracing an Agile mindset... Read More →
avatar for Trent Hone

Trent Hone

AKT, Excella Consulting
Trent Hone is a Managing Consultant with Excella Consulting and an award-winning naval historian. He works with organizations to improve their art of practice, increase effectiveness, and accelerate learning. He has helped dozens of government and commercial teams around the world... Read More →



Wednesday April 11, 2018 8:45am - 12:00pm PDT
CEDAR III

8:45am PDT

Kanban Policy Game
The Kanban Policy Game is a fun way to experience how policies affect performance.

In the game you are hired as a coach to lead an Agile transformation. To achieve success, you have to improve the performance of the teams in the client organization in terms of lead time and throughput.
As Kanban method practitioner you decide to introduce and apply the six Kanban practices, namely:

CP1: Visualize
CP2: Limit work-in-progress (WIP)
CP3: Manage flow
CP4: Make policies explicit
CP5: Implement feedback loops
CP6: Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally (using models and the scientific method)

Your work with the client organization goes through three periods:

1) In the first period you start by applying CP1, CP4, CP5 for a limited period of 10 days. Your goal is to understand and measure what is the current state of the system. Hence you ask the organization to make explicit the “Collaboration Policy”, “Pull Policy” and “WIP Policy”. You find out that they measure the individual productivity of the team members, want their resources to be fully utilized and have no WIP limits.
2) In the second period you apply CP2 and CP3 by asking the organization to change only the “WIP Policy” and limit the work in process for 10 days.
3) In the third period you apply CP6 by asking the organization to change the “Collaboration Policy”. From now on the organization will not measure individual productivity but the performance of a team as a whole.

Learning outcomes:

•“Collaboration Policy”, “Performance Evaluation Policy” and “WIP Policy” have huge impact on productivity.
•The J-curve effect can be experienced if we implement CP2 in an organization where collaboration level is low.
•Limiting WIP when we measure individual performance has a negative effect on the productivity of the team as a whole.
•Limiting WIP when we don't measure individual performance has a positive effect on the productivity of the team as a whole.
•Because of the above it is advised to implement CP6 before or along with CP2.
•The collaboration level in a team can be measured.

Speakers
avatar for Dimitar Bakardzhiev

Dimitar Bakardzhiev

Dimitar Bakardzhiev is an expert in managing successful and cost-effective technology development. With his blend of technical, managerial and operational expertise, he effectively combines the theory and practice of Agile and Kanban Method to deliver business results.As a Lean-Kanban... Read More →



Wednesday April 11, 2018 8:45am - 12:00pm PDT
LILY

12:00pm PDT

Lunch
Wednesday April 11, 2018 12:00pm - 1:00pm PDT
TAMARACK

1:00pm PDT

**FULL** Essential Kanban Coaching
Are you successfully leading the transformation in your organization? Are you struggling with change? Is it clear to you what are the next steps for a more mature business? Do you understand why people resist change? Are you properly dealing with these resistances? Do you know that the Kanban Method is a change management strategy that can help?
If you need answers to these questions this workshop is for you! The program covers basic and intermediate Kanban coaching tools that effectively smooth change the evolutionary way, promoting more engaged workers, faster flow, higher maturity and improved management. Filled with practical activities, this workshop will help you understand your environment through the "Kanban Lenses" and give you actionable advice that you can put in place the next Monday.
Topics include:
  • Kanban Coaching 101: Flow and Evolutionary Change
  • Starting the right way - The Systems Thinking Approach to Implement Kanban (STATIK): Hints and Tips
  • Nurturing Dissatisfactions, fueling the change
  • Where are you? The Kanban Maturity Model (KMM) - An introduction
  • Why people aren't listening to you? Issues with coach authority
  • Punctuation Points and Equilibrium: Different strategies for different change momentum
  • Managing Tribes: Why people, departments and companies behave the way they behave?
  • Leading low maturity organizations: Visualization and Narrative
  • Transitioning to and leading at higher maturity levels: Numbers
  • Escaping the seduction of "My Little Pony Management" (link https://www.linkedin.com/post/edit/what-did-i-mean-my-little-pony-management-rodrigo-yoshima)
This program was put together with KMP I, KMP II and Kanban Coaching Masterclass training contents by Lean Kanban University and will be facilitated by Rodrigo Yoshima, a KCP that since 2009 have been coaching more than 50 Kanban initiatives in Brazil, United States and Europe.

Speakers
avatar for Rodrigo Yoshima

Rodrigo Yoshima

AKT, KCP, Aspercom
With more than 16 years experience on Computer Systems and Information Technology, Rodrigo has been helping companies in Brazil, US and Europe to improve their team's management and technical skills using the Lean/Kanban approach. Creator of “The Flow Hour” (game).



Wednesday April 11, 2018 1:00pm - 4:45pm PDT
CEDAR II

1:00pm PDT

**FULL** Forecasting and prioritization using data
A 4 hour end to end hands-on exercise covering estimating feature size using reference features, probabilistic forecasting story count and delivery duration, calculating cost of delay and using it to make prioritization decisions, and planning how many features are likely going to make a fixed date using historical data. Warning: some dice will be used, and if you have a laptop, bring it (there will be an occasional spreadsheet used)!

Speakers


Wednesday April 11, 2018 1:00pm - 4:45pm PDT
CEDAR III

1:00pm PDT

**FULL** Okaloa FlowLab
This is a half-day version of Okaloa FlowLab
 
As most organizations have had their share of experience with Agile development they are now looking at how they can make their entire business agile. A deeper insight in how and why agile works is the pre-requisite for business agility and the agile organization. Flow thinking has proven to be foundational and Kanban systems are known to improve flow. But the concept of flow is not an easy concept to master for people that have not experienced it. Rational explanations of flow only go so far. Without intuitive understanding based on experience they are not sufficient to mobilize a team or organization into action. This is the fundamental bootstrap problem: in order to mobilize a team, flow must be experienced; in order to get the chance to experience flow, the team must be mobilized.
In this one-day workshop, Brickell Key Award winner Patrick Steyaert, will help you solve this bootstrap problem and let you experience the deeper meaning behind the concepts of flow. Not just through a one-off game with predetermined rules, tucked somewhere between all the mind-boggling theories, but rather through a full blown simulation artificially creating a, true to reality, knowledge work environment.
The workshop is based on Okaloa Flowlab, a laboratory filled with a variety of board play flow simulations developed as experiments. Each experiment is designed to allow participants to experience the impact of decisions and policies on the flow of work and the flow of value. In the starting simulation (a team level simulation) participants experience how flow comes into existence and how agility emerges from that. It allows us to build the new metaphor of flow systems based on Stocks and Flows models, constraints, impedance, feedback and uncommon sense. Subsequent simulation(s) allow participants to experience how the flow systems metaphor scales up to the enterprise level (cross-team flow) and across the entire value stream (end-to-end flow from suspected to satisfied need), acting as a bridge builder between the islands of agility in the organization. At the end of the workshop participants will walk away with a deeper rational understanding of flow systems (flow systems theory); a deeper intuitive understanding of flow systems (flow systems experience); and a new way of teaching flow thinking through simulation that mobilizes into action.
Agenda / topics:
1)     Flow systems as a new metaphor for organisation
Introduction to how Business Agility differs from Agile development and the importance of flow systems as a new metaphor for agile organizations and organizations in general (in addition to new forms of self-organization such as Holacracy, Sociocracy, Teal organization, …).
2)     The machine metaphor for organization
In the 1st round of simulation we explore the machine metaphor for organization in a typical command and control, resource efficiency, silo-ed way of working. Not only does this simulation set a baseline for improvement it also allows us to develop a deeper systems view. Participants learn how to observe and analyse such a system of work through the flow systems metaphor (Stocks and flows, constraints, impedance, feedback, uncommon sense).
3)     Experiment with flow
In the 2nd round of simulation participants set up their own experiment(s) to allow flow to emerge. They will define an experiment to validate their hypothesis about how the system of work can be improved.  By doing so they will test the understanding that they have developed in the previous round (e.g. what is the impact of WIP constraints on collaboration, what is the impact of collaboration on quality, …).
4)     Enterprise flow
In the 3rd round of simulation participants will practice what has been learned in the previous rounds in a fairly complex and realistic business simulation. They will learn how the flow systems metaphor scales up to the enterprise level (cross-team flow) and across the entire value stream (end-to-end flow from suspected to satisfied need). This round will cover upstream was well as portfolio type of kanban systems.
5)     Reflection and discussion
In a lean coffee style discussion we will reflect on what you have experienced and how this relates to your own situation, resulting in takeaways and concrete actions to start working on improving your flow.
Learning objective:
Attending a workshop based on Flowlab will shorten the time that is required to become an experienced flow thinker and lean agile practitioner!
Participants of the workshop walk away with an understanding of
  • how flow thinking scales up to the enterprise level (cross-team flow) and across the entire value stream (end-to-end flow from suspected to satisfied need), acting as a bridge builder between the islands of agility in their organization.
  • the importance of flow thinking in creating an agile mindset and a shared deeper understanding in their organization and how this reinforces their existing agile practice.
While playing the simulations you will also discover new techniques to handle change and adaptation. You will learn:
  • reflective observations (OODA)
    • active experimentation (defining experiments and hypotheses)
Who the courses is targeted at?
Beginning and experienced Kanban practitioners and coaches. Beginning Kanban practitioners will get a deeper understanding of flow thinking. Advanced practitioners and coaches will learn a new way of teaching and coaching flow thinking.

Speakers
avatar for Patrick Steyaert

Patrick Steyaert

AKT, KCP, Okaloa
Patrick Steyaert is founder of Okaloa. As a creator of Okaloa Flowlab, he teaches and coaches agile thinking (before methods) by making use of business simulations. With his work on upstream, customer and discovery kanban he helps organizations to look at the end-to-end flow (from... Read More →



Wednesday April 11, 2018 1:00pm - 4:45pm PDT
LILY

1:00pm PDT

Flight Levels: Know Where to Change
Flight Levels is a model to explain where in an organization you need to do what to achieve what you want.

(1) "Know what you want"  Topics like from contact to contract (a favorite of the Enterprise Kanban Coach) or Fit for Purpose fall into this category.
(2) “Know what to do” is all about knowing how work systems work (WiP, resource allocation vs. flow, dependencies, cadences, etc.).
(3) “Know where to make changes in the organization” is where Flight Levels come in. Maybe I know that I want to improve TTM of initiatives and maybe I also know that limiting WiP is one lever (among others) where I can achieve it. However, if I limit task on a team level (FL1), no initiative will be finished faster. I’d need to limit initiatives in the strategic portfolio (FL3) or maybe in the operative portfolio (FL2) depending on company’s structure.

This workshop would be around Flight Levels as a communication tool to understand what issues to address where in the company.

Speakers
avatar for Klaus Leopold

Klaus Leopold

Flight Levels Guide, LEANability
Dr. Klaus Leopold is computer scientist and Kanban pioneer with many years of experience in helping organizations from different industries on their improvement journey with Lean and Kanban. He is author of the bestseller “Rethinking Agile”, “Practical Kanban” (www.practi... Read More →



Wednesday April 11, 2018 1:00pm - 4:45pm PDT
CEDAR I

6:45pm PDT

Kanban Leadership Retreat Registration - [separate registration required]
Leaders in the Lean Kanban space including coaches, trainers, consultants, thought leaders plus a limited number of practitioners.

The agenda is planned on the first night of the event.  Bring the topics you want to discuss with Kanban world experts.

EXPLORE – Go deeper into existing concepts. Stretch the boundaries on Cost of Delay, Metrics, Flow, Games, Maturity Levels and more
CHALLENGE – Question and confront established ideas.  Present new material and advance the field of Kanban.
CONNECT – Put your heads together and create something new.  Or, come together to offer advice regarding a challenge.


Wednesday April 11, 2018 6:45pm - 7:00pm PDT
TAMARACK

7:00pm PDT

Kanban Leadership Retreat welcome dinner
Kanban Leadership Retreat registration required!

Featuring local musician Gina Belliveau 

Speakers


Wednesday April 11, 2018 7:00pm - 8:00pm PDT
TAMARACK

8:00pm PDT

Planning Session
Wednesday April 11, 2018 8:00pm - 10:00pm PDT
LILY
 
Thursday, April 12
 

8:00am PDT

Breakfast
Thursday April 12, 2018 8:00am - 9:00am PDT
TAMARACK

9:00am PDT

Brightwood Boardroom
KMM Apprasial - How to appraise state and improvement of organizations (Teodora Bozheva / David Anderson)

KMM - Question and discussion how to do KMM assessment. (Adam Wu)

KMM Apprasial - without throwing the baby out with bathwater - (Rodrigo Yoshima / David Anderson)

Speakers
avatar for David J Anderson

David J Anderson

AKT, KCP
David Anderson is an innovator in management thinking for 21st Century businesses. He has 30+ years experience in the high technology industry starting with computer games in the early 1980s. He has led software development organizations delivering innovative products with superior... Read More →
avatar for Teodora Bozheva

Teodora Bozheva

AKT, KCP
Teodora Bozheva has more than 20 years of experience in the field of software development, project management and process improvement. She has personally undergone all the challenges in meeting tough schedules and managing projects dependencies and limited resources.Teodora is passioned... Read More →
avatar for Adam Wu

Adam Wu

AKT, KCP
Adam Wu, KCP, AKT, obtained PhD in software engineering from Peking University. He has worked in the industry for almost 20 years, and took the role of Chief External Agile and Lean Coach for Ping An, Huawei, SF-express, and China Merchants Bank.
avatar for Rodrigo Yoshima

Rodrigo Yoshima

AKT, KCP, Aspercom
With more than 16 years experience on Computer Systems and Information Technology, Rodrigo has been helping companies in Brazil, US and Europe to improve their team's management and technical skills using the Lean/Kanban approach. Creator of “The Flow Hour” (game).


Thursday April 12, 2018 9:00am - 10:30am PDT
Brightwood Boardroom

9:00am PDT

Den 1
Kanban Outside IT - KMP1 & KMP2 Revamp (Melinda Solomon)


Thursday April 12, 2018 9:00am - 10:30am PDT
Den 1

9:00am PDT

LILY
Kanban flight levels mini workshop

Speakers
avatar for Klaus Leopold

Klaus Leopold

Flight Levels Guide, LEANability
Dr. Klaus Leopold is computer scientist and Kanban pioneer with many years of experience in helping organizations from different industries on their improvement journey with Lean and Kanban. He is author of the bestseller “Rethinking Agile”, “Practical Kanban” (www.practi... Read More →


Thursday April 12, 2018 9:00am - 10:30am PDT
LILY

9:00am PDT

Studio 2
Trust is not a Strategy - Practical Guidance for ML1 ML2 Leaders (Gabe Abella)

How to coach leaders to enable teams to think, shift away from command control (Gwen Kestin)

Executive Coaching: from make my teams better to help me lead (Erik Sowa)


Thursday April 12, 2018 9:00am - 10:30am PDT
Studio 2

11:00am PDT

Brightwood Boardroom
Is it time to drop LEAN from our brand? (David Anderson)
*45 min

What is blocking the flow of Kanban? (Todd Little)
*45 min

Thursday April 12, 2018 11:00am - 12:30pm PDT
Brightwood Boardroom

11:00am PDT

Den 1
From contact to contract: how to sell Kanban beyond team level (Katrin)
*45 min

Coaching Scrum teams for FLOW - Kanban Trojan Horse (Erik Sowa)
*45 min

Thursday April 12, 2018 11:00am - 12:30pm PDT
Den 1

11:00am PDT

LILY
Talking little´s law - how to not talk about it (Alexei Zheglow)
*45 min

Capacity Allocation - it´s not just a WIP limit (Janice Linden- Reed)
*45 min

Class of Service Capacity Allocation Schemes: Realistic, Dynamic (Dave Hughes)
*30 min

Thursday April 12, 2018 11:00am - 12:30pm PDT
LILY

11:00am PDT

Studio 2
Use of Okaloa Flowlab in trainings - share experiences, what´s next? (Susanne Bartel)
*45 min

STATIK pro tips (Martin)
*45 min

Thursday April 12, 2018 11:00am - 12:30pm PDT
Studio 2

12:30pm PDT

Extended Break
Lunch on your own

Thursday April 12, 2018 12:30pm - 6:00pm PDT
Seattle Area

6:00pm PDT

Brightwood Boardroom
Make KMP II Great (again) - Susanne Bartel
  • review edit eg cadence cards
  • more ideas? 
  • target: release next week
* 90 min


Thursday April 12, 2018 6:00pm - 7:30pm PDT
Brightwood Boardroom

6:00pm PDT

Den 1
Distributed team remote Kanban exercise - Melinda & Dave
* 45 min

Positioning the classes (TKP-KMPII) - Rick
Create focused language for the who-why-what to aid a sales process
* 45 min


Thursday April 12, 2018 6:00pm - 7:30pm PDT
Den 1

6:00pm PDT

Lily
Introducing Kanban for Non-Work (leaders) Teams - Adam Hsu
*60 min

Using KMM as a Sales Tool: Promising results on a large scale (engagements, proposals, value proposition, etc.) - Steve McGee
*30 min


Thursday April 12, 2018 6:00pm - 7:30pm PDT
LILY

6:00pm PDT

Studio 2
The feedback lens - Andreas Bartel
Mapping org. dysfunctions to feedback loops dysfunctions.
* 60 min

Monte Carlo re-cap from last years google group mail list (AKT/KCP) - Frank Vega
- Troy's Sheet
* 30 min



Thursday April 12, 2018 6:00pm - 7:30pm PDT
Studio 2

7:30pm PDT

Dinner
Thursday April 12, 2018 7:30pm - 8:30pm PDT
TAMARACK

8:30pm PDT

Brightwood Boardroom
"Improv! Makes teaching exiting" - Ravi & Michelle
Example of Improv - Confession of Lean Practitioner
* 30 min

Evolutionary Consulting Engagement Design - Travis, Alexei, Fernando, & Martin
  • x-firm collaboration
  • F4P/ specialization assignments
  • client co-facilitation 
* 60 min


Thursday April 12, 2018 8:30pm - 10:00pm PDT
Brightwood Boardroom

8:30pm PDT

Brightwood Boardroom
"Improv! Makes teaching exiting" - Ravi & Michelle
Example of Improv - Confession of Lean Practitioner
* 30 min

Evolutionary Consulting Engagement Design - Travis, Alexei, Fernando, & Martin
  • x-firm collaboration
  • F4P/ specialization assignments
  • client co-facilitation 
* 60 min


Thursday April 12, 2018 8:30pm - 10:00pm PDT
Brightwood Boardroom

8:30pm PDT

Den 1
Howlers & Heresies (Lean Coffee Style) - Andy Carmichael
* 60 min

Gamification for Lean, Agile, & Kanban Training (open space discussion) - Ravi
* 30 min


Thursday April 12, 2018 8:30pm - 10:00pm PDT
Den 1

8:30pm PDT

Lily
Kanban Policy Game - Dimitar
* 90 min


Thursday April 12, 2018 8:30pm - 10:00pm PDT
LILY

8:30pm PDT

Studio 2
How to explain Kanban and how NOT to - Janice
* 60 min

Who should (LKU) partner with and who should we avoid? - Todd Little
* 30 min


Thursday April 12, 2018 8:30pm - 10:00pm PDT
Studio 2
 
Friday, April 13
 

8:00am PDT

Breakfast
Friday April 13, 2018 8:00am - 9:00am PDT
TAMARACK

8:30am PDT

Lily
X - Pollinate, Key Trainings, Flight Levels, Upstream, Troy´s tools

Friday April 13, 2018 8:30am - 9:00am PDT
TBA

9:00am PDT

Brightwood Boardroom
STATIK Pro Tips (Martin)
*45 min

Friday April 13, 2018 9:00am - 10:30am PDT
TBA

9:00am PDT

AM Sessions

Friday April 13, 2018 9:00am - 10:30am PDT
LILY, BRIGHTWOOD BOARDROOM, STUDIO 2

9:00am PDT

Lily
KMM Beta Program - Teodora
* 90 min


Friday April 13, 2018 9:00am - 10:30am PDT
LILY

9:00am PDT

Studio 2
KMP Program guidance on forecasting projects (Rodrigo Yoshima)

Friday April 13, 2018 9:00am - 10:30am PDT
Studio 2

11:00am PDT

Den 1
Kanban outside IT (Melinda)
*90 min

Friday April 13, 2018 11:00am - 12:30pm PDT
Den 1

11:00am PDT

AM Sessions

Friday April 13, 2018 11:00am - 12:30pm PDT
LILY, BRIGHTWOOD BOARDROOM, STUDIO 2

11:00am PDT

Lily
Learning from fake charts (Alexei)
*60 min

The concept of Priorization Matrix applied to Upstream Kanban (Boris)
*30 min or more

Friday April 13, 2018 11:00am - 12:30pm PDT
LILY

11:00am PDT

Studio 2
Kanban for SAFe world (Suganthi)
*60 min

Questions and discussion: What the kanban community answers for scaling agile framework (Adam Wu)
*90min

Friday April 13, 2018 11:00am - 12:30pm PDT
Studio 2

12:30pm PDT

Mid-Day Extended Break
Lunch on your own

Friday April 13, 2018 12:30pm - 6:00pm PDT
Seattle Area

6:00pm PDT

Brightwood Boardroom
KCP Program Evolution (Andy, Dave White, Dave Hughes)

KMM Fitness for purpose (Todd, Alexei)

Friday April 13, 2018 6:00pm - 7:30pm PDT
Brightwood Boardroom

6:00pm PDT

Lily
Extending Coaching Network (Gwen & Scott)
*60 min

How should the cadence diagram look like in the class materials (Susanne)
*30-45 min




Friday April 13, 2018 6:00pm - 7:30pm PDT
LILY

6:00pm PDT

Studio 2
You suck at Kanban. Create top ideas for what you suck at, why and a better idea (Rick)
*45 min

"Choice Architecture". Primer, the path into the healthcare sector (Bill Nicolich)
*30-45 min



Friday April 13, 2018 6:00pm - 7:30pm PDT
Studio 2

7:30pm PDT

Dinner
Friday April 13, 2018 7:30pm - 8:30pm PDT
TAMARACK

8:30pm PDT

Brightwood Boardroom
Social Kanban- What are the activities to faster scaling kanban once inside an organization (Ivan Font)
*30 min

Friday April 13, 2018 8:30pm - 9:00pm PDT
Brightwood Boardroom

8:30pm PDT

LILY
X-Pollinate Key Trainings - Frank Vega
  • Flight Levels
  • Upstream
  • Troy's Tools
  • US-EURO


Friday April 13, 2018 8:30pm - 9:00pm PDT
LILY

8:30pm PDT

STUDIO 2
Portfolio Kanban: the "other" 5 General Practices - Steve McGee
(I want to hear about examples of WIP, policy, etc. at portfolio level)
* 30 min


Friday April 13, 2018 8:30pm - 9:00pm PDT
Studio 2

9:00pm PDT

Retrospective & Closing
Friday April 13, 2018 9:00pm - 10:00pm PDT
LILY
 
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